Reader Meet Author: Joshua Cohen

As I sat down to my green tea and fruity pebbles this morning I sent Joshua Cohen a few questions and just before he ate his breakfast he sent me back a few answers. He has a fascinating novel coming out this May from Dalkey Archive called Witz. It's 800 pages and begins with all the Jews in the world dying in a strange, millennial plague, with the exception of the firstborn males. It is going to be big, juicy, and hopefully meet with fierce anger and opposition. Ok, you read and I'll finish my breakfast.

Orange Alert (OA): Your collection, Bridge & Tunnel (& Tunnel & Bridge), was recently released by The Cupboard. Can you tell us a little about the collection?
Josh Cohen (JC): B&T (&T&B) is a collection of 12 stories, written on mass transit, to be read on mass transit. Some are about artists: writer, painter, ballerina, actor. Others are not. Three or four are the best stories I've written. But I don't want to give an answer longer than the book itself: It's only 70 pages, a limited-edition.

OA: The design of Bridge & Tunnel is really very cool. What are your thoughts on the design and working with The Cupboard?
JC: Eric Doeringer, whose painting of an MTA-NYC F Train interior is featured as cover, makes work of great interest to me. He essentially counterfeits art (he uses the word "bootleg"). He's also found the perfect use for the blog medium: documenting his daily bowel movements (he's remarkably regular). The Cupboard - as if a corporate entity and not two people with names - is discerning and kind.

OA: There is already buzz starting to build around your next book Witz. The premise of the book is fascinating and rather large in scope, where did this idea come from?
JC: It came from nearly six thousand years of history. It came from where babies come from. It Came From Another Planet!!!

OA: Have you thought of any potential criticism or anger from the Jewish community?
JC: I hope for anger. It's not like Jewish anger means anything but better sales.

OA: What language is your website site in and why?
JC: My website is in this language. Though maybe you're referring to the Latin? That's "lorem ipsum." Filler but famous filler.

OA: What's next for Joshua Cohen?
JC: Breakfast.

Here is an excerpt from Witz:

N THE BEGINNING, THEY ARE LATE.
Now it stands empty, a void.
Darkness about to deepen the far fire outside.
A synagogue, not yet destroyed. A survivor. Who isn't?
Now, it's empty. A stomach, a shell, a last train station after the last train left to the last border of the last country on the last night of the last world; a hull, a husk—a synagogue, a shul.
Mincha to be prayed at sundown, Ma’ariv at dark.
Why this lateness?
He says reasons and she says excuses.
And so let there be reasons and excuses.
And there were.
A last boat out, why didn’t they catch it? They didn’t have their papers? their papers weren’t in order?
He says excuses and she says reasons.
And so let there be excuses and reasons.
And there were, if belated.
Misses Singer strokes her husband’s scar as if to calm him. But what she calls a scar he knows is his mouth.

For more information on Joshua Cohen please visit his website.

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