September 2, 2010
Recent Blog Posts
Articles, Reviews, Columns and Web Pieces









Review of Arthur Nersesian's Mesopotamia
The L Magazine

Review of Tom Bissel's Extra Lives
The L Magazine

Bridge Between Generations [review of Louis Sachar's THE CARDTURNER]
New York Times

Today in Young People's Fantasy: A YA Lit Round-Up
The L Magazine

"Jersey Girls" [review of Beth Ann Bauman's "Rosie & Skate"]
New York Times

"King of the Screw-Ups" and "The Vast Fields of Ordinary" [2-book review]
New York Times

Our Favorite Writers Pick Their Favorite Obscure Books (Ned Vizzini: "The Assistant," by Robert Walser)
Village Voice

"Young and in the Way" [review of Neal Shusterman's book Unwind]
New York Times

States Need to Follow Harvard: End Loans Completely
Huffington Post

Review of "Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps"
The L Magazine

"Adventura" [short story]
Word Riot

Occupational Oppression (dirt bagger job)
SMITH Magazine

Recommendation: It's Every Child's Duty to Lick a Dangerous Toy!
Huffington Post

"Mom" [short story from The L Magazine's 2nd Annual Summer Fiction Issue]
The L Magazine

Clink Slammer Hoosegow
SMITH Magazine

Hocus Potus [review]
New York Press

Where the Wild Things Are
The New York Sun

"Beauty" Short Story [I like how this one came out]
3:AM Magazine

The Page 69 Test: It's Kind of a Funny Story
The Page 69 Test

An Impelling Force: Impetus Books
Bookslut

The Problem with Fram
Huffington Post

Interview with Rasmus Holmen
Largehearted Boy

High Anxiety [review of American-Born Chinese and Stuck in The Middle]
New York Times

Man (My second published poem)
Dogmatika.com

My Small Movie Date Story
SMITH Magazine

Interview with Tao Lin
Bookslut

Review: Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster
Bookslut

Interview with Lexy Benaim (Harlem Shakes)
Largehearted Boy

"Nose" - a short story I got paid $30 for!!
Underground Voices

Working Class
Writer's Digest

Ned Vizzini | Writing
Teen Angst? Naaah... - Black
August 1, 2002
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"Ned Vizzini is a young genius! And if he was old, he would be an old genius. Teen Angst? Naaah... is zany, tender, and hysterically funny."
-- Jonathan Ames

"[O]ne of the few truly genuinely funny and unpretentious books I have read in many years."
-- Esme Raji Codell, author of Educating Esme and Sahara Special

"The chapter on taking your girlfriend to prom is effin' GREAT. Worth the price of the book alone."
-- Marty Beckerman, author of Death to All Cheerleaders and Generation S.L.U.T.

Published by Random House.

This sort of came out of nowhere. Teen Angst? Naaah... had been released in its trade format by Free Spirit two years before, and I had busted my ass getting the word out about it on radio interviews and at schools. Then Judy, the president of Free Spirit, told me that Random House wanted to buy the book and put out their own version. I said great. I went into the RH offices, which had a coffee machine on which you could select light/medium/strong for one of eight flavors (including amaretto) and get frothy white-chocolate hot chocolate.

My new editor, Marissa Walsh (who went on to publish the Not that I'm Jealous or Anything anthology and is now pursuing her own writing), did a great job making some changes to the text (mostly dates, which I wanted to get out of the book so it would age a little better) and we released it with a big party at Siberia Bar in Mahattan. You can see the party pictures if you want--I think many of them capture my friends at the peak of their attractive youth.

Later on at the party Tracey, the Siberia owner, brought me into the bathroom and tried to get me to write a book for him for $15,000. Fun times. He claimed to have some serious dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Be More Chill - US Hardcover
June 1, 2004
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"I wish I'd had a squip when I was a teenager. Actually, I wish I had one now. You know what? Forget the squip. Reading this hilarious book is what will make you cool."
-- Neal Pollack

"Ned Vizzini writes about teenagers without the Saved by the Bell, 'boy I sure love pizza' clichés. Be More Chill is a funny, perceptive, and surprisingly well-written read for all ages."
-- Robert Lanham, author, The Hipster Handbook

"I thought Be More Chill was very funny, well observed and well written. Very clever story, beautifully executed - definitely one to take notice of, and one of the cleverest plots I've come across in a long time."
-- Melvin Burgess, author, Smack

