» Updated 25 August 2008

FLiCKeR DVD Review New

Graham Rae reviews a pre-release DVD of the new film FLiCKeR, director Nik Sheehan’s documentary on Brion Gysin and the dream machine.

Read FLiCKeR DVD Review.

The Bibliographic Bunker

Jed takes the pulse of the bookstores in New England and discovers a new gem, the Hermitage Beacon Bookstore in Beacon, New York.

Read New England Bookstores and the Hermitage Beacon.

Interview with the Directors of Destroy All Rational Thought

Paul Hawkins, who recently published an interview with Charles Plymell here at RealityStudio, returns to interview the directors of the DVD Destroy All Rational Thought.

Read the Interview with the Directors of Destroy All Rational Thought.

Burroughs Book Covers

Fans of Dave Moore’s excellent web page featuring Burroughs book covers should note that the address has changed. You can now find Burroughs Book Covers here.

The Road to Interzone

On the forum recently there was a thread about The Road to Interzone, Michael Stevens’ bibliographic project that seeks to document the books owned and read by William S. Burroughs. A larval version of the text (missing appendices and a major section on Burroughs’ library from Lawrence) is available online. Meanwhile Michael would like interested readers to know that there is a new and “cleaner” version he could make available to anyone who might be interested in publishing it. (And hopefully there is somebody who would like to publish this unique and extremely valuable research.) To inquire about this updated version, you can contact Michael at novalark23 AT yahoo.com

Charles Plymell: The Benzedrine Highway Interview (Revised)

Following on Jed’s overview of Charles Plymell and NOW magazine, contributor Paul Hawkins offers “Charles Plymell: The Benzedrine Highway Interview.” Revised especially for RealityStudio, the interview now contains additional material about Plymell and William S. Burroughs.

Read Charles Plymell: The Benzedrine Highway Interview (Revised).

William S. Burroughs and Joy Division

Literary references are frequent in the work of seminal post-punk band Joy Division, and singer Ian Curtis greatly admired William Burroughs in particular. Both the band and the author appeared at a 1979 performance, after which Curtis introduced himself to the famous author. Was the meeting, as legend has it, a disappointment? RealityStudio pieces together the story with recollections from those who were there…

Read William S. Burroughs and Joy Division

Mimeo Mimeo

The first issue of the new zine Mimeo Mimeo is available. It is a “forum for critical and cultural perspectives on the Mimeograph Revolution, Artists’ Books and the Literary Fine Press. Edited by RealityStudio’s Jed Birmingham (who contributes an article on My Own Mag) and Kyle Schlesinger, Mimeo Mimeo features essays, interviews, images, correspondence, artifacts, manifestos, poems, and reflections on the graphic and material conditions of contemporary poetry and language arts.

Mimeo Mimeo can be ordered via PayPal for $10 (plus $2.50 p/h for U.S. shipping). You can also send a check to

Kyle Schlesinger
214 North Henry Street #3
Brooklyn NY 11222

Please support Mimeo Mimeo by ordering a copy today.

Cut-Outs and Cut-Ups: Hans Christian Andersen and William Seward Burroughs

The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin is about to open an exhibit featuring the cut-outs and cut-ups of Hans Christian Andersen and William Seward Burroughs. The exhibit runs from 9 April to 29 June 2008. You can read the press release here or visit the IMMA’s web site for more information. And if anyone happens to see the exhibit, please feel free to send in a review or to post your comments on the Burroughs Forum.

David Britton and Michael Butterworth on William S. Burroughs

To mark the publication of Horror Panegyric, an essay by Supervert (creator of RealityStudio) on their Lord Horror novels, David Britton and Michael Butterworth — writers both and founders of Savoy Books — expand on their thoughts about William S. Burroughs.

Read David Britton and Michael Butterworth on William S. Burroughs.

New Cut-Up Sites

There are two new sites that derive more than a little inspiration from Burroughs’ cut-ups. The first is Pop Art Machine. A new project by Luke Kelly, who used to run the Burroughs site BigTable.com, Pop Art Machine “is an automated web crawler and torrent downloader… It runs on a cluster of Linux machines and converts low resolution images into high resolution printable rasters and vectors. Some results are better than others but the resulting output is usually quite good even with a cheap photo finishing.” Naturally there is a gallery of Burroughs covers you can download.

The second site (pointed out by artist John Coulthart) is aa-nn-dd.com. There you will find a Flash program that does an excellent job visualizing cut-ups. You can view cut-ups the program itself generates or you can submit text for it to cut up.

Inkblot Magazine

Aftermath Books has released issue 11 of Inkblot Magazine, edited by longtime indy publisher Theo Green. The color cover features a 1987 painting by William S. Burroughs, and the interior wraps excerpt an unpublished collaboration by Burroughs and Brion Gysin titled “The Cut-Ups.” In addition to poetry and prose, Inkblot features Eric Shoaf’s “Not in Maynard & Miles: The Early Published Burroughs. Part One: The B Items,” an addendum to his invaluable checklist, and Udo Breger’s “Memory Guns,” an account of a day’s shooting with Burroughs and David Cronenberg.

This edition of Inkblot is limited to 99 copies. It can be ordered by sending $15 cash, check, or money order (payable to Theo Green) to

Aftermath Books
42 Forest Street
Providence RI 02906

Everything Lost, The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs: The Inside Story New

Everything Lost, The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs is due to be released on 17 December 2007. In honor of the occasion, Volume Editor Oliver Harris offers the inside story — how the notebook was discovered, deciphered, transcribed, and prepared for publication. (And be sure to order your copy of Everything Lost at Amazon.)

Read Everything Lost, The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs: The Inside Story.

