KGB Bar

Mimoza Ahmeti | wiki | was born in Kruja, Albania. She is the author of books of poems, Be Beautiful, Especially Tomorrow, Delirium and The Pollination of Flowers. She is the author of the novels The Architrave and The Hallucinating Woman. The Ridiculous Common Link, a collection of short stories, was published in Albania on 1996. She is married and has two daughters. 

• Mimoza's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » The Ridiculous Common Link

Chelsea Allison graduated from Duke University with a BA in English and a certificate in Policy Journalism & Media Studies. After a year-long stint in investment banking, she now works in magazine publishing in New York.

• Chelsea's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » LAMBERTO, LAMBERTO, LAMBERTO by Gianni Rodari

Anna K. Andrade, translator and fiction writer, was born in Brazil and moved to New York City in 2000 to attend City College in order to obtain a master’s degree in creative writing. She has had short stories published both in Portuguese and English, the most recent being “A Daughter’s Secret” in the fiction anthology Coloring Book . She currently teaches intensive writing at Borough of Manhattan Community College, and The College of New Rochelle.

Email Anna at

• Anna's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Luiz Roque Filho on Arabian Nights

• Je's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Whaling Song

Frederica Bepler is a writer and editor in New York City. She graduated with a degree in Creative Writing from Oberlin College.

• Frederica's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » MY KIND OF GIRL by Buddhadeva Bose
  • » LECHE by R. Zamora Linmark

Tom Bissell is the author of Chasing the Sea and God Lives in St. Petersburg. He contributes to Harper’s Magazine, The Believer, and other publications. He lives in New York.

• Tom 's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » The Father of All Things
  • » The Father of All Things

Kelly Braffet‘s first novel, Josie and Jack, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2005. It was praised as “wicked fun . . . a gothic tour of hell” (Los Angeles Times) and “a compelling study of love, hate, and psychopathic jealousy” (New York Post). Braffet was born in Long Beach, California, in 1976, and has lived in Arizona, rural Pennsylvania and Oxford, England. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, and has taught novel writing at the Sackett Street Writing Workshop. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with her fiance, the tall and embarrassingly talented writer Owen King. They have three cats.

• Kelly's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Last Seen Leaving

Kate Braverman is an experimental writer of a singular and ruthless breed. She is a poet, short fiction writer, essayist and author of the novels, Lithium for Medea, Palm Latitudes, Wonders of the West, and The Incantation of Frida K. Her Graywolf Prize winning memoir, Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeles: An Accidental Memoir was published in Feb. 2006. Kate also recently won the 2005 Mississippi Review Prize and received a Christopher Isherwood Foundation Fellowship for lifetime recognition of achievement. Kate’s short-story “Mrs. Jordan’s Summer Vacation” won Editor’s Choice Raymond Carver Short-Story Award.

• Kate's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Squandering The Blue

Ken Bruen, born in Galway, Ireland, is the author of more than a dozen extremely dark crime novels. His book The Guards, which began the Jack Taylor series, was nominated for every single award in the mystery field, and won the Shamus Award. Mr. Bruen has a PhD in metaphysics and taught for 25 years in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

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Susan’s fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Failbetter, Epiphany, Ducts and other publications.  She has received several fiction fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and teaches writing in organizations that serve at-risk populations including the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and Rikers Island.

• Susan's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » The Scraping Sound of Auto Parts

Jane Ciabattari is the author of the short-story collection, "Stealing the Fire." Her short stories have been published in VerbSap.com, LiteraryMama.com, Ms., The North American Review, Denver Quarterly, Hampton Shorts (which honored her with an Editors' Choice STUBBY Award), The East Hampton Star, and Redbook, which nominated her story "Gridlock" for a National Magazine Award. Her story “Payback Time" was a Pushcart Prize "special mention." Her story "How I Left Onandaga County," appears in the anthology "The Best Underground Fiction" (November 2006,Stolen Time Press) and also was a Pushcart Prize honorable mention. She serves as vice president/ADD THIS:membership of the National Book Critics Circle and a blogger on the NBCC board blog, Critical Mass. The North American Review, Denver Quarterly, Hampton Shorts (which honored her with an Editors' Choice STUBBY Award). www.janeciabattari.com

• Jane's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Aftershocks

John J. Clayton’s third novel, Kuperman’s Fire, was published in July, 2007.  His Wrestling with Angels: New and Collected Stories, was published by Toby Press in September, 2007. His stories have won prizes in O.Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and in the Pushcart Prize anthology.  His second collection, Radiance, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in 1998.  His second novel, The Man I Never Wanted to Be, was also published in 1998. 

Clayton has edited six editions of an anthology, the Heath Introduction to Fiction (now for Hough-ton Mifflin).  He has also written a good deal about modern fiction, including Gestures of Healing, a psychological study of modern British and American fiction.  His Saul Bellow: In Defense of Man won awards in literary criticism.  He has published criticism on various twentieth century writers including D. H. Lawrence, E. L. Doctorow, and Grace Paley. 

• John's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » The Man Who Could See Radiance
  • » Deluge: Dean Ellis & Jennifer Odem
  • » The Man Who Could See Radiance

Joshua Cohen was born in southern New Jersey, in 1980.  A literary critic for The Forward he lives in Brooklyn, NY. His books include a collection of stories, The Quorum (2005), and a novel, Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto (2007). Another novel, A Heaven of Others, is forthcoming in 2008.

