American Readers Series: I Carry a Hammer in My Pocket for Occasions Such as These

More about the book

Reading Anthony Tognazzini feels like a surprise party on every page. This collection features fifty-seven pieces, ranging from brief paragraphs to ten-page stories, showcasing a playful vision of life filled with metaphor, memory, and surreal scenarios. The characters and voices are unified in a tapestry of tragedy, love, and song. The design emphasizes speed and brevity, catering to a culture with shorter attention spans and the need for literature that resonates in life's smaller moments. This collection is quick, colloquial, and comic, yet it challenges readers to think deeply. It offers a glance into a fictional world that is both poetic and narrative, fantastic yet familiar, accessible and adventurous. In one piece, the narrator reflects on their father's advice about rising early, humorously contrasting the early bird with the worm that sleeps late. Tognazzini resides in New York City, where he works as a teacher and freelance journalist. His accolades include an AWP Award, an Academy of American Poets prize, a Greer Artist Foundation Fellowship, and a Hemingway Fellowship.