Eckhard Gerdes - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Eckhard Gerdes (born 1959) is an American novelist and editor. He earned his MFA in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.He is the author of six published novels:Projections [1986, Depth Charge Press] Ring in a River [1989, Depth Charge Press] Truly Fine Citizen [1992, Highlander Press] Cistern Tawdry [2002, Fugue State Press] Przewalski's Horse [2007, Red Hen Press] The Million-Year Centipede; or, Liquid Structures [2007, Raw Dog Screaming Press]and two more due out shortly:The Unwelcome Guest [2007, Six Gallery Press] Nin and Nan [2007, Six Gallery Press]His work, often darkly humorous, frequently crosses boundaries of fictional technique, ignoring time, space, cause and effect at will, in the service of stories of individuals struggling to transcend fear and limitation.Noteworthy reviews of his work have appeared in Rain Taxi, Notre Dame Review, and Review of Contemporary Fiction among many others.Eckhard Gerdes is the editor of The Journal of Experimental Fiction, a series of books often consisting of ambitious Festschrifts on a single writer (e.g. John Barth, Raymond Federman, Harold Jaffe). He has also written on modern and post-modern literature for American Book Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Hyde Park Review of Books, and other magazines.His novel "White Bungalows" was a finalist for both the Starcherone Prize and for the Blatt Prize. For "Cistern Tawdry," Gerdes was nominated for Georgia Author of the Year in the Fiction Category. Gerdes has twice been the recipient of the Richard Pike Bissell Creative Writing Award, is listed in Contemporary Authors, 2000 Outstanding Writers of the 20th Century, International Authors and Writer's Who's Who, and Who's Who in Writers, Editors, and Poets, and is a member of PEN USA and AWP.He lives in the Chicago area; he has three children.Recent events:October 24, 7 pm, Quimby's Bookstore, 1854 W. North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622;November 6, 4 pm, Lake Forest College, Meyer Auditorium, 555 N. Sheridan Road, Lake Forest, IL 60045For more details and information on Scuff Mud events, go to www.myspace.com/scuffmud. For more information on the Journal of Experimental Fiction, go to www.experimentalfiction.com and to www.myspace.com/experimentalfiction. Thank you!

My Interests

Innovative writing, innovative music, innovative painting, innovative theatre, innovative film.

I'd like to meet:

Samuel Beckett, Kenneth Patchen and Arno Schmidt!

Music:

Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Gong, Frank Zappa, Pere Ubu, A Tomato a Day, Guru Guru, Kraan, Grandpaboy.

Movies:

Fellini, Bunuel.

Television:

The Prisoner.

Books:

Raymond Federman, Harold Jaffe, Steve Tomasula, William Gillespie, Frederick Mark Kramer, Michael Collins, Matthew Roberson, George Chambers, John Barth, Kenneth Patchen, Arno Schmidt, Samuel Beckett, Wolfgang Borchert, Eugene Ionesco, Donald Barthelme, James Joyce, Italo Calvino. ..

Heroes:

Above, after the reading at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York, around the table from the left: Peter Wortsman, Yuriy and Karina Tarnawsky, Joshua Cohen, Eckhard Gerdes and Jim Chapman. Thanks to Jim for the photos, the kindness, and the hospitality!
Federman_s_The_Line
Uploaded by lelem

My Blog

My reading at Lake Forest College

My reading at Lake Forest College earlier this month was a great success. The students were delightful and asked very intelligent questions. They were a very attentive and generous audience. Thanks to...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:22:00 PST

Audio Artist Erik Belgum praises Scuff Mud!

I just received a great note from Erik Belgum, the brilliant audio artist whose solo CDs as well as his wonderful collaboration with Raymond Federman are amazing and fun stuff: Eckhard: Thanks ...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Thu, 13 Sep 2007 05:00:00 PST

Return from New York

Hi, everyone! I just returned from NYC last night. The flight was late, and I was so tired I had trouble finding my car again in the remote parking lot at O'Hare, but I eventually found it...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Tue, 15 May 2007 11:37:00 PST

The Bishop and Keith Fine--Birds of a Feather?

The Bishop and Keith Fine--Birds of a Feather? Current mood: quixotic CHICAGO, April 25, 2007John P. Tomkins of Dubuque, Iowa, a disgruntled former postal worker, was arrested today and accused of...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Tue, 01 May 2007 06:17:00 PST

I'll be signing in Downtown Chicago next Friday afternoon

Hi, everyone! If you have a chance and are going to be anywhere near downtown Chicago next Friday, April 27, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm, stop by the Auditorium Building at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkw...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Thu, 19 Apr 2007 05:35:00 PST

New York City, here I come!

Current mood: hopeful Category: Writing and Poetry Eckhard will be reading from his work with other Red Hen Press authors at New York City's supercool Bowery Poetry Club, on Sunday, May 13 fro...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:46:00 PST

New Publications

Hello, friends. The debuts of my new novels "Million-Year Centipede" (Raw Dog Screaming Press--see www.myspace.com/rawdogscreaming) and "Przewalski's Horse" (Red Hen Press--see www.redhen.org) went ve...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:01:00 PST

The writer went down to Georgia

Just to let you, my friends, know why I may not be near my computer for the first week of March, I wanted to inform you that I will be in Atlanta for the AWP Conference, where I am signing both my new...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:10:00 PST

Uploaded

Oh, well. Here we go. I tried to upload an excerpt of my short film, "I Don't Belong Here," but the upload is all grainy. I'll have to fix that. The film is a digital video, so...
Posted by Eckhard Gerdes on Mon, 04 Dec 2006 12:27:00 PST