Here’s another excerpt from The Doug Skinner Dossier. Since it’s puzzled a couple of readers, I’ll point out that both the letters and words are complete alphabets, just not in alphabetical order. ALPHABET F is a vapor Z is an elk U is a paper S is a whelk I is a chukka W is […]

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Here’s another excerpt from The Doug Skinner Dossier (see last post). It’s the first bit of “Trevor’s New Job.” TREVOR’S NEW JOB “I didn’t think I’d need a job in the afterlife,” said Trevor. Mr. Wallingford smirked at him from across his desk. “Didn’t you need a job in life?” he asked. “Well, yes,” said […]

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The Doug Skinner Dossier is now available from Black Scat Books! This blessed compendium features articles, short stories, verses, columns, literary essays, alphabets, metrical translations, monologues, talks, cartoons, rounds, lipogrammatic smut, a puppet show, a ventriloquism routine, and a one-act play. 248 pages of pure, unadulterated Skinner. Holy cow!

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Here’s the beginning of a short story, “Baby Bay.” The whole thing will appear in The Doug Skinner Dossier, to be published next month by Black Scat Books. You can read this while you wait… BABY BAY High up in the treetops, old Mr. Stork shuffled into the Baby Bay, and peered over his specs […]

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Just in time for June Gloom, Black Scat Books proudly presents the first in a series of Black Scat Broadsides: Alphonse Allais’s “A Curious Physiological Industry,” translated by Doug Skinner. In the spirit of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” this rare text is the master absurdist at his devilish best — a full-color, poster-sized (12 x […]

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In 2012, Norman Conquest kicked off the Absurdist Texts and Documents series at Black Scat Books with his illustrated adaptation of Alphonse Allais’s story Un drame bien parisien. The original limited edition is now out of print. He has just republished a new expanded edition, with an introduction and notes by Doug Skinner. You can […]

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The Zombie of Great Peru, or the Countess of Cocagne, by Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, rises from the grave in its first English edition, translated by Doug Skinner! It’s available now from Black Scat Books. This bizarre novel, written in 1697, marks the first mention of the word “zombie” in world literature. It is a wicked tale […]

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The Squadron’s Umbrella is now out from Black Scat Books! In the words of the publisher: Authored by Alphonse Allais Translated by Doug Skinner Alphonse Allais (1854-1905) was France’s greatest humorist. His elegance, scientific curiosity, preoccupation with language and logic, wordplay and flashes of cruelty inspired Alfred Jarry, as well as succeeding generations of Surrealists, […]

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The latest issue of Cabinet, #55, is devoted to love. It contains a postcard with an excerpt from my book Horoscrapes. You can buy a copy, and send a Horoscrape through the U.S. postal system! And the postcard can be viewed here.

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John Dee, Part I: John Dee Through His Dreams An Illustrated Lecture with Doug Skinner Date: Tuesday, November 18 Time: 8pm Admission: $12 Place: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, Brooklyn. This lecture is presented by Shannon Taggart, Programmer in Residence of the Morbid Anatomy Museum. In the first of this two evening series, Doug […]

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