Look Down
In Doing God’s Work
God’s personal assistant devises an outlandish way to kill the number one deity by playing to his never ending need for human attention.
Punk Rock Roll Model
Is a rip-roaring mockery of the rock-n-roll lifestyle that revolves around a young man with an extreme attitude in the employ of a failing punk legend.
Prenatal is a new take on “right to life”
Wherein a pregnant 10th grader finds herself struggling with her fetus’ insistence that she abort him before both their lives are ruined.
Real Estate and Undead
Are two stories with different takes on the rise of the Web. In Real Estate, a man uses the ‘Net to explore his obsession with young girls
First Review on Look Down
“With dark humor and deep compassion, Niedzviecki, cultural critic and author of The Peep Diaries (2009), delivers a haunting collection peopled by characters on the verge of despair. An aging Jewish businessman, tormented by memories of his youth in a post-WWII displacement camp, becomes more popular than he can handle after creating a successful line of flavored cream cheese. A pregnant tenth grader is morally torn when her unborn fetus tries convincing her to abort it before both their lives are ruined. A dying man commissioned by the government to create new colors is challenged by a young revolutionary. God’s personal assistant, tired of his boss’s tyranny and hypocritical lifestyle, concocts a plan to rid the world of God once and for all. And a lonely husband develops an obsession with watching funerals online after his wife proves incapable of processing her friend’s recent death. Like David Means’ stories, these convention-defying examples written in tight, punchy prose examine the fine lines between love and obsession, failure and success. A moving and amusingly varied collection.”
Great review of Look Down in Winnipeg Free Press
Latest news
3 Great Tips for Making Wedding Preparations
Wedding preparations are not only expensive, they are also time-consuming. Even when the bride has a wedding planner to take care of all of the little details, there is still quite a bit that the bride and groom must participate in. From making a list of all of the guests that they want to invite Read more about 3 Great Tips for Making Wedding Preparations[…]
Great review of Look Down in Winnipeg Free Press
IN this new collection of short stories, Toronto journalist and fiction writer Hal Niedzviecki offers a dizzying mix of tales that demonstrate how we are turning less humane in an increasingly nihilistic and media-soaked world. Niedzviecki’s 2009 non-fiction book, The Peep Diaries, cast an unflinching eye on how watching each other through the engine of Read more about Great review of Look Down in Winnipeg Free Press[…]
Docs Night Out: Peep Culture Screens at Camera
Peep Culture is a one-hour documentary film that is an insightful romp into a world where the internet and reality TV can make you a star. Youtube and Chatroulette are high-speed versions of lost village life, reconnecting the human tribe in the context of a culture that is celebrity and camera obsessed, when we are Read more about Docs Night Out: Peep Culture Screens at Camera[…]
Review of Look Down in Quill and Quire
Look Down is novelist, cultural commentator, and Broken Pencil magazine founder Hal Niedzviecki’s first collection of short stories since 1998. The stories here are raw, energetic, and, like the author’s 2001 novel Ditch, tend to focus on individual moments of intensity, often leaving the connective tissue between scenes implied. Niedzviecki covers considerable ground in Look Read more about Review of Look Down in Quill and Quire[…]
Review of Look Down in Now Magazine
Susan G. Cole calls the book a “mixed bag” but does have lots of good things to say about the book. “But when Niedzviecki applies his astute observational powers to themes he understands through and through, he’s superb. In the very sharp Undead, about a man obsessed with videotaped funerals, he taps the web consciousness Read more about Review of Look Down in Now Magazine[…]
First Review of Look Down
The first review of my new book of short stories has come out. It was published in Booklist. It is short and sweet so I’m including it here in its entirety. From Booklist, Spring 2011. “With dark humor and deep compassion, Niedzviecki, cultural critic and author of The Peep Diaries (2009), delivers a haunting collection Read more about First Review of Look Down[…]
Excerpts from Look Down, This is Where It Must Have Happened
Mickers finds himself at the opening long after it opens. He hopes for free wine, a few platters of greasy cheese at least. Instead, there are buckets of pink popcorn. A woman behind a table exchanges bottles of beer for three dollar donations. He sticks his hand in a bucket, steadies himself. There’s something gaudy on Read more about Excerpts from Look Down, This is Where It Must Have Happened[…]
Broken Pencil Indie Writers Deathmatch: Final Round
So here’s the deal. It’s Colin Brush’s Free Therapy, a teenage saga about a nerdy kid who plays therapist to one of the school hotties vs. David Griffin Brown’s Brink, the tale of a couple struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. Right now, Griffin Brown’s way out ahead. Maybe because he vowed to give his winnings Read more about Broken Pencil Indie Writers Deathmatch: Final Round[…]
Look Down, This is Where it Must Have Happened
The author of the acclaimed books of social observation The Peep Diaries and Hello, I’m Special is back, this time with a mind-altering collection of short stories. In Look Down, Niedzviecki’s trademark penetrating cultural observations become breathtaking stories that confront head-on the hypocrisies, humiliations and hilarities of modern life. *In Doing God’s Work, God’s personal Read more about Look Down, This is Where it Must Have Happened[…]