Author Archives: Caleb Coy

A Year In Writing—What’s Been Published

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Hey readers. December is here, and it’s been quite a year. A lot has happened in the world, big things and small. A quarter century into the new millennium we are. Well, here’s here’s a highlight reel of what this author has published.

A few poems have come out. If you haven’t read them, now’s your chance:

“Shelly, I Say” and “Accidental” in Tar River Poetry Review

“Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” in Roanoke Review

“Ode To Chris Thile’s Receding Hairline” in Loom

For you fiction fans out there, I’ve got stories for you:

“I Love You, Prancer Donner Blitzen” in Descant

“What You Stand To Gain” in Thriller Magazine

“Worlds Over The Edge” in Ember

“Last Day In April” in Amsterdam Quarterly
(a story that placed Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s prize in 2013)

“Mode of Pursuit” in Close to the Bone

I did have one light-hearted essay out:

“Michael, Muppets, and Memories” in I Have That On Vinyl

There were a lot of humor pieces, but I’m only sharing the cream of the crop here:

“If People Who Call Vaccines “The Jab” Spoke That Way About Other Historically Life-Saving Medical Interventions”

—The Haven

“I Have Very Simple, Normal Rules For Consuming Fruit Snacks”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“The Fall of Civilization as Told By Apple Plus News Spotlight Push Notifications”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“The Warm Food Has Arrived, So Let’s Begin Our Meeting And Then Have The Food
—Slackjaw

“I’m So Self-Reliant I Joined an Individualist Community”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“From Now On, Every App Will Feature An AI Chatbot”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“This Toddler Is Playing 4-D Chess With You”

—Frazzled

“How To Prepare For Life Under Technofeudalism”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“The Only Thing That Stops a Bad Guy with a Gun is a Good Guy with a Gun”

—Civil Politics

“Guidelines For Character Accents In Hollywood Films”

—Slackjaw

“Reasons I Need a Treat: A Madlib”

—Points In Case

“Excuse Me, But Your Theme Park Is Actually A Motif Park”

—McSweeney’s

“Diet Trends You Haven’t Tried Yet and Probably Shouldn’t”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“Please Download This Mobile Game Based On The Dystopian TV Show Called ‘The Agony Tournament’”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“I Just Want To Mindlessly Shoot Zombies and Barrels”

—Slackjaw

“I’m Going Off the Grid To Get Away From Society, As Soon As I Finish Using Society’s Grid To Build My Bunker”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“The Family Tree of Elves In My Legendarium is Very Straightforward”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“I, The Buddha, Will Not Be Playing Parcheesi At Your Game Night”

—Slackjaw

“Only A Couple More Episodes To Go Watching Me, The Show You’re Pretending To Enjoy”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“I, A Toddler, Am No Longer The Person I Was Five Seconds Ago”

—Jane Austen’s Wastebasket

“A Menu Of Our Fine, Though Illegal French Cheeses And Their Legal-To-Buy-And-Own Assault Weapon Pairings”

—Points In Case (coming soon)

The Tenth Anniversary of An Authentic Derivative

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Readers, it has been a decade since my novel, An Authentic Derivative.

Ten years ago, I self-published a satirical novel, using IndieGoGo to raise the funds for the production of the novel. Contributors got their own copy.

Hard to believe it’s ten years. But in case you missed it, here’s the skinny:

An Authentic Derivative
a Caleb Coy “novel”

 An Authentic Derivative, is still available on Amazon. 

Click HERE to order a print copy!
Click HERE to order an ebook on Kindle!

41LZSXEGPFLIndie rocker Garrett Sedgwick is a reclusive artist struggling to assert his identity to a sectarian fan base. Cynical graphic artist Neil Oberlin is given the task of sketching Sedgwick’s next album cover. However, proximity to the brooding musician begins to compound Neil’s own anxieties about himself, his generation, and Sedgwick’s great secret. Things are about to get awkward.

Set in Nashville, An Authentic Derivative tells the story of a generation of overeducated, over cultivated millennials.

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8/10/15 Bibliofreak names An Authentic Derivative “book of the week.”

Reviews:
“Imagine The Greate Gatsby told by a young and self-conscious David Foster Wallace born after 1980.” (James Bair, EnglishPlusLanguage Blog)

“This reads like the monologue at the beginning of a later Wes Anderson film, as edited by Salinger. I don’t hate it.” (Stephano Mugnaini)

The funds to produce and promote the novel were raised through an IndieGoGo campaign. I am indebted to my friends, my family, and others who helped make possible my goal of publishing the novel independently.

Follow the protagonist, @GarrettSedgwick, on Twitter.

What We Can Learn From Magneto

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Last month we had Passover and Easter. We also had Holocaust Remembrance Day. We also had an announcement about a big Marvel film. We also had some significant events happen at Harvard.

This all brought to mind something I’ve been thinking about, and it has to do with a famous comic book character. Continue reading →

Spotting Tyranny Before It Really Starts

Posted by Caleb Coy on

So, we live in a democracy. We’ve seen tyranny around the world. Sometimes you see changes around you and ask, “will we have tyranny in our time?”

Tyranny doesn’t always happen overnight. Sure, a coup could happen overnight, but not without building support over time from a large number of people. So usually you have time to spot one. Continue reading →

It Was Never “The” Ukraine—A Poem

Posted by Caleb Coy on

It Was Never The Ukraine

I
The first I’d heard of it was a report

of a missionary we’d funded in 1993

to the Ukraine, one of those

lands between Europe and Russia—

are they still Soviet?

We referred to it as Russia but not quite, Russia

sort of, like ghosts invaded a thicker

land. Pale people, as in the photographs,

like us but not, decades behind, unibrows

and windbreakers and woven attachments

on their blouses—is there a cow that won’t

milk at all? kind of place. We lent a missionary

to the region, the subregion, that

portion, a satellite of some swelling realer place.

II

I saw the missionary on a newspaper in 2005.

Only it was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

taped to a bulletin board with a note:

“Is our missionary a terrorist?”

as a joke, perhaps. The missionary laughed.

He looked like a photograph of Ahmadinejad.

III

I never forgot the missionary’s face resembling

Iran’s president, and now cannot unsee the face

of Ukraine’s president. We sent no man

from the America, he did not look like

the chief executive of the Iran.

But why, after having gone and returned,

did he never tell us not to say the Ukraine?

And I know the heart and the face of the man who

taped the clipping, and can see him shrug

at Putin’s prerogative, at what we call what don’t care to see being.

It was never right, but it was the right. The hatred. The ignorance.

I am tired of every the that there is.