Step Away from the Pizza: Fictions, etc. - Hardcover

A new form of life based on plastic takes the world by storm. A corporate takeover of a Velcro-themed roadside attraction creates a literal firestorm. A cryptic poem and its quirky critics lead to a murder mystery. A teenage girl is caught in a tangle of commercial products and a friend's suicide threat. A father wrestles with his addiction to 3D porn, his daughter's bizarre illness, and his deceased wife's Embodied Conversational Interface Agent. A prose poem about an abused woman is carved from the script of Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

This breakout collection from the author of the postmodern cult classic novel Figurski at Findhorn on Acid stretches the bounds of short fiction with edgy humor, zany characters, and ingenious formal experimentation. Twenty-four eclectic stories are punctuated by an anagrammatic playlet, computer-generated sonnets, and a slideshow fiction. Step Away from the Pizza showcases the wide-ranging imagination, inventiveness, and mixture of high and popular culture that made critics rave about Figurski and will leave you wishing for more.

Richard Holeton is author of the hypertext novel Figurski at Findhorn on Acid and award-winning short fiction. Recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Dora Maar House, and the California Arts Council, he's taught writing at Cañada College, San Francisco State, and Stanford University. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on unceded ancestral land of the Ramaytush Ohlone.