Kirby Gann

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"There are abundant felicities of style that make this an enjoyable—as well as provocative—novel to read. If the proof's in the pudding, the pudding is language. And Gann knows his way around a sentence.... Gann has transmuted life into art."
—Frederick Smock, The Courier-Journal

Southern Scribe Reviews The Barbarian Parade

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"Alongside Gary Lutz and Sam Lipsyte, Kirby Gann is one of the more exciting writers to come along in recent years...."

—Scott Bryan Wilson, in Rain Taxi Review of Books

FORTHCOMING FROM IG PUBLISHING IN APRIL 2012

"In Ghosting, Kirby Gann has created an utterly compelling ode to the fearsome and contradictory desires of his unforgettable characters. Writing in brilliantly sustained licks of prose, Gann gives us flesh-and-blood human beings who cannot escape what they cannot help wanting. Their fate is true, the ride beautiful and dark."

—John Burnham Schwartz, author of Reservation Road and Northwest Corner

“Combining grit and poetry, deep feeling and an unsentimental gaze, Kirby Gann has written a novel as intimate as the stifling locale where it's set and as expansive as the minds and voices of the people ensnared there. Ghosting is dark, funny, unexpected, and populated with characters we immediately recognize even as they avoid cliché.”

—Christopher Sorrentino, author of Trance and Sound on Sound

“I finished your novel last night and, damn, my friend, you nailed it. . . . Mister Greuel! What a creation. I had a hard time with this because the book is much, much more than can be described in one or two sentences. But here's what I've got: ‘With a plot as full of twists and turns as an ancient Greek tragedy, Kirby Gann's Ghosting is one of the most beautifully worded and superbly crafted novels about the fateful consequences of being caught up in the criminal life that I have ever read.’ And I’m speaking truth.”

—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff

"What a richly imagined world Kirby Gann has wrought in Ghosting. A frightful world of drug running and addiction, but beneath that a story of family and the desire for safety and peace. This novel is full of grit and the yearnings of the human heart. Its carefully drawn characters latched onto me and wouldn't let me go."

—Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever

Described in the blogosphere as one of the nation's most underrated writers, Kirby Gann is the author of the novels The Barbarian Parade (2004) and Our Napoleon in Rags (2005). He is also co-editor (with poet Kristin Herbert) of the anthology A Fine Excess: Contemporary Literature at Play, which was a finalist for the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award (Anthologies). His work has appeared most recently in The Lumberyard and The Oxford American, among other journals. He is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship and two Professional Assistance Awards from the Kentucky Arts Council, and an Honorable Mention in The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Gann is Managing Editor at Sarabande Books, and teaches in the brief-residency MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University.

Kirkby Gann Tittle (his given name) is a musician and songwriter. Tracks from earlier incarnations (Hipmonk, Jakeleg) are available around this site somewhere.

Both Kirby Gann and Kirkby Tittle live in Louisville, Kentucky, with wife Stephanie, and three wild dogs.

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NEWS ARCHIVE
Gann contributed a short essay on how to clarify your own ideas for narrative in the new anthology Now Write! Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis, published by Tarcher.

Our Napoleon in Rags is a nominee for the Kentucky Award in Literature.

Frontiers Magazine, in Los Angeles, named Our Napoleon in Rags one of the Top 5 Novels published in 2005.

Also, at the literary blog Syntax of Things, they've posted an excellent list of what they're calling "underrated writers" — Kirby Gann is on the list, along with many other writers worthy of attention. Check out the site here: Syntax of Things.

Kirby Gann in conversation with novelist John Burnham Schwartz (Reservation Road,The Commoner on the writing process at The Writer's Block Fesitval October 15, 2011

Listen in as two accomplished fiction writers discuss their writing process, including overcoming writer’s block, of course. Q&A to follow.

Click Here for KET's "Kentucky Muse" Profile

INDUSTRY

Fiction

Ghosting
New novel forthcoming in April 2012.

Our Napoleon in Rags
"It wouldn’t be surprising if Our Napoleon in Rags winds up attracting a cult following. Gann’s writing is dense and interesting; he seems to be conducting a one-man campaign to stamp out the cliché, that withered figure of speech which is such a mercenary part of the thin landscape of contemporary fiction...."

—Sonya Jones

The Barbarian Parade
“Gann has a great story to tell, one that is by turns sensuous, carnal, tender, and often brutal. With its original theme and beautiful, yet effortlessly composed language, Parade makes a striking debut for a novelist of daring creativity and passion.”

—Edmund White

Anthology

A Fine Excess: Contemporary Literature at Play
An award-winning anthology of poetry and prose, coedited with Kristin Herbert.