PLEASE NOTE: This will also serve as the release event for The Bridge Journal, Volume 24, Number 1.
In The Genocide House—the American—maelstrom—The world—delirium—
Villages—slaughtered and burned—Cities eradicated—in atomic flame—
The Genocide House by Robert Kloss is a compendium of American atrocities, as violently blurred and self-obliterating as history itself. From King Philip’s War to the Industrial Revolution, from the trials of Leopold and Loeb to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, from the living room of an Oppenheimer-esque scientist to exploded fields across time, Kloss takes us through the interconnected floors, corridors, and secret chambers of the American Genocide House. In the words of Babak Lakghomi, The Genocide House is “poetic and hallucinatory, a visceral novel of visionary power.” In the words of Kent Wascom, it is “a black and brilliant jewel, with each slashing sentence carving facets one darker and sharper than the next.” And in the words of Johannes Göransson, “It might be Kloss’s best novel yet, adding an inventive, powerful book to a growing authorship that has flourished outside the mainstream channels of U.S. literature.”
This event will celebrate the Bridge Books release of The Genocide House with live readings from four authors (Olivia Cronk, Johannes Göransson, Meghan Lamb, and Robert Kloss himself) along with a performance by legendary Chicago musician Mark Solotroff.
Olivia Cronk is the author of WOMONSTER (Tarpaulin Sky, 2020), Louise and Louise and Louise (The Lettered Streets Press, 2016), and Skin Horse (Action Books, 2012).
Johannes Göransson is the author of ten books of poetry and criticism – including The New Quarantine (2023) and Summer (2022) – and is the translator of several books of poetry, including works by Aase Berg, Eva Kristina Olsson, Ann Jäderlund, Helena Boberg and Kim Yideum. His poems, translations and critical writings have appeared in a wide array of journals in the US and broad, including Fence, Lana Turner, Poetry Magazine, Spoon River Review, Modern Poetry in Translation (UK), Kritiker (Denmark) and Lyrikvännen (Sweden). His is a professor in the English Department at the University of Notre Dame and – together with Joyelle McSweeney, Paul Cunningham and Katherine Hedeen – edits Action Books.
Meghan Lamb is the author of Mirror Translation (Blamage Books, forthcoming in 2025), COWARD (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022), Failure to Thrive (Apocalypse Party, 2021) All of Your Most Private Places (Spork Press, 2020) and Silk Flowers (Birds of Lace, 2017). Her work has also appeared in Quarterly West, DIAGRAM, Redivider, and Passages North, among other publications. She served as the 2018 Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, and currently teaches creative writing through the University of Chicago, Story Studio, and GrubStreet. She is the fiction editor for Bridge Books and the nonfiction editor for Lover’s Eye and Nat. Brut. She creates music, video, and performance art under the names Iron Like Nylon and Violet Fistula.
Mark Solotroff’s artwork and music focuses on several related key themes, including how cities develop, both organically and through organized planning, how the human body navigates urban environments, and how people navigate and interact with each other, particularly in an age of alienation caused by severe digital fragmentation.In the music world, Solotroff is best known as the vocalist of both the doom band Anatomy of Habit and the heavy electronic band BLOODYMINDED, and as the founder of the early post-industrial band Intrinsic Action. He also has a long history playing analog synthesizer. As a solo artist, Solotroff focuses on recording and performing tenebrous analog synth music. His bass-heavy soundscapes have been said to unsettle some listeners and calm others. He views these recordings and performances as possible soundtracks for movement through metropolitan terrains, whether by foot, car, or public transportation. His synth work has been at the core of Intrinsic Action and BLOODYMINDED, and he recorded and released 100 hours of lo-fi analog synth music under the name Super Eight Loop. He remains an active member of the dark-synth trio Nightmares and the Milan-based post- industrial band, Ensemble Sacrés Garçons. Solotroff has also collaborated with and contributed synth, remixes, and/or vocals to numerous bands, ranging from a four year role in Wrekmeister Harmonies, to live appearances and/or studio work with diverse electronic, experimental, and metal bands, including The Atlas Moth, Azar Swan, The Body, Brutal Truth, Consumer Electronics, Indian, Locrian, Plague Bringer, Sigillum S, Snow Burial, The Sodality, and Statiqbloom.
Robert Kloss is the author of four previous novels, including A LIGHT NO MORE and THE WOMAN WHO LIVED AMONGST THE CANNIBALS, both reprinted by Inside the Castle in 2022. He lives in Chicago with his wife, the writer and musician Meghan Lamb, and their cat, Daniel Day-Lewis.