A Writer’s Diary Entries From Late May, 2000 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Late May, 2000 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Mid-January, 1996 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Mid-January, 1996 | Richard Grayson

A Young Writer's Diary Entries From Early March, 1983 | Thought Catalog

A Young Writer's Diary Entries From Early March, 1983 | Thought Catalog

A 30-Year-Old’s Diary Entries From Early April, 1982 | Thought Catalog

A 30-Year-Old’s Diary Entries From Early April, 1982 | Thought Catalog

A 27-Year-Old’s Diary Entries From Late April, 1979 | Thought Catalog

A 27-Year-Old’s Diary Entries From Late April, 1979 | Thought Catalog

Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayson's THE SILICON VALLEY DIET

In "Notes on Fiction," the current (May 15, 2000) issue of Publishers Weekly has a brief review of Richard Grayson's The Silicon Valley Diet:

Compulsively talky and engaging disjunctive, the 12 stories in The Silicon Valley Diet, Richard Grayson's ninth collection, flash snapshots of gay men in their 20s, 30s and 40s battling it out in an online world. Lighter and funnier than much gay fiction, the stories riff on contemporary consumer culture (I'm wearing Calvin Klein chhinos like the sexy adolescents I spotted this morning in full-pages in Wired and Swing) and introduce sweet, mixed-up characters like Terence, who has a child "slept with a teddy bear -- even when he was practically, by his own admission, a teenage prostitute." Grayson knows New York City -- where many of these stories are set -- inside and out. (Red Hen,$14.95 paper 182p ISBN 1-888966-23-4; June)

Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayson's I SURVIVED CARACAS TRAFFIC

In its January 3, 1996 issue, Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayson's I Survived Caracas Traffic:


I SURVIVED CARACAS TRAFFIC:
Stories from the Me Decades
Richard Grayson. Avisson Press
(3007 Taliaferro Rd., Greensboro, N.C.
27408: 910-288-6989), $21 (144p)
ISBN 1-888105-04-6


Social tropes and individual types from the “Me Decades” (here, really just the late 1970s and early ‘80s) run through Grayson’s eighth story collection. The stories are riddled with self-absorbed baby boomers, T-shirt slogans, Henry Kissinger, silicone implants, Saturday Night Live, the AIDS crisis, quarreling roommates and psychotherapists. Most are written in a flat first-person, but in others Grayson (Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog) shows a sense of humor and an appreciation of the weird. The costs of survival in the AIDS retrospective title story, and the isolating entropy of depression in “Where the Glacier Stops,” manage to imbue their drained narrators with some emotional weight. On the whimsical side, “Twelve Step Barbie” sees the doll in a midlife crisis, and “A Clumsy Story” artfully diagrams and parodies MFA-quality fiction. But whatever Grayson’s approach – whether the troubled roommate is a Wisconsin Lutheran (“My Plan to Kill Henry Kissinger”) or the Pontiff (“With the Pope in Park Slope”) – most of his characters carry only a faded familiarity, not an invigorating shock of recognition. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayon's I BRAKE FOR DELMORE SCHWARTZ

Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayson's I Brake for Delmore Schwartz in its March 4, 1983 issue:

I BRAKE FOR DELMORE SCHWARTZ
Richard Grayson. Zephyr Press (13
Robinson St., Somerville, Mass.
02145), $4.95 ISBN 0-939010-03-8;
hardcover $9.95 ISBN 0-939010-04-6


Most of the 15 stories here fall into three broad categories. Grayson is at his best in his most straightforward, traditional narratives, among them "That's Saul, Folks" and "Slightly Higher in Canada." Also pleasant are the author's obviously autobiographical stories, which are built of fragments of memories; he recalls his great-grandmother in "Reluctance," and an uncle dying of cancer in "Hold Me." Least successful are Grayson's more experimental pieces, many of which directly or indirectly deal with his perspectives on writing: "Y/Me" is a short diatribe on the letter "y." "Only Time Will Tell" presents an inconsequential self-interview. And in "Is This Useful? Is This Boring?" the author repeats these queries (asserting that it doesn't matter anyway), until the reader, alas, must answer both questions truthfully.
[April]

Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayson's LINCOLN'S DOCTOR'S DOG

The April 9, 1982 issue of Publishers Weekly has a review of Richard Grayson's Lincoln's Doctor's Dog:

FICTION

LINCOLN’S DOCTOR’S DOG AND OTHER STORIES
Richard Grayson. White Ewe Press (P.O. Box 996, Adelphi, Md. 20783),
$11.95 ISBN 0-917976-13-4

These 22 brief, sometimes forced, sometimes playful stories by the author of “With Hitler in New York” are not for everyone. Grayson is not successful in all of his experiments and the uneven quality of this collection will disappoint some. However, this writer of stories is not afraid to take risks, not a bad quality, and he can be very funny indeed. Try “Here at Cubist College,” an entertaining spoof of the academic world, or the amusing title story in which Sparky, Lincoln’s doctor’s dog, becomes a successful politician and lecturer. In quite another vein, “I, Eliza Custis” tells the story of Washington’s granddaughter, and in other tales Grayson writes of the ‘60s and ‘70s and being young in New York. Grayson has many voices, plays many roles in this collection, but he seems to be a versatile, interesting experimenter with promise for the future. [May 5]

Publishers Weekly covers Richard Grayson's WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK's innovative review copies policy

In its September 17, 1979 issue, Publishers Weekly featured a news item covering the innovative review copies policy for Richard Grayson's book With Hitler in New York:

NOTICE SENT TO PW'S STRAIGHT-FACED EDITOR:

The Taplinger Publishing Company has announced that it will pursue an innovative policy in regard to review copies of "With Hitler in New York," the book of short stories by Richard Grayson ("Grayson pokes fun at American life . . ." PW, April 23). Review copies will bypass critics and be sent directly to the Strand Book Store in New York City.

"This efficient system," observed the author, who originated the plan, "will save postage and bothersome packaging for literary critics."

Reviewers may now contact Taplinger and request that copies of "With Hitler in New York" be sent directly to the Strand rather than to their homes or offices. The book will be credited to each reviewer's account by the bookstore.

Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayson's WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK

The April 23, 1979 issue of Publishers Weekly has a review of Richard Grayson's With Hitler in New York:

WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK AND OTHER STORIES
Richard Grayson. Taplinger, $7.95
ISBN 0-8008-8406-X

Grayson pokes fun at American life -- politicians, business, television and fads -- in these sharp, witty stories populated by such figures as Farrah Fawcett-Majors, "Chief Justice Burger, Teen Idol," and Sarah Lawrence of Arabia. Abe Lincoln, who isn't the least bit interested in slavery, sprawls on a couch in total apathy as Stephen Douglas makes love to Mary Todd upstairs. The degeneration of love in an alienated society is sketched in "Classified Personal," a collection of ads signed by Sappho, The Impotent Kid, Take Me I'm Yours, and other lonely hearts in search of potential mates. "In the Lehman Collection," a boy jogs 11 miles a day through the Main Gallery, a family takes a tour in their Winnebago, and a man is stabbed, unnoticed. The staccato style, laced with puns and wisecracks, is apt for these amusing if somewhat contrived satires. [June 15]