All Books - - Items tagged as "Creative nonfiction"
As a boutique press, Two Dollar Radio publishes bold works of literary merit, each book, individually and collectively, providing a sonic progression that we believe to be too loud to ignore.
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For a preview of each book, click on the "Sneak Peek" tab on each book's page, or check out our Issuu page here to view them all: Two Dollar Radio on Issuu
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Crapalachia New Classics Edition
a memoir by
Scott McClanahan
A Best Book of 2013
"[McClanahan] aims to
lasso the moon."
—New York Times Book Review
An endearing and haunting coming-of-age story that announces McClanahan as a resounding talent. Crapalachia New Classics Edition
a memoir by
Scott McClanahan
$ 8.99View full product details →$ 10.00*One of the Best Books of 2013 —The Millions, Flavorwire, Dazed & Confused, The L Magazine, Time Out Chicago
"McClanahan's prose is miasmic, dizzying, repetitive. A rushing river of words that reflects the chaos and humanity of the place from which he hails. [McClanahan] aims to lasso the moon... He is not a writer of half-measures. The man has purpose. This is his symphony, every note designed to resonate, to linger."
—Allison Glock, New York Times Book ReviewSynopsis
Crapalachia is a portrait of Scott McClanahan’s formative years, coming of age in rural West Virginia, during a stretch of time where he was deeply influenced by his Grandma Ruby and Uncle Nathan, who suffered from cerebral palsy.
Peopled by colorful characters and their quirky stories, Crapalachia interweaves oral folklore and area history, providing an ambitious and powerful snapshot of overlooked Americana.
Beyond the artistry, there is an optimism, a genuine love for people and the past and memories. Even more, there is a grasp to bridge the disconnect between reader and writer, for McClanahan’s stories to bind us closer to one another. -
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Personal Score
a collection of essays by
Ellen van Neerven
April 2024!
"Demonstrates a new way to write toward Indigenous freedom. Personal Score hums with the vitality and intelligence of a definitive text."
—Billy-Ray Belcourt
Fierce, original, and also abundantly tender, Personal Score is a ground-breaking book that demonstrates van Neerven’s unrivalled talent and courage.
Personal Score
a collection of essays by
Ellen van Neerven
$ 9.99View full product details →$ 10.99Fierce, original, and also abundantly tender, Personal Score is a ground-breaking book that demonstrates van Neerven’s unrivalled talent and courage.
Fierce, original, and also abundantly tender, Personal Score is a ground-breaking book that demonstrates van Neerven’s unrivalled talent and courage.
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I Sing to Use the Waiting
a collection of essays by
Zachary Pace
January 2024!
"These essays span much more than women singers... How beautiful for a book’s form to echo what’s at the heart of this collection: The intersection of pop culture, social issues, and personal experience make up Pace’s claiming of their voice."
—Rachel León, Split Lip Magazine
With remarkable grace, candor, and a poet’s ear for prose, Zachary Pace recounts the women singers — from Cat Power to Madonna, Kim Gordon to Rihanna — who shaped them as a young person coming-of-age in rural New York, first discovering their own queer voice.
I Sing to Use the Waiting
a collection of essays by
Zachary Pace
$ 9.99View full product details →$ 10.99With remarkable grace, candor, and a poet’s ear for prose, Zachary Pace recounts the women singers — from Cat Power to Madonna, Kim Gordon to Rihanna — who shaped them as a young person coming-of-age in rural New York, first discovering their own queer voice.
With remarkable grace, candor, and a poet’s ear for prose, Zachary Pace recounts the women singers — from Cat Power to Madonna, Kim Gordon to Rihanna — who shaped them as a young person coming-of-age in rural New York, first discovering their own queer voice.
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Dispatches From Puerto Nowhere
a memoir by
Robert Lopez
A Best Book of 2023
"Original and fearless... This is a sharply written, incisive, and extremely engaging meditation on assimilation that will strike a painful chord with many who have suffered from the same erasure of their culture in this country."
—Daniel A. Olivas, Latino Book Review
Through family recollection, the constant banter volleyed across nets within Brooklyn’s diverse tennis community, as well as an imagined fabulist history drawn from his grandfather’s remembered traits, Robert Lopez paints a compassionate portrait of family that attempts to bridge the past to the present, and re-claim a heritage threatened by assimilation and erasure.
Dispatches From Puerto Nowhere
a memoir by
Robert Lopez
$ 8.99View full product details →$ 9.99"A masterpiece clear and honest and alive to the world and its contradictions. Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere will hit you where you live."
