The city has always been a place of mystery, of magic, and wonder. In cities past, present, and future, in metropoli real and imagined, meet mutilated warrior women, dead boys, mechanical dogs, escape artists and more. From the dizzying heights of rooftops and spires to the sinister secrets of underpasses and gutters, some of the most talented authors writing today will take you on a trip through the urban fantastic. Edited by Ekaterina Sedia, author of The Secret History of Moscow and the forthcoming Alchemy of Stone.

Thought-provoking case studies on cities, photographs and booksPhotographic books are almost as old as photography itself, and the city is one of their first and more recurring themes. Cities have been, and they continue to be, intensely photographed under a wide variety of forms, materialities, intentions and genres. This volume examines how a city can be moulded through the particularities of a photographic book, suggesting how urban portraits configure an overlooked, yet quite specific, photo-textual practice. Ranging from early photography to contemporary works, Paper Cities gathers thought-provoking case studies from several international contexts, providing new insights into art, material culture, history, heritage and memory, while simultaneously illuminating the debate on cities, photographs and books. Contributors: Steven Jacobs (Ghent University), Simon Dell (University of East Anglia), Hugh Campbell (University College Dublin), Steven Humblet (LUCA School of Arts), Chris Balaschak (Flagler College), Annarita Teodosio (University of Salerno), Cecile Laly (Université Paris I), Mónica Pacheco (University College London), Douglas Klahr (University of Texas), Johanna M. Blokker (Bamberg University), Philip Goldswain (University of Western Australia).

Quentin Jacobson has spent a lifetime loving Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows. After their all-nighter ends, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo has disappeared.

From acclaimed poet and New Yorker writer Cynthia Zarin comes a deeply personal meditation on two cities, Venice and Rome—each a work of art, both a monument to the past—and on how love and loss shape places and spaces. Here we encounter a writer deeply engaged with narrative in situ—a traveler moving through beloved streets, sometimes accompanied, sometimes solo. With her, we see, anew, the Venice Biennale, the Lagoon, and San Michele, the island of the dead; the Piazza di Spagna, the Tiber, the view from the Gianicolo; the pigeons at San Marco and the parrots in the Doria Pamphili. As a poet first and foremost, Zarin’s attention to the smallest details, the loveliest gesture, brings Venice and Rome vividly to life for the reader. The sixteenth book in the expanding, renowned ekphrasis series, Two Cities creates space for these two historic cities to become characters themselves, their relationship to the writer as real as any love affair.

First there was downtown. Then there were suburbs. Then there were malls. Then Americans launched the most sweeping change in 100 years in how they live, work, and play. The Edge City.

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