Tag Archives: addiction

The Old Neighborhood

Posted on September 1, 2024 by John Biscello

Recorded version of my piece, “Fruit,” which was a 2023 Non-Fiction Prize Finalist in Brooklyn Film & Arts essay competition. The story revolves around shame, powerlessness, addiction, and survival techniques during days of Brooklyn youth.

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Fruit

Posted on August 26, 2024 by John Biscello

I was happy to find out that my story, “Fruit,” was selected as a “Brooklyn 2023 Non-Fiction Prize Finalist” for Brooklyn Film & Art Festival’s competition. A filmed recording of the piece is being scheduled. “Fruit” can be read here.

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A Dream Grows in Brooklyn

Posted on November 29, 2023 by John Biscello

New edition of No Man’s Brooklyn available. “Biscello succeeds in bringing to life both Daniel as well as the intriguing milieu that created him: stoops, city parks, 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor.”–KIRKUS REVIEWS NO MAN’S BROOKLYNFrom the valentine boneyards of … Continue reading →

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Distance

Posted on December 12, 2018 by John Biscello

 People have called it the glow, the click, the hum, and for every abnormal drinker, for every addict, you are willing trade in everything for what amounts to a rigged facsimile of eternity. It is the sort of false eternity … Continue reading →

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Vein

Posted on June 5, 2018 by John Biscello

The infections that get inside you and start singing are the hardest ones to cure because you and your addict crave more and more strong music to mainline into your tenderest vein en route to cave-in.

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Denis Johnson’s Sea Maiden

Posted on April 5, 2018 by John Biscello

Review of Denis Johnson’s The Largesse of the Sea Maiden appearing in Riot Material. “Picture the sibilant music of blood-red sand shifting from one bulbous half of the hourglass to the other. Or black-and-white film footage, bearing a scarred geography … Continue reading →

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Riot’s Rake

Posted on March 17, 2018 by John Biscello

Grateful for Ashleigh Grycner’s review of Raking the Dust, which appears in the latest installment of Riot Material, and coincides with RTD’s April 3rd relaunch. Raking the Dust, John Biscello’s masterful second novel, is first and foremost a novel about second … Continue reading →

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Relapse

Posted on January 21, 2018 by John Biscello

   We head to a different bar, with an island theme. A bartender with a yellow lay collaring his neck says aloha and asks us what we’re drinking. My father says Johnnie Walker Black double. When my father asks me … Continue reading →

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Flint

Posted on July 7, 2017 by John Biscello

   I also saw Anya on that trip, though our meeting was unplanned. I was on the subway platform waiting for the train when I spotted a thin girl in torn jeans and a bright green tank-top walking in my … Continue reading →

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Fruit

Posted on March 12, 2017 by John Biscello

   L & S was a candy store and newsstand located on the corner of 60th St. and 18th Ave.  L & S, which stood for Louie & Son, was owned by Louie Varinella: a burly, slightly balding man with … Continue reading →

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