"Authentic without pretense and honest without stifling morality."
-- Zoe Trope

"Authentic, refreshingly honest and hilarious. You have perfectly captured the angst-filled, sex-obsessed thoughts of today's teens. Also, it is an incredibly original plot."
-- Anne Rouyer, the New York Public Library

"As a two-time survivor of high school (once as a student and once as a teacher), I know how hard it is to write about adolescence. But Ned Vizzini gets it right-- the lingo, the rigid caste system, the minutiae of teen courtship rituals. Be More Chill shows that high school can be a hero's journey, a treacherous march through minefields of bullies, drugs, and unfairly complicated bra straps. A smart, funny book that shies away from sentimentality and cliché, Be More Chill handles powerful themes with a light touch."
-- David Benioff, author, The 25th Hour

"Be More Chill is a sharp social commentary disguised as a high school sex (or no sex, in our hero's case) comedy. I was thoroughly entertained by Vizzini's clever take on the insanity (and inanity) of contemporary teendom."
-- Megan McCafferty, author, Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings
It's Kind of a Funny Story - Hardcover
April 1, 2006
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"The book is TERRIFIC – I just loved it and will recommend it all over the place to teen and adult readers. You have a unique ability to convey deep and complicated feeling through simple, funny and sweet prose." -- Rachel Cohn, author of Gingerbread, Shrimp, The Steps, and Two Steps Forward

"I wanted to tell you how much I liked It's Kind of a Funny Story. Your descriptions of depression are so accurate and heartbreaking. One of my favorite metaphors was on the first page when you describe trying to talk like words coming out in chunks from a crushed-ice dispenser. So true." -- Ariel Schrag, creator of the graphic novels Awkward, Definition, Potential, and Likewise

It's Kind of a Funny Story is my third book. It's the story of Craig Gilner, a kid in high school who gets freaked out, wants to kill himself, and checks into the psych hospital. The book details the week he spends there and how he gets his life... well, not together. But alive.

It's based, not too loosely, on my own experience on the good ol' adult psychiatric floor of Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, which I entered when I wanted to kill myself in November 2004. Yay! I've managed to stay out since then, although I've wanted to go back many a time.



Press for the book is posted as it appears right here.
© Ned Vizzini 2000-2010
Early Articles, Reviews, Columns and Web Pieces
Many of these links are broken due to link rot; I am restoring them as time allows. -- 3/18/09









Teen Angst? Nah! [the piece that inspired the book]
New York Times

Sick Passenger [possibly my best story ever]
New York Press

Peak Contraction [me at the gym]
New York Press

Why I Still Hate Rap
New York Press

Schizo Rock [r.i.p., Wesley]
New York Press

Bjorn Again [concert review]
New York Press

Review of Marilyn Manson "Holy Wood"
New York Press

What the Hell is Kaiju?
New York Press

Since When: Brent Camponi, Rising Legend, and His TV Show; Natan, Who Sings Like a Bastard; Church Ladies for Choice; A Jeff Buckley Book
New York Press

Since When: Straight-Edge Vegan Hardcore at Roseland; Cool Japanese Porn; George Tabb Presents Unsigned Bands at CBGB; Some Abused Girls Are Hot
New York Press

Since When: Moral Court and Knockers the Klown; DJ Wake ’N’ Bake Dave Plays Rock at Barmacy; Pete Best at Rebar
New York Press

Since When: Bowie, Moby, Merchant and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan Play for Tibet House; The Rev. Vince is a Bootleg Gospel Tom Waits; Meet Godfrey Cheshire!
New York Press

Since When: 777-BARS; Old-School Hiphop at S.O.B.’s; Weezer Plays for Nerds; Underground Film and Latvian Punk
New York Press

Park Slope’s Nasty, Egg-Throwing Kids
New York Press

Who Shut Down the NO ID Party?
New York Press

Since When: Rocket from the Crypt and the Gotohells; The Memoir Thing Continues; An Amateur Monster-Wrestling Troupe; Mardi Gras Notes
New York Press

Since When: Those Damn Beatles; Concrete TV; The Dropkick Murphys, Reach the Sky and Lars and the Bastards at Wetlands; C.J. Sullivan Live!
New York Press

Since When: Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Animation Festival; The Soft Boys and Other Puss Music; A Malian Demi-Goddess; Miles Davis; Upright Citizens Brigade
New York Press

Since When: New York International Independent Film and Video Festival; The People’s Poetry Gathering; Cutthroats 9 Play CBGB; Ned Does Soho
New York Press

Since When: 4-4-01
New York Press