BIG NEWS
photo by Natalie Hill
My childhood memoir,
TWIST: An American Girl will be released on March 14, 2023, thanks to the wonderful Michael Zilkha. The second time I entered a recording studio was due to Michael signing James Chance to Ze Records to record the James White and the Blacks LP (my first time recording in a proper studio was with the Contortions and Brian Eno for the No New York LP). Michael was a tastemaker, envisioning how a music as discordant as the Contortions could work on
no and new wave dancefloors.
I'm writing about the Contortions and Ze Records
—and so many other stories in need of telling--
in the last memoir of the trilogy,
No New York: Adventures in a Town of Empty.
My deepest gratitude to Michael for publishing TWIST.
It's been a long journey. 30 years in the making, through many rewrites and discoveries around
what voice to use, which memories to recount, and how alchemy has always been an instinctual
tool in my cabinet of strange curiosities. You can pre-order Twist here, or here.
And I hear it's a good thing to have a starred Kirkus review!
Please come by and say
"Hi" when I tour the book in March!
For press inquiries in USA, contact:
Lissa Warren
[email protected]
for UK,
Kasimiira Kontio
[email protected]
TWIST: An American Girl will be released on March 14, 2023, thanks to the wonderful Michael Zilkha. The second time I entered a recording studio was due to Michael signing James Chance to Ze Records to record the James White and the Blacks LP (my first time recording in a proper studio was with the Contortions and Brian Eno for the No New York LP). Michael was a tastemaker, envisioning how a music as discordant as the Contortions could work on
no and new wave dancefloors.
I'm writing about the Contortions and Ze Records
—and so many other stories in need of telling--
in the last memoir of the trilogy,
No New York: Adventures in a Town of Empty.
My deepest gratitude to Michael for publishing TWIST.
It's been a long journey. 30 years in the making, through many rewrites and discoveries around
what voice to use, which memories to recount, and how alchemy has always been an instinctual
tool in my cabinet of strange curiosities. You can pre-order Twist here, or here.
And I hear it's a good thing to have a starred Kirkus review!
Please come by and say
"Hi" when I tour the book in March!
For press inquiries in USA, contact:
Lissa Warren
[email protected]
for UK,
Kasimiira Kontio
[email protected]
Book I of a trilogy of memoirs, TWIST is the precursor to the memoir Peter and the Wolves. It takes place in Cleveland, Ohio, between the years of 1965-1973. For decades, I wrestled with how to present the war zones of my youth, and came to the conclusion that I needed to strip the language down to the essence of the kid moving through it all.
The story is stark naked, is grounded in the geography of broken American dreams.
From my Author’s Note: "This memoir is narrated by Maddie Twist. Maddie Twist is a Trojan horse. Like Ulysses, I needed protection while taking the journey back through the war zones of my youth. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. I have no appetite for revenge. Or maybe this book is a story of compassionate revenge…
TWIST: An American Girl is true to the cultural time and how it felt to be me between 1965 and 1973: white, working class, poor, queer, abandoned, and hungry for belonging. I have remained faithful to the way people talked and how they acted. When I describe people and events, I’m expressing my teenage thoughts through the lens of memory. History cannot be whitewashed and put through a rinse cycle of lies and omissions to avoid triggering another’s feelings, group sensitivities, or collective guilt."
The cover photo was taken by my dear friend John Clifford, who rose from this mortal coil last year. I’m humbled and eternally grateful to all the people and talent involved in the making of this book, and the support I continue to receive.
The story is stark naked, is grounded in the geography of broken American dreams.
From my Author’s Note: "This memoir is narrated by Maddie Twist. Maddie Twist is a Trojan horse. Like Ulysses, I needed protection while taking the journey back through the war zones of my youth. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. I have no appetite for revenge. Or maybe this book is a story of compassionate revenge…
TWIST: An American Girl is true to the cultural time and how it felt to be me between 1965 and 1973: white, working class, poor, queer, abandoned, and hungry for belonging. I have remained faithful to the way people talked and how they acted. When I describe people and events, I’m expressing my teenage thoughts through the lens of memory. History cannot be whitewashed and put through a rinse cycle of lies and omissions to avoid triggering another’s feelings, group sensitivities, or collective guilt."