• Joshua's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Establishing Shot: An Interview with Steve Erickson
  • » Establishing Shot: An Interview with Steve Erickson

T Cooper is the author of the novels Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes (Dutton, March 2006) and Some of the Parts (Akashic, 2002). T is also co-editor (with Adam Mansbach) of an anthology of original fiction, entitled A Fictional History of the United States With Huge Chunks Missing (Akashic, 2006), from which “The Story That Refuses to Die” is excerpted. T’s work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The New York Times Style Magazine, The Believer, and Poets & Writers, in addition to a handful of anthologies. T lives in New York City.

• T's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » The Story That Refuses to Die

Tod Crouch is author of the novels The Night Watchman, Common People, Romanticide, Victors, Cutting Teeth and The Anna Log Children’s Series.  He received a Bachelor’s Degree from Columbia College for Photography in 2001 after directing and writing two theatrical productions, Undying Loyalty and Of course: a Series of One Acts. before finishing five other plays.  He Co-Curates at Papa B’s Studio in Brooklyn and occasionally volunteers for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  He makes most of his money as a bouncer in a lesbian bar.  Tod tends to be a cheery lad.  If you were to be Tod’s friend, he would want you to know that he’ll talk to anyone about anything anytime, but will probably forget your name and hates answering phones.  The book he wish he wrote is Herman Hesse’s “The Glass Bead Game”.  His favorite word is “surprise”.  His least favorite word is “but”.  He wants to be remembered as “a neat guy to meet.” His six word epitaph is “He had an amazing run, thankfully.” He is from Illinois and has lived in New York for five years. 

• Tod's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:

Allison Leigh DeFrees is a poet and an immigration attorney living in New York City and Austin, Texas. Her past includes stints as a playwright, actor, and punk rock singer. Former jobs include bread delivery woman, horse stall cleaner, waitress, wooden boat renovator, medical malpractice lawyer, Calculus tutor, journalist, and speech writer. She likes poetry best, and in 2005 published a handbound volume of poetry, “Glass Bones.” She still carries a torch for mathematics.

• Allison Leigh's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Tell the Story of Your Father’s Life

Rebecca Donner is the author of the novel Sunset Terrace, and the editor of the story collection On The Rocks: The KGB Bar Fiction Anthology. Her book reviews and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Bookforum, The Believer, People Magazine, and Post Road. She has taught creative writing at Wesleyan, Barnard and Cooper Union, and is presently working on her second novel. Visit Rebecca at RebeccaDonner.com.

Sunset Terrace: A Novel by Rebecca Donner

• Rebecca's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Arid

Adam Eaglin holds degrees in literature and writing from Duke University and Boston University. His writing has appeared in Words Without Borders, Harvard Review, Publishers Weekly, TheAtlantic.com, and VanityFair.com, among others. He works in book publishing in New York.

• Adam's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Separate Kingdoms by Valerie Laken

Maya Eilam graduated from The College of New Jersey with a BA in English Literature and Women’s and Gender Studies. She takes a loose phenomenological approach to literature and focuses on engaged reading with discerning reflection.

• Maya's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » You Were Wrong
  • » Cut Throat Dog

• Colleen 's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians
  • » The Farther Shore

Jason Price Everett was born in Orlando, Florida in 1972. He was educated at Lafayette College, Cornell University and the University of Paris. He has held twenty-six different positions of employment to date, one of the more recent being that of English professor at a university in Xian, China. He is the author of Unfictions, a collection of short prose available from 8th House Publishing. His work has appeared in such diverse publications as Si Senor, Hubris, CRIT Journal, The Mad Hatters’ Review, BITEmagazine, Writers Notes Magazine, Farmhouse Magazine, The Quarterly Review, The Prague Literary Review, City Writers Review, Riverbabble, Underground Voices, BLATT, The Alchemy Review and Revue Mètropolitaine. He currently lives in Montreal.

• Jason's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Noma Plus

Eric Felipe-Barkin is a working filmmaker, writer, illustrator and published translator. He holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University’s fiction program and regularly staffs the sundry camera departments of New York City’s commercial film industry. He is currently at work on no less than twenty western short films, a Sunday comic series based on the work of Winsor McKay and something else by the time you read this.

His work can be seen at http://ericfelipebarkin.wordpress.com/.

• Eric's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » Pee on Water

Ken Foster is the author of the bestselling memoir, The Dogs Who Found Me, and a collection of stories, The Kind I’m Likely To Get, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He is also the editor of two anthologies: The KGB Bar Reader and Dog Culture. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Bark, The Believer, Urban Dog, Salon, Fence, Flaunt, and other publications, and he has appeared as a guest on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” program with Terry Gross, WGBH’s “Morning Stories.” He is most recently the author of Dogs I Have Met: And the People They Found. He lives in New Orleans with Brando (a Dane/pit bull), Zephyr (a rottweiler/shepherd), and Sula (an American Pit Bull Terrier)

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Steve Geng grew up an army brat in Philadelphia, Germany, and France.  An irrepressible romantic, he’s been (among other things) a career thief, an actor on the TV show Miami Vice, and finally a dedicated member of Manhattan’s twelve-step recovery community. He concedes his love of writing to be a legacy from his sister, the late New Yorker humorist, Veronica Geng. His affinity for storytelling produced two screenplays and, as a student at NYU, a novel, Bop City, set in Paris during the Algerian revolution. Thick As Thieves is his first published book. He lives and writes in Manhattan.

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Heather Green’s two poetry chapbooks, No Omen and The Match Array, were published in 2010 by LATR Press and Dancing Girl Press, respectively. A few of her translations and original poems are forthcoming in Denver Quarterly and Barrelhouse. 

• Heather's Articles at KGB Bar Lit:
  • » THE LAKE by Banana Yoshimoto