Composed in brief paragraphs and structured as a series of vignettes, pieces of fiction and autobiography, The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis creates a world in which a woman's life is refracted through dreamlike logic. Margaret Kroftis is a writer, living alone. As she experiences a personal tragedy, the narrative moves forward in an emotionally coherent manner that exists separately from linear time. A groundbreaking debut from a truly talented new writer.

Two boys lie on a bed, one of them is already dead; they listen to Glenn Gould playing Bach and talk about suicide and love. A lonely narrator mourns the end of a relationship and the disappearance of a mysterious object as a frustrated artist jumps out of a moving car on his birthday and runs for the last street lamp in the universe. The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse, a radical map of shortcomings in daily experiences in the form of a debut story collection, presents thematically related windows into serious emotional trouble and monstrous love.

The author of the acclaimed transgressive cult classic Dear Dead Person returns with this long-awaited second collection of brilliantly written, outrageously imaginative and comedic short stories. In Headless, Weissman turns his daredevil wit and fearless storytelling gifts on subjects ranging from Hitler's secret life as a skier to the philosophical musings of identical twin porn stars to the travails of the world's most sitcom defying family.

This anthology brings to light some of the new fiction writers who are using the Internet's labyrinthine array of blogs and personal web pages to expose, test, and develop their work. They are gay, straight, young, old, and in some cases still searching for their identities. Written by Dennis Cooper

This special issue of the journal Advances in Social Work captures the vision of 21 different social work scholars looking ahead to the future in their area of practice. Areas include Futures of: Social Work as a profession, Social Work Education, Social Work Values and Ethics, Global Social Work, Multicultural Social Work, Macro Social Work, Social Welfare Policy, Evidence-based Social Work, Strengths-based Social Work, Technology and Social Work, Spirituality and Social Work, Disabilities and Social Work, Aging and Social Work, Rural Social Work, Families and Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Work, Schools and Social Work, Health Care and Social Work, Mental Health and Social Work, Addictions and Social Work, Criminal Justice and Social Work. This insightful special issue offers a grand view of a very diverse profession and the many areas of practice that social workers serve in. This special issue will be highly useful in all levels of social work education within introductory, policy, and practice classes as an invaluable teaching tool. It will also be informative reading for professionals in the practice who are interested in seeing cutting edge visions of our future as a profession. Every social worker should read this fascinating issue of Advances in Social Work!

“Artificial Light beats the bejeezus out of the last dozen Thomas Pynchons, the last nineteen Don DeLillos, and the last forty-three Kurt Vonneguts.”—Richard Meltzer “In his ambitious and intriguing debut novel, indie rock expert Greer, author of Guided by Voices, employs one of literature's oldest gambits, the book-within-a-book structure, three times over. A young librarian calling herself Fiat Lux fills a set of notebooks with her passion for books and an enigmatic account of her interlude with Kurt C, a famous indie rock star who appears unheralded in Dayton, Ohio, and buys the long-abandoned Orville Wright mansion. A member of the rock group Whiskey Ships is trying to write about his musical odyssey but longs to return to his book about Orville Wright, whose long-lost diaries also feed the narrative stream. Greer picks the lock on the Kurt Cobain mythos and the rapid commercialization of indie rock…Strong writing and shrewd perceptions prevail, backed by wry humor, compelling stumblebum characters, a true-blue louche atmosphere, and arresting insights into the dream of art, be it literature or rock and roll.”—Booklist