Craig Dowd

Bookseller / Prev: NF Editor, @RedBridgePress & TriCityNews

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

I had a great time interviewing the genre-defying author @Z_Powers for @RedBridgePress. We discussed his debut novel, #FirstCosmicVelocity (@PutnamBooks); his #Rivet essay about #TMBG; how studying jazz has influenced his prose; and more. https://t.co/47aPkssHqS #WeirdFiction

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

@Sean_Zittel Merchant’s writing gets overshadowed by his commentary, but he was an excellent old-school columnist, too, and has a few fun book under his belt.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

RIP James Sallis. Devastating loss.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

EYE OF THE CRICKET, by James Sallis. Signed & numbered UK edition, limited to 250 copies of which just 100 are signed.

You’ll never read a series crime novel as elliptical and thoughtful as Sallis’ Nola-set Lew Griffin books.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

RIP James Sallis.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

James Sallis on Chester Himes.

[Melodies & Masterpieces @SVG__Collection]

“The beauty of jazz lies in its improvisational nature; it's about embracing the unknown.”

— Bill Evans

[Adrian McKinty @adrianmckinty]

Philip Larkin's last great poem, Aubade, a masterpiece of insomnia, existential despair & suburban misery, was published - of course - in the Christmas edition of the TLS in 1977

an aubade normally is a hymn to the morning or a love song so the ironies begin w the title:

[Steve Kim - the Thomas Sowell of Boxing @SteveKim323]

So the news of the retirement of Terence Crawford came out after @mariolopezviva had recorded @3KRpodcast. We'll discuss this on the year-end show in a couple of weeks...

Quick thoughts on 'Bud', the biggest compliment I can pay him is that he could have competed (and well) in any era of #boxing. He was skilled, versatile, tough and adaptable inside that ring. There wasn't anything he couldn't do.

And in his most important bouts( Spence and Canelo) he came up big. He had that clutch gene that is important to being a great athlete -- which caused meltdowns to various cults in the boxing world, lol

Crawford was a renegade in his own way. He didn't always play the game, but he was principled throughout. In this sense he reminded me a bit of Bernard Hopkins. Like Sinatra, he did it his way

He wasn't always beloved, but Crawford leaves with universal respect (if this turly is the end for him)

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

@RihnAndrew I’ve read all but THE SLIP, which has been on my nightstand since publication, so this is proper motivation to join you! Heinz might be my favorite prose stylist, and his book recalls the days when our best writers spent weeks in a fighter’s camp documenting the lead up.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

Couldn’t pick a better quarter of boxing novels to read (or reread) in the new year.

[A.Rihn @RihnAndrew]

Getting myself in the habit of a Monday #HittingTheBooks post (there’s no hard and fast rule, though).

I’ll be reading four boxing novels throughout 2026, and posting my thoughts as I go. I’m hoping folks will read along with me, and add their voices to the conversation.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

What a beautifully made paperback—the UglyTown edition of one of the great boxing noirs, THE DISTANCE by @EddieMuller. Intro by Leonard Gardner. Blurbs from Pelecanos, Gifford, Bruen, and FX Toole.

[Dan Barry @DanBarryNYT]

Went up to Albany all of a rainy night and what mug do I find but THE William Kennedy. Author of “Ironweed” and other novels that endure. He’s 97, still writing - and he can drink you under the table. So here: Your “Great Read.”

https://t.co/efAxMj17RC via @NYTimes

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

RIP Daniel Woodrell. A devastating loss.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

Heart makes history.

Friday night reading via @jackbedell

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

If you know you know. This is Kem Nunn’s best and the pinnacle of surf noir.

[Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann @poetryireland]

What a lovely night for the launch of PIR 146, thanks to our editor @ssexton02, readers on the night, and all contributors to the issue. Special thanks to the @HeaneyCentre at Queen's for hosting the launch!

🎉PIR 146 is available to purchase: https://t.co/tvmtMCP3yL

[Edward Hopper @artisthopper]

East River - 1920 #artbots #hopper

[The Paris Review @parisreview]

“I’ve never had a story in The New Yorker; everything has been rejected.” —James Salter https://t.co/fJMP372bjI

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

America was never innocent.

JAMES ELLROY.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

I keep trying to forget what happened, and wonder what my life might have been if that car of Haskell's hadn't stopped. But one thing I don't have to wonder about, I know. Someday a car will stop to pick me up that I never thumbed. — DETOUR

via SCENARIO

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

Iron sharpens iron.

[Craig Dowd @CraigAndrewDowd]

The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.

Richard Price