—Justin Torres, author of We the AnimalsRobert Lopez’s grandfather Sixto was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, in 1904, immigrating to the United States in the 1920s, where he lived in a racially proportioned apartment complex in East New York, Brooklyn, until his death in 1987. The family’s efforts to assimilate within their new homeland led to the near complete erasure of their heritage, culture, and language within two generations.
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They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
a collection of essays by
Hanif Abdurraqib
Hardcover: Nov 2022!
A Best Book of 2017
"Funny, painful, precise, desperate, and loving throughout. Not a day has sounded the same since I read him."
—Greil Marcus, Village Voice
In this collection of essays, Hanif Abdurraqib, acclaimed poet and cultural critic, grapples with a storm cloud of confounding emotions with prose that is immediate, personal, poetic, sometimes funny and always deeply touching. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
a collection of essays by
Hanif Abdurraqib
$ 8.99View full product details →$ 9.99*Best Books of 2017 —NPR, Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, Esquire, Chicago Tribune, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, CBC, Stereogum, National Post, Entropy, Heavy, Book Riot, Chicago Review of Books, The Los Angeles Review, Michigan Daily
*American Booksellers Association (ABA) 'December 2017 Indie Next List Great Reads'
*Midwest Indie BestsellerIn an age of confusion, fear, and loss, Hanif Abdurraqib's is a voice that matters. Whether he's attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day after visiting Michael Brown's grave, or discussing public displays of affection at a Carly Rae Jepsen show, he writes with a poignancy and magnetism that resonates profoundly. In the wake of the nightclub attacks in Paris, he recalls how he sought refuge as a teenager in music, at shows, and wonders whether the next generation of young Muslims will not be afforded that opportunity now. While discussing the everyday threat to the lives of black Americans, Abdurraqib recounts the first time he was ordered to the ground by police officers: for attempting to enter his own car. In essays that have been published by the New York Times, MTV, and Pitchfork, among others—along with original, previously unreleased essays—Abdurraqib uses music and culture as a lens through which to view our world, so that we might better understand ourselves, and in so doing proves himself a bellwether for our times.
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Two Dollar Radio Guide to Vegan Cooking: The Pink Edition
a cookbook & stories by
Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog (w/ Eric Obenauf)
"This cookbook is imaginative and creative while also featuring accessible vegan recipes that are both healthy (mostly) and just super delicious all around. Two thumbs way up, and all of my other fingers as well, for this creative little cookbook."
—Audrey Farnsworth, Fodor's Travel (on The Yellow Edition)
Imagine 'Parts Unknown' with Anthony Bourdain. But focused on hyping vegan food. Crossed with 'Scooby Doo.' Two Dollar Radio Guide to Vegan Cooking: The Pink Edition is two things at once: a practical guide to vegan cheffing, and a playful epic of the stories behind the recipes. Join them in this guide as they craft delectable recipes, solve mysteries, and slay Vegan Hunger Demons.
Two Dollar Radio Guide to Vegan Cooking: The Pink Edition
a cookbook & stories by
Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog (w/ Eric Obenauf)
$ 8.99View full product details →$ 9.99We are all explorers, vegan food explorers — join us on this culinary journey as we slay Vegan Hunger Demons.
Two Dollar Radio Guide to Vegan Cooking: The Pink Edition is two things at once: a practical guide to vegan cheffing, and a playful epic of the stories behind the recipes.
Toy Story 2 proved to skeptics that sequels can best the original, and with this second volume of their legendary cookbook saga, executive vegan chefs Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog out-chef their celebrated younger selves (if that’s even possible).
Contained in this Guide to Vegan Cooking are comfort food recipes with an international flourish, such as Pastelón – Puerto Rican “lasagna” layered with plantains; Bunny Chow – a curry bread bowl favored by South African surfers; and Chilaquiles – a popular Mexican breakfast dish, finally something the rockeros and the metaleros can agree on.
Rest assured, Randy’s Sheboygan roots run deep, as there is a dedicated section on vegan “cheezes,” as well as debaucherous Midwestern staples like pimento cheeze, French toast sandwiches, and pizza.
Vegan Hunger Demons do not sleep. Thankfully Randy and Speed Dog are laced up and ready for battle. -
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808s & Otherworlds
a collection of essays and poetry by
Sean Avery Medlin
"Most Anticipated"
—Lambda Literary, Paperback Paris"Don’t sleep on the unpredictable 808s & Otherworlds… an elegant mash of memoir, poetry, tales of appropriation, thoughts on Black masculinity, Hulk, Kanye.
—Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
From the gut-wrenchingly real stories of young lovers unmythed by segregation or former classmates appropriating Black culture, to the fantastic settings of Hip-Hop songs and comic characters, Medlin weaves a tapestry of worlds and otherworlds while composing a love letter to family and self, told to an undeniably energetic beat. 808s & Otherworlds
a collection of essays and poetry by
Sean Avery Medlin
$ 9.99View full product details →$ 10.99* "September’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature" —Lambda Literary
* "Most-Anticipated New LGBTQIA+ Books of 2021" —Paperback Paris“Like the light of an event horizon, this work races toward and struggles against the gravity of Blackness. Lovechild of Sun Ra and Sailor Moon, Sean Avery Medlin sings into the narrow space between hope and rage, bridging political and pop culture galaxies. If our suburbs have become burnt-out satellites circling a world long lost to racism, this book is our S.O.S., transmitting radio waves for searchers and survivors. What an expansive and timely poetic voice!”
—Amaud Jamaul Johnson, author of Imperial Liquor, Red Summer, and Darktown Follies808s & Otherworlds: Memories, Remixes, & Mythologies announces a bold and incendiary new voice in Sean Avery Medlin. Against the backdrop of the Phoenix suburbs where they were raised, Medlin interrogates the effects of media misrepresentation on the performance of Black masculinity. Through storytelling rhymes and vulnerable narratives in conversation with both contemporary Hip-Hop culture and systemic anti-Blackness, 808s & Otherworlds pieces together a speculative reality where Blackfolk are simultaneously superhuman and dehumanized.
From the gut-wrenchingly real stories of young lovers unmythed by segregation or former classmates appropriating Black culture, to the fantastic settings of Hip-Hop songs and comic characters, Medlin weaves a tapestry of worlds and otherworlds while composing a love letter to family and self, told to an undeniably energetic beat.
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Night Rooms
a collection of essays by
Gina Nutt
A Best Book of 2021
"[Nutt] spins a striking tale of survival and loss in this haunting essay collection. Nutt uses familiar tropes from horror films as a window into her thinking... Lovers of the personal essay will be thrilled by this innovative collection."
2022 IPPY Medalist for Essay
—Publishers Weekly
Night Rooms is a poetic, intimate collection of personal essays that weaves together fragmented images from horror films and cultural tropes to meditate on anxiety and depression, suicide, body image, identity, grief, and survival.
Night Rooms
a collection of essays by
Gina Nutt
$ 8.99View full product details →$ 9.99Night Rooms is a poetic, intimate collection of personal essays that weaves together fragmented images from horror films and cultural tropes to meditate on anxiety and depression, suicide, body image, identity, grief, and survival.
Whether competing in shopping mall beauty pageants, reflecting on childhood monsters and ballet lessons, or recounting dark cultural ephemera while facing grief and authenticity in the digital age, Gina Nutt’s shifting style echoes the sub-genres that Night Rooms highlights—spirit-haunted slow burns, possession tales, slashers, and revenge films with a feminist bent.
Refracting life through the lens of horror films, Night Rooms masterfully leaps between reality and movies, past and present—because the “final girl’s” story is ultimately a survival story told another way. -
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Two Dollar Radio Guide to Naming Your Baby
a humor collection by
Travis Hoewischer
Unless your child is an '80s villain, we can all agree that Brad, Todd, and Brandi with an "i" are all atrocious ideas. This Two Dollar Radio Guide to Naming Your Baby will help you name your child by calling attention to those names you should probably definitely avoid.
With the Two Dollar Radio Guide to Naming Your Baby, you’ll find plenty of useful information to help you avoid blame when your full-grown Karen asks you why everyone asks her if she wants to ask to see a manager. Your Karen is into horses, we know, but that’s why you should have gone with Millie.
Two Dollar Radio Guide to Naming Your Baby
a humor collection by
Travis Hoewischer
$ 8.99View full product details →$ 9.99Unless your child is an '80s villain, we can all agree that Brad, Todd, and Brandi with an 'i' are all atrocious ideas. This Two Dollar Radio Guide will help you name your child by calling attention to those names you should probably definitely avoid.
