Brian Dykstra rants off on just about everything even though Who the Hell Asked Him?
Fiction
Keith that Walked Away and Praise. Two shorts with Harlem style by Jacques Wakefield.
Book Reviews
The Gorgeous Glossy Gift Books Round-up — Editors' Picks from Wegman on Puppies to the bleak John Deakin, and Donna Karan's ode to Leg, this list is a bookworm's delight.
Brian Dykstra is Far Gone in Fargo North Dakota.
Fiction
Metafiction the Contest: and the winner is... Urban Desires mounts the metafictitious best from our challenge to writers of the Web's own genre.
Book Reviews
Ron Hogan finds Richard Russo's Straight Man hilarious and reviews Herbert Thomas's first novel The Superlative Man. Sioban Reagan reviews Richard Ford's latest Men With Women.
Brian Dykstra has gone Smelly Phishy, lends a fin and rants on all things under the sea.
Sleeping with the Fishes
Sleeping with the Fishes. Sammy-the-Gills Gravlax lures us in with his tale of the Cosa Nostra. But it's not “Our Thing” until July 30 when one lucky writer (see contest) spincasts the rest of the story.
Brian Dykstra lets loose on Media-Megalomania: JonBenet, a well-shod Tiger and the Hale-Boppers Last Supper.
Fiction
Nesting Habits of the American House Finch. Jim Sanks' prose takes flight on the ruffled wings of a domestic tragedy.
Book Reviews
Ron Hogan reviews Giovanni's Gift and interviews author Bradford Morrow. Ron also reviews Ressurection by David Remnick. And Patrick Quinn looks in on Roger Kahn's Memories of Summer.
Brian Dykstra rants in real audio now. What about? Poor Starving Artists. Listen up.
Fiction
UD's favorite storyteller Gilbert Girion gives us Winslow, a boy's memory of a boy who remembers.
Poetry
UD honors National Poetry Month with Urban Poets, ten poets offer up a taste of the town.
Metafiction
Metafiction, The Contest. We invite our readers to write – but not in the linear way...
Brian Dykstra rants off on football... at least we think that's what it's about.
Fiction
Ben Ohmart's On the Roll Down chronicles the frenetic struggle of a woman's decline from cancer.
Book Reviews
Tony Buchsbaum reviews The Best of Flair, edited by Fluer Cowles. Ron Hogan reviews Zia Jaffrey's The Invisibles and Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez.
The Rant – Vote? Or What? Brian Dykstra ponders the whole damn process.
Fiction
Sweet Dreams, Jean Claude by Jim Sanks. The trouble with heroes is they always let you down.
Book Reviews
Drown by Junot Diaz, reviewed by Sylvio Torres-Saillant. By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee by Tama Janowitz, interview and review by Ron Hogan. Ron Hogan also reviews One River by Wade Davis.
Conversations With: Junot Diaz and Edwidge Danticat
“Conversations With:” A new feature premiers with writers Junot Diaz and Edwidge Danticat. Born in the same year on the island of Hispaniola, he a Dominican and she a Haitian, two young Caribbean authors sit down to dinner and talk.
Brian Dykstra: Tripping with Cops. Brian does time in the Grand Jury box.
Fiction
The Edge. Tricia Lande paints herself into the borderland between fiction and reality.
Book Reviews
Lisa Miller interviews Sapphire about her latest... Push. Ron Hogan maps William Vollmann's Atlas, and Mitch Meyers time travels into punk history with Please Kill Me.
“Excuse me? You want me to call you WHAT? Yeah, well go ‘master’ THIS, pal!” Barky Dykstra sets humans straight on the state of human/dog relations.
Fiction
Dogs Don't Fall in Love. Sure, breaking up is hard to do...but the only thing tougher than dividing up the silverware is explaining it all to the family dog.
Book Reviews
Max Shannon and Frankie Calvert sniff out a dog-eared literary trio: Michael Rosen's Dog People, Terri McGinnis's The Well Dog Book, and Barking at Prozac by Buck.
