Craig Clevenger (born 1964) is an American author of contemporary fiction. Born 1964 in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas, he grew up in Southern California, where he studied English at California State University, Long Beach. He is the author of there novels, '' The Contortionist's Handbook'' and '' Dermaphoria'', both released by

MacAdam/Cage MacAdam/Cage was a small publishing firm located in San Francisco, California. It was founded by publisher David Poindexter in 1998. In 2003, it published around 30 to 45 titles per year, primarily fiction, short story collections, history, biogra ...

, and ''Mother Howl'', published by Datura. His work has been classified by some as

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

and has received praise from such authors as Chuck Palahniuk and

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist, playwright and short story writer. His 1993 novel '' Trainspotting'' was made into a film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed several short fil ...

. Clevenger lists among his influences Jim Thompson, James M. Cain,

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

Richard Matheson Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science fictio ...

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the '' Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the ''Cosmicomi ...

Kōbō Abe , pen name of , was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor. He is best known for his 1962 novel '' The Woman in the Dunes'' that was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often bee ...

Steve Erickson Stephen Michael Erickson is an American novelist. The author of influential works such as ''Days Between Stations'', '' Tours of the Black Clock'' and '' Zeroville'', he is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the American Academy of Arts a ...

, Mark Danielewski,

Will Christopher Baer Will Christopher Baer is an American author of hardboiled fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are ...

, Seth Morgan,

James Ellroy Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, ...

, Michael Hogan, John O'Brien, Michael Ventura and

Rupert Thomson Rupert Thomson, FRSL (born November 5, 1955) is an English writer. He is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels and an award-winning memoir. He has lived in many cities around the world, including Athens, Berlin, New York, Sydney, ...

. Clevenger's third novel, ''Mother Howl'', is based on his short stor
''The Fade''
which he adapted into a short film with director

Scott Krinsky Scott Krinsky (born November 24, 1968) is an American actor and comic best known for his role as Jeffrey "Jeff" Barnes on the hit TV series ''Chuck (TV series), Chuck'' and his role as Darryl on ''The O.C.'' He was born in Washington, D.C., in ...

. He shares a fan base with fellow authors

and

Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones is a Blackfoot Native American author of experimental fiction, horror fiction, crime fiction, and science fiction. Although his recent work is often classified as horror, he is celebrated for applying more "literary" stylings ...

Novels

''The Contortionist's Handbook''

Clevenger's debut novel, '' The Contortionist's Handbook'', was first published in 2002. It is the story of John Dolan Vincent, a prodigious forger who has been detained for a psychiatric interview following a near-fatal painkiller overdose. As the narrator bluffs his way through the interview in order to avoid being involuntarily institutionalized, he tells the reader his true story - the one he is not telling the psychiatrist - revealing both his past and the true nature of his circumstances. ''The Contortionist's Handbook'' has since been translated into five languages - German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese - as well as published in the United Kingdom b
HarperCollins
Several other translations are forthcoming, including Russian and Japanese. Film rights for ''The Contortionist's Handbook'' were optioned in 2007 b
Greenestreet Films

Miguel Sapochnik Miguel Sapochnik (born 1 July 1974) is an English film and television director of Argentine origin, and former storyboard artist. For his work as a director on the HBO epic fantasy series ''Game of Thrones'', he won the award for Outstanding ...

has been linked as director and

Channing Tatum Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980) is an American actor. Tatum made his film debut in the drama ''Coach Carter'' (2005), and had his breakthrough role in the 2006 dance film '' Step Up''. He gained wider attention for his leading rol ...

as star

''Dermaphoria''

In 2005, MacAdam/Cage released Clevenger's second novel, '' Dermaphoria'', the diary of an amnesiac LSD chemist who becomes addicted to a drug which synthesizes the feeling of human touch. Documentary film maker Ross Clarke will be making his narrative directorial debut with a film adaptation of the book adaptation. It has toured film festivals under the new name "Desiree" and now has a website. It has toured film festivals, and the director says news about its release will be released as soon as they are decided. It was filmed in New Orleans and stars Joseph Morgan (actor), Joseph Morgan, Ron Perlman,

Walton Goggins Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in a number of television series, including ''The Shield'' (2002–2008), '' Justified'' (2010–2015), '' Vice Principals'' (2016–2017), ''The Righteous ...

and Kate Walsh. Musician Bill Brown composed the score for the fil

ref>

''Mother Howl''

Clevenger published his third novel, ''Mother Howl'', in June 2023, through Angry Robot.

Works

Fiction

* ''The Contortionist's Handbook'' ** Hardcover, 2002; ** Paperback, 2003; * ''Dermaphoria'' ** Hardcover, 2005; ** Paperback, 2006; * ''Mother Howl'' ** Paperback, 2023

Short fiction

* "The Fade" o
craigclevenger.com
(2005) * "The Numbers Game" in ''San Francisco Noir 2'' (2009) * "Mother Howl" o
chuckpalahniuk.net
(2009) * "Subcarrier" o
chuckpalahniuk.net
(2009) * "Mercury" i
''Sensitive Skin''
issue 3 (2010) * "Act of Contrition" in ''Warmed and Bound'' (2011) * "Obsolescence" in ''In Search of a City: Los Angeles in 1,000 Words'' (2011) * "Drunk & DC" in ''Barrelhouse'' magazine, issue 10 (2012) * "Chicken Wire" i
//Black Clock//
n°16 (2013) * "The Confession of Adelai Shade" i
''The Booked Anthology''
(2013) * "Vapor Trail" i
''The Sunday Rumpus''
(2014)

Nonfiction

* "Thirteen Hours at the Oakland Strike" o

(2011) * "Scotty's Last Name" o
OccupyWriters.com
(2011) * "Neglected Authors: Seth Morgan" o
LitReactor.com
(2013) * "High Priest of the Godless: A Jim Thompson Primer" o
LitReactor.com
(2013)

Short film

"Smoke and Mirrors" (2015) available from Six Finger Films (201

due to this Kickstarte

References

Sources

MacAdam/Cage bio
for Craig Clevenger
Transcript of Chuck Palahniuk's Audio Blog
Monday, August 18, 2003

Irvine Welsh for ''The Guardian'', April 16, 2005

Variety.com May 2007 *

External links

Official sites *
The Velvet
official online community of Craig Clevenger, Will Christopher Baer, and Stephen Graham Jones
200 Proof Storytelling Workshop
A class Craig Clevenger teaches online with LitReactor Interviews

MookyCh!ck

TastesLikeChicken

Suicide Girls I

Suicide Girls II
Audio
KQED's "The Writer's Block

Craig Clevenger reading from ''Dermaphoria
at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn while on tour in October 2005
Misnomer Radio's
Logan Rapp interviews Craig Clevenger. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clevenger, Craig 1964 births 21st-century American novelists Living people Writers from Dallas Novelists from Texas Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area American male novelists 21st-century American male writers