Interview with Malcolm Mc Neill

In 1970 William S. Burroughs initiated a collaboration with a young artist whose work had impressed him. For the next seven years Malcolm Mc Neill worked closely with Burroughs illustrating a project titled Ah Puch (later published in part as Ah Pook Is Here). In an interview with RealityStudio, Mc Neill shares some of the insights more fully explored in a memoir he has recently written about his collaboration and friendship with Burroughs.

Read Interview with Malcolm Mc Neill.

William Burroughs Commemoration

August 2nd 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of William S. Burroughs. In honor of the occasion, Lawrence.com offers an excellent commemorative edition of interviews, memoirs, and articles commemorating Lawrence’s most famous man of letters. (Where else can you read an anecdote like this one by Mr. Grauerholz? “In 1974, I went to some of these classroom meetings at CCNY, a creative writing class. And one of the students asked him: ‘Mr. Burroughs, how does it feel to be a genius?’ And he said: ‘You get used to it.’”)In commemoration of Burroughs, you might also want to read about the 1997 memorial service, Timothy Miller’s eulogy, and Jim McCrary’s Remembering William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg at George Laughead’s comprehensive Beats in Kansas.You might also want to pick up David Ohle’s Mutate or Die: With Burroughs in Kansas. It is being published in a signed, limited edition by The Beat Scene Press. (Scroll down the page to view or order.)

Henry Miller and William Burroughs

Astonishingly, the relationship between Henry Miller and William Burroughs has gone largely unmapped in literary scholarship. Seeking to rectify this omission, RealityStudio surveys the relationship of the two writers in an overview and Ian MacFadyen adds further insights in a response.

Read Henry Miller and William Burroughs: An Overview and Henry Miller and William Burroughs: A Letter.

Cutting up the Archive: William Burroughs and the Composite Text

RealityStudio is proud to present the text of a talk recently given by Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, author of William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination, editor of Burroughs’ letters, Junky: The Definitive Text of “Junk”, and most recently Yage Redux.Read Cutting up the Archive: William Burroughs and the Composite Text.

Grauerholz Hate Crime

There is an in-depth article at Lawrence.com describing how James Grauerholz, heir and executor of the Burroughs Estate, was subject to a vicious gay-bashing in late 2005. Not only did he sustain serious injuries, he was then subject to a legal system whose apparent bias and homophobia caused it to turn a blind eye on the hate crime. As a result, Grauerholz has recently filed an official complaint with the Lawrence Police Department.Since the 1970s Mr. Grauerholz has worked tirelessly on behalf of William Burroughs, his work, and his estate. Fans of Burroughs will certainly want to join RealityStudio in expressing support to Mr. Grauerholz in his efforts to recover from and redress this extremely unfortunate incident.If you would like to leave a message of support, please add it to the forum here at RealityStudio. Thank you.

The My Own Mag Community

Expanding on the My Own Mag archive, Jed introduces a new set of texts that focus on the literary community surrounding Jeff Nuttall’s important periodical.

Read The My Own Mag Community.

A William S. Burroughs Bibliography

Eric C. Shoaf, author of Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print: A Checklist, has very kindly contributed his bibliography of books and broadside prints to RealityStudio.Alongside the Maynard & Miles bibliography published in 1978, the Shoaf checklist has long been the most definitive listing of Burroughs publications available. In addition to books and broadsides, the printed checklist also itemizes Burroughs contributions to other books and periodicals, criticism, and miscellanea. This online edition, prefaced and updated by Mr. Shoaf, will no doubt be a tremendous asset to the community of Burroughs scholars and enthusiasts.

Read A William S. Burroughs Bibliography.

The Naked Lunch Report

Gary Indiana, whose book Horse Crazy Burroughs compared to Genet, wrote this behind-the-scenes report on the making of Naked Lunch the film in 1991. Including interviews with Burroughs and David Cronenberg, the report has never been reprinted until now.

Read The Naked Lunch Report.

William S. Burroughs and Kurt Cobain: A Dossier

In honor of what would have been Kurt Cobain’s 40th birthday on 20 February 2007, RealityStudio offers this dossier documenting the relationship between Cobain and William S. Burroughs.

Read William S. Burroughs and Kurt Cobain: A Dossier.

Interview with Gary Lee-Nova

Gary Lee-Nova has been reading William Burroughs since the late 1950s. In this extensive and thought-proking interview, Lee-Nova offers the unique perceptions and insights that he has derived from fifty years of contemplating Burroughs as writer, artist, and myth.

Read Interview with Gary Lee-Nova: Reading Burroughs Since the Beginning.

A Conversation with William S. Burroughs

Simone Lazzeri Ellis contributes this 1990 interview with Burroughs on aesthetics and painting. Though this interview has been collected in the anthologies Conversations with William S. Burroughs and Burroughs Live, Ms. Ellis has added a new introduction setting the stage for the interview.

Read A Conversation with William S. Burroughs.

Burroughs Nike Video

Jorge Cuevas Cid sent an email to RealityStudio yesterday pointing out that Burroughs’ Nike video has finally been posted to YouTube. RealityStudio will be editing it and hosting it here sometime after the launch of the new site design (which ought to happen around Jan 1).

Jan Herman’s Burroughs / Balch Video Exclusive!

Jan Herman has worked all summer with RealityStudio to recover a video experiment he created in 1971 with William S. Burroughs and Antony Balch. Never before seen by anyone but the participants, the video is presented here to the public for the first time.Burroughs / Balch Video Experiment

Transitional Period vs Gongs of Violence

RealityStudio provides a side-by-side comparison of a 1961 Burroughs cut-up and a later version of the (same?) text from The Soft Machine.Transitional Period vs Gongs of Violence