Robert Flanagan
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My WorksWHAT HE LEARNED IN BOXING
It's not just about hitting and getting hit, it's an education too. An excerpt from the novel CHAMPIONS by Robert Flanagan, copyright 2001. MAGGOT
A novel exposing the brutality of U.S. Marine Corps boot camp training at Parris Island. Published by Paperback Library and republished by Warner Books, MAGGOT sold a quarter of a million copies in 12 printings. Publisher's Weekly praised it as a "strong, well-written novel," going on to say "These are real people in the hands of this author and the outcome may surprise you." NAKED TO NAKED GOES
Short fiction of the battle of the sexes as seen from both sides. One of the stories, "Teller's Ticket," was selected for the Norton Book of American Short Stories and made into an independent film. Of the collection Studs Terkel wrote: "Robert Flanagan with these powerful stories joins Tobias Wolff as one of my very favorite contemporary American writers." LOVING POWER
In these dark comedies, whether set in a small town, the city, a prison or a college campus, characters hunger for love and power and are caught in the clash between the two. Lee K. Abbott called the collection an example of "the superior work of Robert Flanagan whose virtues on the page are precisely those we remain most in need of: authority, compassion, wisdom, and grace enough to put all three in prose exact enough to be science." THE BEAR'S WIFE'S HUSBAND TALE
When an anthropologist "rescues" by marriage a native American woman who's been marked (and furred) by her former "marriage" to a bear, might our hero have unacknowledged motives? Might his bride secretly miss her more natural "husband?" Might this triangle tale relate in some weird way to James Joyce's "The Dead," in which Gabriel senses Gretta missing her former love Michael Furey? (Furry? Hmm?) THREE POEMS &
THREE REVIEWS POEMS: "Reply to an Eviction Notice," a sonnet, and two other brief poems, "The Swimmer" and "For Birds." From the Fiddlehead Poetry Books THE FULL ROUND and ONCE YOU LEARN YOU NEVER FORGET. REVIEWS: Raymond Chandler's Collected Stories; Alan Dugan's Poems Seven; David Lodge's Consciousness and the Novel. DAVID MAMET'S GODZILLA
What happens if one partner of an agency insures a block of buildings without telling the other partner? What if a giant lizard levels those buildings? What if "downtown" sends a woman(!) to the branch office with proof of the signed and forged papers? What if the lizard is bisexual? Glengarry Glen Ross meets Godzilla in this tough-talking, repetitive, subtextually portentous parody of Mamet's work. JUPUS REDEYE
Minnie Wing, twelve years old in 1912, a child of the new century, is just the sort of independent thinker her father wanted his children to become. But when her thinking diverges from his, he has no idea how to deal with her. Healing the rift between them will call for Minnie to risk all and for her staid father to jump into a river to save her -- and in his good suit. VOLLEYS
How far will U.S. citizens go to obey their government? Will they willingly serve on a firing squad? And if they do, will their ineptitude, self-doubt, social prejudice, and personal agendas and beliefs hinder their performance? Set in the near future and performed in real time, VOLLEYS probes those questions, and in doing so sparks uncomfortable laughter and perhaps surprising recognitions of human conformity and courage. VERSION 2.0
What happens when a defense department scientist averse to human relationships comes to see his robot creation as his "son," and that surrogate son reaches his "teens" and falls in love with an airport metal detector? VERSION 2.O, the comedy that answers those questions, was the hit of "Airport 2002," a shorts festival produced by Contemporary American Theatre Company in May-June of 2002 in Columbus, Ohio, was awarded a Greater Columbus Arts Council fellowship and selected as a best script of the year by the 9th annual Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle Poll. "Funniest and smartest (of the festival) is Robert Flanagan and Sheldon Gleisser's VERSION 2.0. It's done with wit and style and...comes off as utterly fresh." -- Columbus Alive * * * * * * * * * * ALL TEXT ON THIS SITE COPYRIGHT 2002 ROBERT FLANAGAN |
SELECTED WORKSESSAY
WHAT HE LEARNED IN BOXING
A brief personal essay on amateur boxing. FICTION
MAGGOT
A hard-hitting, best-selling novel about U.S. Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island. NAKED TO NAKED GOES
Prizewinning collection of stories about the war between men and women, praised by reviewers nationwide. LOVING POWER
Stories filled with conflict and comedy, well reviewed by the Columbus Dispatch and Ohio Writer. THE BEAR'S WIFE'S HUSBAND TALE
Contemporary retelling of the animal mate folk myth. A complete short story. POETRY & REVIEWS
THREE POEMS &
THREE REVIEWS
Some poems about children, eviction and swimming. Also, three book reviews from the Columbus Dispatch. SCREENPLAY
DAVID MAMET'S GODZILLA
The wise guys who insured property in Godzilla's path try to weasel out of the deal. STAGE PLAY
JUPUS REDEYE
A two act dramatic comedy with occasional music set in 1912 in Liberty Center, Ohio. VOLLEYS
"A Cruel and Unusual Comedy" dealing with American capital punishment in the near future. VERSION 2.0
A scientist comes to see his invention, a Humanoid Automated Reconnaissance Body, as a difficult "teenage son." |