The cover photo was taken by my dear friend John Clifford, who rose from this mortal coil last year. I’m humbled and eternally grateful to all the people and talent involved in the making of this book, and the support I continue to receive.
A very special thanks to the formidable writers and artists who were kind enough to give quotes.
Thank you ♥️ Mary, Sarah, Stephanie, Jerry, and Rufus!♥️
Pre-orders of the hardcover available now on Amazon. I’ve narrated the audiobook—also to be released in mid-March.
Thank you ♥️ Mary, Sarah, Stephanie, Jerry, and Rufus!♥️
Pre-orders of the hardcover available now on Amazon. I’ve narrated the audiobook—also to be released in mid-March.
MORE BOOK NEWS: I'm also writing a 33 1/3 book (the wonderful series of Bloomsbury music books) on Sinead O'Connor's LP Universal Mother. Sinead holds a very special place in my heart, as does this record. We went through many similar traumas, and my mother's people were from Ireland. I'm thrilled to take this on, in tribute to the woman I call the Voice of Mother Ireland. Here is a song from the LP... it moves me beyond measure, is one of several reasons I chose the LP Universal Mother.
MUSIC NEWS: Re-approaching music one track at a time, I self-released a song called "American Elegy" a few months ago.
Written by myself and Noisecastle III who also produced the track, listen here: "American Elegy". The next song, " Savage is the Wolf" was written by Gregg Foreman and I, co-produced by Matia Simovich. The release will feature several dance remixes—one by the fantastic JD Samson of Le Tigre, Men, and an assortment of bad-assery projects. Watch out for the release of this track in April, on Peace Bisquit Records. I'm currently writing songs like crazy. More on the way.
Bye for now... and a few suggestions: please stop watching the news. Feeding oxygen to the toxicity of the media must cease. It's poison. We are treating news like entertainment, as if we're watching great horror films except these are real people, real disasters, and I fear it's deadening us all. When it comes to the current myriad of climate disasters and cruelty, let's dedicate our time to the causes we care most about, try and do something with our activism to help change this wicked system. If we're fortunate enough to have either, let's use our public platforms and money to do good as we switch off from the crack-pipe of our impending doom. I did, and feel so much better for it. Time for us to be alchemists... to transmute our current collective dark night of the soul into a new vision. And if people accuse you of being 'woo woo', fuck 'em. Let them do what thou wilt, as we shall do. To Freedom! In the words of blessed Percy Bysshe Shelley (from The Mask of Anarchy):
Written by myself and Noisecastle III who also produced the track, listen here: "American Elegy". The next song, " Savage is the Wolf" was written by Gregg Foreman and I, co-produced by Matia Simovich. The release will feature several dance remixes—one by the fantastic JD Samson of Le Tigre, Men, and an assortment of bad-assery projects. Watch out for the release of this track in April, on Peace Bisquit Records. I'm currently writing songs like crazy. More on the way.
Bye for now... and a few suggestions: please stop watching the news. Feeding oxygen to the toxicity of the media must cease. It's poison. We are treating news like entertainment, as if we're watching great horror films except these are real people, real disasters, and I fear it's deadening us all. When it comes to the current myriad of climate disasters and cruelty, let's dedicate our time to the causes we care most about, try and do something with our activism to help change this wicked system. If we're fortunate enough to have either, let's use our public platforms and money to do good as we switch off from the crack-pipe of our impending doom. I did, and feel so much better for it. Time for us to be alchemists... to transmute our current collective dark night of the soul into a new vision. And if people accuse you of being 'woo woo', fuck 'em. Let them do what thou wilt, as we shall do. To Freedom! In the words of blessed Percy Bysshe Shelley (from The Mask of Anarchy):
'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to Earth like dew
Which in sleep hath fallen on you--
Ye are many—they are few.