Inside, you’ll find musings on all the worst monikers—even yours—which means you now have a new gift idea for your family members. Who needs 23andMe when, rather than finding out if you’re 2.7 percent Welsh, you can get to the bottom of why your cousin Dale Henry is an 8-year-old girl with an overbite, and not a grizzled country and western singer.<br> For Example: <li>Fiona: Ahh, yes, you like Disney. Who doesn’t? But there are no actual princesses, and many Fionas grow up to become penpals with murderers and marry them in prison. You’re playing with fire. <li>Dylan: Can you still love your child if they grow up to send dick pics through LinkedIn? <li>Hailey: It’s hard to hear anyone say, “I’m not racist, but…” Especially when it’s a 14-year-old. Who wronged her? It was you.<br> In this ever-changing world, it’s hard to know how life is going to turn out for your new- or soon-to-be-born. You can’t keep them from getting their heart broken. And you won’t be able to shield every force of evil from them over the course of their whole life. You will, however, be able to avoid naming them Harley. You will need our help.
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Two Dollar Radio Guide to Vegan Cooking: The Yellow Edition
a cookbook & stories by
Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog (w/ Eric Obenauf)
"A perfectly hilarious way to learn some badass recipes."
—Gary Lovely, BuzzFeed News
Imagine Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain. But focused on hyping vegan food. Crossed with Scooby Doo. A vegan diet is trending and Two Dollar Radio Headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, has become a vegan comfort food mecca thanks to celebrity chefs Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog (with constructive criticism from Eric Obenauf). Join them in this Guide to Vegan Cooking as they craft delectable recipes, solve mysteries, and slay Vegan Hunger Demons.
Two Dollar Radio Guide to Vegan Cooking: The Yellow Edition
a cookbook & stories by
Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog (w/ Eric Obenauf)
$ 8.99View full product details →$ 9.99We are all explorers, vegan food explorers — join us on this culinary journey as we slay Vegan Hunger Demons.
If you've searched online for a recipe, you've likely encountered a digressive treatise on family history or mundane childhood reflection, none of which actually has anything to do with how to make enchilada sauce. After extensive scrolling, you've really only uncovered that self-taught chef/blogger Linda needs to talk to a professional counselor about her relationship with her mother.
In this Two Dollar Radio Guide to Vegan Cooking: The Yellow Edition, executive vegan chefs Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog (with constructive criticism from Eric Obenauf) unearth a fount of vegan cheffing knowledge. In addition to exquisite recipes and vegan life hacks, they, too, view food as a story: nary a meal is prepared without recalling when Speed Dog summited Old Goat Mountain in Banff, armed with a sack of supplies, a handkerchief, and a wily pack burro.
This guide is for you if: You're looking for satisfying vegan food; interested in a vegan diet but are unwilling to give up cheese; accessible vegan recipes that don't require hard-to-find ingredients you have to google and can't pronounce; the adventurous tales behind the meals.
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A History of My Brief Body
a collection of essays by
Billy-Ray Belcourt
A Best Book of 2020
Lambda Literary Award Finalist"[Belcourt] ably balances poetic, philosophical, and political insights throughout this unique book... An urgently needed, unyielding book of theoretical and intimate strength."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred
For readers of Ocean Vuong and Maggie Nelson and fans of Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot, A History of My Brief Body is a brave, raw, and fiercely intelligent collection of essays and vignettes on grief, colonial violence, joy, love, and queerness.
A History of My Brief Body
a collection of essays by
Billy-Ray Belcourt
$ 9.99View full product details →$ 15.99* A Best Book of 2020 —Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, CBC, Globe and Mail, Largehearted Boy.
"In sharp pieces infused with a yearning for decolonized love and freedom, Belcourt, of the Driftpile Cree Nation, ably balances poetic, philosophical, and political insights throughout this unique book... An urgently needed, unyielding book of theoretical and intimate strength."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewThe youngest ever winner of the Griffin Prize mines his personal history in a brilliant new essay collection seeking to reconcile the world he was born into with the world that could be.
For readers of Ocean Vuong and Maggie Nelson and fans of Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot, A History of My Brief Body is a brave, raw, and fiercely intelligent collection of essays and vignettes on grief, colonial violence, joy, love, and queerness.
Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut memoir opens with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard, Alberta, and on the Driftpile First Nation. Piece by piece, Billy-Ray’s writings invite us to unpack and explore the big and broken world he inhabits every day, in all its complexity and contradiction: a legacy of colonial violence and the joy that flourishes in spite of it; first loves and first loves lost; sexual exploration and intimacy; the act of writing as a survival instinct and a way to grieve. What emerges is not only a profound meditation on memory, gender, anger, shame, and ecstasy, but also the outline of a way forward. With startling honesty, and in a voice distinctly and assuredly his own, Belcourt situates his life experiences within a constellation of seminal queer texts, among which this book is sure to earn its place.
Eye-opening, intensely emotional, and excessively quotable, A History of My Brief Body demonstrates over and over again the power of words to both devastate and console us.