The debut short story collection from Joshua Chaplinsky, author of Kanye West-Reanimator. Thirteen weird pieces of literary genre fiction. Singularities, ciphers, and reappearing limbs. Alien messiahs and murderous medieval hydrocephalics. A dark collection that twists dreams into nightmares in an attempt to find a whisper of truth."This is dark stuff, but fun, without any hipster wink of irony or cynicism. Writing stories that are simultaneously grim and good-hearted is a fucking tough line to straddle, and writing them well... let's just say I don't see that often. Chaplinsky walks a barbed-wire tightrope here. In short, good shit."Craig Clevenger, Author of The Contortionist's Handbook"If you're sick of tepid short stories that taste like watered-down milk, "Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape," is the collection of multi-colored, bite-sized brain pan bullets that might just be the cure. Joshua Chaplinsky has an imagination both of depth and breadth, and no two stories are alike. You can practically hear the lively, fascinating, hallucinatory click of his brain throughout the book. An enjoyable read for all of us dreaming apes."Autumn Christian, Author of Girl Like a Bomb

"Of Kanye West, who was my friend in college and after he dropped out, I can speak only with extreme sadness..." So begins this epic cautionary tale of ambition and hubris. A bizarre mix of Lovecraft and hip-hop history, Kanye West¿Reanimator reimagines the classic story "Herbert West¿Reanimator" with everyone's favorite petulant genius cast in the titular role. In it, Kanye West attempts to reanimate a moribund hip-hop scene, only to come to the conclusion that his music is so powerful, it should be used to reanimate the dead. And who better to reanimate than those two legendary titans gone before their time¿Biggie and Tupac? Hilarity and carnage ensue.

Archetypes are real. Muses are real. Writers are the channels of these spirits & if that sounds like witchcraft that's because it is. These stories gave me chills. Sylvia Plath & Lana Del Rey course through the veins of these dark, sexy, mind-bending, fantastical, romantic, & haunting tales. Authors from different genres came together in their love & passion for these muses. The Blacklist: Kathryn Louise Crazy Mary: Patricia Grisafi Pipedreams: Devora Gray And All the World Drops Dead: Max Booth III Without Him (and Him, and Him) There is No Me: Laura Diaz de Arce Going About 99: Christine Stoddard The Lazarus Wife: Tiffany Morris Stag Loop: Brendan Vidito SP World: Lorraine Schein A Ghost of My Own Making: Ashley Inguanta Loose Ends: A Movie: Tiffany Scandal Girls in the Garden of Holy Suffering: Lisa Marie Basile The Gods in the Blood: Gabino Iglesias The Land of Other: Farah Rose Smith Sad Girl: Monique Quintana Corinne: JC Drake Sphinx Tears: Cara DiGirolamo Rituals of Gorgons: Larissa Glasser The Wife: Victoria Dalpe Dayglo Reflection: Manuel Chavarria Catman's Heart: Laura Lee Bahr Panic Bird: Selene MacLeod Because of Their Different Deaths: Stephanie Wytovich

An absorbing investigation of chimpanzee language and communication by a young primatologist While working as a zookeeper with a group of semi-wild chimpanzees living on an island, primatologist Andrew Halloran witnessed an event that would cause him to become fascinated with how chimpanzees communicate complex information and ideas to one another. The group he was working with was in the middle of a yearlong power battle in which the older chimpanzees were being ousted in favor of a younger group. One day Andrew carelessly forgot to secure his rowboat at the mainland and looked up to see it floating over to the chimp island. In an orchestrated fashion, five ousted members of the chimp group quietly came from different parts of the island and boarded the boat. Without confusion, they sat in two perfect rows of two, with Higgy, the deposed alpha male, at the back, propelling and steering the boat to shore. The incident occurred without screams or disorder and appeared to have been preplanned and communicated. Since this event, Andrew has extensively studied primate communication and, in particular, how this group of chimpanzees naturally communicated. What he found is that chimpanzees use a set of vocalizations every bit as complex as human language. The Song of the Ape traces the individual histories of each of the five chimpanzees on the boat, some of whom came to the zoo after being wild-caught chimps raised as pets, circus performers, and lab chimps, and examines how these histories led to the common lexicon of the group. Interspersed with these histories, the book details the long history of scientists attempting (and failing) to train apes to use human grammar and language, using the well-known and controversial examples of Koko the gorilla, Kanzi the bonobo, and Nim Chimsky the chimpanzee, all of whom supposedly were able to communicate with their human caretakers using sign language. Ultimately, the book shows that while laboratories try in vain to teach human grammar to a chimpanzee, there is a living lexicon being passed down through the generations of each chimpanzee group in the wild. Halloran demonstrates what that lexicon looks like with twenty-five phrases he recorded, isolated, and interpreted while working with the chimps, and concludes that what is occurring in nature is far more fascinating and miraculous than anything that can be created in a laboratory. The Song of the Ape is a lively, engaging, and personal account, with many moments of humor as well as the occasional heartbreak, and it will appeal to anyone who wants to listen in as our closest relatives converse.

"A harrowing, perverse, laugh-aloud funny rocket ride of catastrophes…Gutsy, terse and cunning, Invisible Monsters may emerge as Palahniuk’s strongest book." —Greg Berkman, Seattle Times She’s a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better. And that salvation hides in the last places you’ll ever want to look.

The Paradox Twins is a copyright infringing biographical collage that exists on the Internet, pieced together by an unknown auteur. Named for the famous thought experiment, it concerns estranged twin brothers who reunite at their father's funeral to discover they no longer look alike. Haunted by the past (and possibly the future), they move into their father's house to settle his affairs, only to reignite old rivalries and uncover long-hidden secrets, most of which involve the young woman who lives next door. An epistolary work comprised of excerpts from various memoirs, novels, screenplay adaptations, and documents of public record, The Paradox Twins is an experimental, sci-fi ghost story about the scariest, most unknowable quantity there is-family. PRAISE FOR THE PARADOX TWINS "Chaplinsky takes a famous physics paradox and brings it back down to earth, using it to rethink the ways in which families relate and interrelate and disintegrate. A collage that assembles itself into a sneaky whole in which it's not always easy to tell what the truth is." -Brian Evenson, author of Song For the Unraveling of the World "As confirmed by The Paradox Twins, Joshua Chaplinsky is one of a handful of American novelists creating the literature of the future: dazzling, original and subversive." -Steve Erickson, author of Zeroville and Shadowbahn "Like a coy, uncanny hybrid of J.G. Ballard and John Carpenter, the Oulipo and the Bizarro, The Paradox Twins is an engrossing and digressive trip through birth and back, stuffed from end to end with mystic weirdness and meta-gags with style to spare." -Blake Butler, author of Alice Knott and 300,000,000