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[…]

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[…]

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[…]