OK End of Funny Town

Mark Polanzak is author of the hybrid fiction/memoir POP! (Stillhouse, 2016). His stories have appeared in The Southern Review and The American Scholar, and anthologized in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017. He is a founding editor of draft: the journal of process and a contributor to the podcast, The Fail Safe. A graduate of the University of Arizona’s MFA program in fiction, Mark teaches writing and literature at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He lives in Salem, Massachusetts.

“What a joyfully playful collection, full of giants, robots, and pink toilets, as well as loss, resilience, family, and the slipperiness of time. Polanzak's giddy imagination and crisp, rhythm-driven sentences delight the mind and the ear.”—Aimee Bender, author of Willful Creatures“The end of town Mark Polanzak haunts is a fabulous fabulist's zone where all sorts of smart, poignant magic occurs. After reading these stories, you'll never view your personal robot, or reality, the same way again.”—Sam Lipsyte, author of Hark“Polanzak has a phenomenal tragicomic sensibility. Keenly observant of the finer points of loneliness and the uphill task of finding love and understanding, he ultimately demonstrates the urgency and rare beauty of that very connection, both to self and others.”—Aurelie Sheehan, author of Once into the Night“Mark Polanzak's stories are full of wondrous beings, inventive activities, and new and surprising happenings—and they're also well aware that much of the time we find the wondrous and inventive and newly surprising kind of irritating. (After all, what good is the spectacle of a giant moving to town if his presence lengthens your morning commute?) Throughout this wryly moving collection, Polanzak celebrates the mundane beauty of everyday life by contrasting it against the wild adventures we perhaps only pretend to crave.”—Matt Bell, author of Scrapper“Mark Polanzak’s The Ok End of Funny Town is packed with fantastic worlds, rich with menace and wonder and high-wire feats of voice. Here you’ll find mimes, robots, clones, summer camps designed to help adults recover their lost childhoods—and sharply funny insights into the human condition. A wonderful debut.”—Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel

• I. MEET FABULOUS STRANGERS!1. Giant2. Complicated and Annoying Little Robot3. Genie4. The Mime5. Unidentified Living ObjectII. TRAVEL TO FANTASTIC PLACES!6. The OK End of Funny Town7. Our New Community School8. Camp Redo9. A Proper HungerIII. WITNESS MAGICAL THINGS!10. Porcelain God11. Gracie12. An Exact Thing13. TestIV. EXPERIENCE SURREAL TIMES!14. Out of Order15. Ready Set16. Oral17. Kind Eyes18. Used Goods