If Rantster Brian Dykstra is anything, he's peeved. Apparently bitter over his slight in the 1980 NBA Draft, Mr. Dykstra explores the grandure of being a sports star in the USofA.
FICTION - 3 Short pieces
Peter Braunstein, Jad Abumrad, A.D. Coleman won't take up too much of your precious time as they take you on a journey far away from the hype and glory of the Web.
BOOK REVIEWS
Ron Hogan reviews "Remote," and interviews the author David Shields. "A Cloister Walk" and "The Power and the Darkness" are handily reviewed by Patrick Quinn.
Who him, Paranoid?! Brian Dykstra takes a quick look over his shoulder before ducking into the alley of his shadowy life...BOO!
FICTION: 3 Short Pieces by Gilbert Girion
Gilbert Girion offers us three wisps of bittersweet memory from the fabric of human nature.
BOOK REVIEWS
K. T. Mcguire reviews Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid. Ron Hogan reviews The Last Stand by David Harris and Pollen, by Jeff Noon. Ron also interviews Mr. Noon.
Brian Dykstra lets loose on Senator D'um D'um!
FICTION: Christine
Nina Newington steps in out of the Nigerian rain and hears a tale of love.
Book Reviews:
Judith Van Buren reviews The Blue Suit and An Unquiet Mind. Ron Hogan reviews Elie Wiesel's Autobiography.
Brian Dykstra sinks his teeth into our favorite media darling. Then, he tees off on some of his adoring UD fans.
FICTION: Why I Love Public Transportation
An odiferous trek through the bowels of the big city has Barbara S. Goodwin primping for a hard day's work. (Does it smell funny down here, or is it me?)
Gore Vidal's "Palimpsest," and John Hockenberry's "Moving Violations"
Two stirring autobiographies reviewed by Ron Hogan and Judith Van Buren.
HOLIDAY BOOK ROUNDUP:
A framed set of holiday suggestions to appease your bespectacled friends and loved ones. (Better get your 2.0!) Artfully edited by Gabrielle Shannon.
Ron Hogan reviews biographies of Robert Mapplethorpe and Walker Evans and, also, first time novelist Coerte V.W. Felske's, A Shallow Man.
THE RANT: Smoke This
Rantmaster Brian Dykstra is smokin' hot about the tobacco companies' hypocrisy. Plus, a BONUS MINI-RANT aimed at the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. (Ouch!)
FICTION: Notes on Sinking
Clay Shirky creates another exquisite piece of Metafiction for Urban Desires.
Reviewer Judith Van Buren nails two chart-climbers.
THE RANT: Things We Know
Rantmaster Brian Dykstra spews volumes on lessons never learned, for no reason known to man.
FICTION: flying And falling
What the hell is interactive meta-fiction? Clay Shirky lets the friendly skies do the talking.
Reviewers Judith Van Buren and Peter Selgin explore Hell and insanity in a whirlwind of words.
THE RANT: Rantings of a Mad-Fan
Resident spew-master Brian Dykstra is in a good mood this time. It's a happy, wonderful, ball-catching, base-stealing, fly-hitting time of year, and Brian tells you (once again) how he feels about it.
FICTION: Planet Dad
Gilbert Girion weaves a magnetic childhood tale.
Confessions of an online addict.
REVIEWS: Words About Words About Sports
Brian Dykstra explores the wonderous and not so wonderous world of sports.
The RANT: No Shame
People who smack their young'uns in public. Brian Dykstra wraps his craw around that one.
K.T. McGuire reviews two of the feel-bad books you hate to love. The Hot Zone and The Coming Plague await you.
The RANT: Snowboarding with a Buzz-on.
Columnist Brian Dykstra finds disturbing jokes or humerous conspiracies or plain old ignorance in a bevy of advertisements.
November 8th...Remember That? Columnist Brian Dykstra tees off on the election that reflected the frustration of a nation.
Fiction
The Patpong Sisters. Cleo Odzer's view of the Bangkok sex world.