Books

Reboot (Pantheon, 2024) — Novel. “For all the talk of an Other America — that underground country whose president is Trump and whose capital is Florida — we have precious few novels of its condition, and none as powerful, passionate, whacked-out, and pathic as Justin Taylor’s REBOOT.” — Joshua Cohen, author of The Netanyahus.

Riding with the Ghost (Random House, 2020)Memoir. “[A]n admirable quest to answer a question that, for many children of parents who struggle against darkness, is almost unanswerable. ‘How do you save a drowning man who doesn’t want a life preserver?’ […] It’s a story told with heart and deep self-reflection, steeped in philosophy and questions about faith.” – New York Times Book Review

Flings (HarperCollins, 2014) Story collection. “[C]ontemporary, intelligent, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. These stories, by turns witty and piercing, together form an uncommon portrait of the human heart.”– Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW).

The Gospel of Anarchy (HarperPerennial, 2011) Novel. “The Gospel of Anarchy is a beautiful, searching and sometimes brutally funny novel. Justin Taylor writes with fierce precision and perfect balance: the acts and pronouncements of his freegan utopianists may seem hilarious and deranged at times, but Taylor treats their yearning with the seriousness it deserves.” – Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask

Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever (HarperPerennial, 2010) Story collection. “This spare, sharp book–Taylor’s debut collection–documents a deep authority on the unavoidable confusion of being young, disaffected and human. … [T]he most affecting stories in “Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever” are as unpredictable as a careening drunk. They leave us with the heavy residue of an unsettling strangeness, and a new voice that readers–and writers, too–might be seeking out for decades to come.” — New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

***

AS EDITOR

The Literary Review — From 2015-2022 I was an editor at The Literary Review, a biannual journal founded in 1957 and published by Fairleigh-Dickinson University. My remit included both fiction and nonfiction.

The Apocalypse Reader (Thunder’s Mouth, 2007) — These are the ways the world ends. Thirty-four new and selected Doomsday scenarios: an enthralling collection of work by canonical literary figures, contemporary masters, and a few rising stars, all of whom have looked into the future and found it missing. Contributors include Dennis Cooper, Brian Evenson, Neil Gaiman,  Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kelly Link, H.P. Lovecraft, Gary Lutz, Joyce Carol Oates, H.G. Wells, and Diane Williams.

Come Back, Donald Barthelme (McSweeney’s, 2007) — A tribute to the author’s life and work. Featuring essays by Gary Lutz, David Gates, Ann Beattie, Oscar Hijuelos, Grace Paley, George Saunders, and many more, plus 2 previously uncollected Barthelme stories. I curated and edited the project, which was published as part of McSweeney’s #24.