In the tradition of John Jeremiah Sullivan and David Foster Wallace, Cheston Knapp’s Up Up, Down Down “is an always smart, often hilarious, and ultimately transcendent essay collection” (Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See) that brilliantly explores authenticity and the nature of identity. Daring and wise, hilarious and tender, Cheston Knapp’s “glittering” (Leslie Jamison) collection of seven linked essays tackles the Big Questions through seemingly unlikely avenues. In his dexterous hands, an examination of a local professional wrestling promotion becomes a meditation on pain and his relationship with his father. A profile of UFO enthusiasts ends up probing his history in the church and, more broadly, the nature and limits of faith itself. Attending an adult skateboarding camp launches him into a virtuosic analysis of nostalgia. And the shocking murder of a neighbor expands into an interrogation of our culture’s prevailing ideas about community. Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the way he manages to find humanity in a damp basement full of frat boys. Taken together, the essays in Up Up, Down Down amount to a chronicle of Knapp’s coming-of-age, a young man’s journey into adulthood, late-onset as it might appear. He presents us with formative experiences from his childhood to marriage that echo throughout the collection, and ultimately tilts at what may be the Biggest Q of them all: what are the hazards of becoming who you are? With “a firmly tongue-in-cheek approach to the existential crises of male maturity for the millennial generation…Knapp’s intelligent take on coming-of-age deserves to be widely read” (Publishers Weekly). “Compelling…Precise and laugh-inducing” (The New York Times Book Review), Up Up, Down Down signals the arrival of a truly one-of-a-kind voice.

Despite the warnings of her mother and father, Anna persists in trying to climb things, until she gets stuck in the top of a tree and needs their help to get down.

This action-packed toddler's day with Dad is full of opposites—and now in board! From his first demand to be picked up and then immediately put down, opposites pop up all day long for this energetic boy. Breakfast is no, no, no, yes! At the sandbox, it's make, make, make, break! And jumping into the pool goes from can't, can't, can't, to can! Kimberly Gee's expressive illustrations emphasize the loving connection between a boy and his father in this clever concept book about everyday highs and lows is now in sturdy board, ready to become a staple in toddlers' hands and bookshelves'.

Among The Village Voices 25 Favorite Books of 2006 Winner of the 2007 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show in the Trade Illustrated Book Design category. Sometime after Andy Warhol’s heyday but before Soho became a tourist trap, a group of poets, punk rockers, guerilla journalists, graffiti artists, writers, and activists transformed lower Manhattan into an artistic scene so diverse it became known simply as “Downtown.“ Willfully unpolished and subversively intelligent, figures such as Spalding Gray, Kathy Acker, Richard Hell, David Wojnarowicz, Lynne Tillman, Miguel Piñero, and Eric Bogosian broke free from mainstream publishing to produce a flood of fiction, poetry, experimental theater, art, and music that breathed the life of the street. The first book to capture the spontaneity of the Downtown literary scene, Up Is Up, But So Is Down collects more than 125 images and over 80 texts that encompass the most vital work produced between 1974 and 1992. Reflecting the unconventional genres that marked this period, the book includes flyers, zines, newsprint weeklies, book covers, and photographs of people and the city, many of them here made available to readers outside the scene for the first time. The book's striking and quirky design—complete with 2-color interior—brings each of these unique documents and images to life. Brandon Stosuy arranges this hugely varied material chronologically to illustrate the dynamic views at play. He takes us from poetry readings in Alphabet City to happenings at Darinka, a Lower East Side apartment and performance space, to the St. Mark's Bookshop, unofficial crossroads of the counterculture, where home-printed copies of the latest zines were sold in Ziploc bags. Often attacking the bourgeois irony epitomized by the New Yorker’s short fiction, Downtown writers played ebulliently with form and content, sex and language, producing work that depicted the underbelly of real life. With an afterword by Downtown icons Dennis Cooper and Eileen Myles, Up Is Up, But So Is Down gathers almost twenty years of New York City’s smartest and most explosive—as well as hard to find—writing, providing an indispensable archive of one of the most exciting artistic scenes in U.S. history.

Sprightly illustrations set the mood for a rhythmic text that follows nature's course as it demonstrates how seeds in a garden grow into a final feast of backyard bounty. Full color.

Can the broad truths of aphorisms be visually explained? Dive into the pages of this interactive book to find out!

Have you ever dreamed about getting paid to write about video games and the fascinating people who make them? Unless you live on the West Coast and are lucky enough to land a rare staff position at one of the major gaming publications, freelancing is the best way to turn slinging words about your favorite hobby into a viable and lucrative career. The best part? You can do it from anywhere! Up Up Down Down Left WRITE: The Freelance Guide to Video Game Journalism covers everything you need to get started along the path to launching and maintaining a successful freelance career in the gaming industry. Pro freelancer Nathan Meunier has written for more than 30 of the top gaming outlets -- from Nintendo Power, GamePro, and Official Xbox Magazine to IGN, GameSpot, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and more. In this advice-packed tome for aspiring freelance game journos and more established writers alike, Nathan delivers detailed insights and how-to tips based on many years of professional writing experience. You will learn how to: -Generate killer article ideas, pitch editors, and score paying work -Build towards quitting your day job to freelance full-time -Juggle the business-related side of freelancing -Cover gaming conventions and press junkets -Network with editors and writers -Work with PR to gain coverage opportunities and free review games. And much, much more!