Stephanie Nikolopoulos

Happy 77th Birthday, Hunter S. Thompson!

Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on this day in 1937. (Fun fact: the S. in his name stands for Stockton.) He’s known as the originator of “Gonzo” journalism — a type of journalism where the reporter gets so involved in the story, he ends up part of it! Oh, and he wrote a little book called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. The film adaptation starred Johnny Depp. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

Beat Connection::: Thompson shot to fame in the literary world in 1967 with Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. Immersing himself with the Hell’s Angels for a year, Thompson wrote about the time Beat Generation icon Neal Cassady got into a verbal fight with police at a Hell’s Angel party at Ken Kesey’s pad in La Honda, California.

Tags: American Dream, Hell's Angels, Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Depp, journalism, Ken Kesey, Las Vegas, Neal Cassady

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Categories Beat Generation

Kerouac Searched for the Authentic America

17 Jul

Jack Kerouac has sometimes been accused of being anti-American or of destroying American values, and yet On the Road depicts a young man reveling in America. On the Road is, in many ways, a love letter to the true America. His honest search has inspired countless readers to pack their bags and hit the road, to discover America for themselves instead of relying on what the history books and network news report and the images coming out of Hollywood and glossy magazines.

Burning Furiously Beautiful details Kerouac’s research into American history and what he saw as he traveled throughout this amazing country.

“Devouring history books and Westerns alike, Kerouac lit out after the authentic America, an America that wasn’t mass produced or steeped in fear of atom bombs and Communism but blazed intrepidly, recklessly onward into the horizon, asking:

‘Wither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?'”

~ Burning Furiously Beautiful

Want to know which books Kerouac read and what sort of authentic people he met while on the road? Buy the book from Lulu or Amazon.

Tags: America, Beat Generation, Burning Furiously Beautiful, car, Cold War, Communism, history, Jack Kerouac, patriotism, road trip, Westerns

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Categories Beat Generation, Clips

The Starving Artists Gulps Down Konditori’s Swedish Coffee

15 Jul

My friends were visiting from DC recently and we popped into Konditori for a quick coffee break while we were in Williamsburg.

Now, if you’ve been following my blog for a while now you know that we Swedes love our coffee. You’d also know that coffee is strongly associated with the culture of the Beat Generation and that I’ve written about Jack Kerouac’s coffee habit. But that one of my all-time favorite quotes is a quote about coffee by Saul Bellow. Of course, Brooklyn is far from the only place with a rich coffee heritage. So, really, is it any surprise that Konditori was on my list of places to check out?

I got the Swedish roast. It cost $2. I had a little mishap and the creamer top fell straight into my cup, so the hipster kid at the counter nicely gave me a fresh cup. I was too scared after that to try to put milk or cream in so I drank it black, which I usually do at home or in the afternoon anyway. I’m oddly not one of those people who takes my coffee the same exact way every time. Strange, I know. Anyway, the coffee wasn’t full and robust, but it did have a lot of flavor to it. I think if I were to go back, I’d try their latte.

What’s your favorite Swedish brand of coffee?

Tags: Beat Generation, coffee, Jack Kerouac, Konditori, Starving Artist, Swedish, Swedish American, Williamsburg

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Categories Beat Generation, Food and Drink

Happy 109th Birthday to Lionel Trilling!

4 Jul

Lionel Mordecai Trilling was born in Queens on this day in 1905. At just sixteen years old, he entered Columbia University, where he would go on to become the Edward Woodberry Professor of Literature and Criticism and teach Columbia’s Colloquium on Important Books.

Among his students? Allen Ginsberg.

Trilling was part of the New York Intellectuals and wrote for the politically charged lit mag Partisan Review. He also tackled the controversial topic of Communism in his 1947 novel The Middle of the Journey.

7/7/14: This post has been corrected. I originally wrote that Jack Kerouac (in addition to Allen Ginsberg) was a student of Lionel Trilling’s, but as Joyce Johnson pointed out in the comments section that is not the case. Though they did know each other, Kerouac did not formally study under Trilling at Columbia University.

Tags: Allen Ginsberg, Communism, Jack Kerouac, Lionel Trilling, Lucien Carr, New York, New York Intellectuals, Partisan Review, Queens

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Categories Beat Generation

So You Want to Be In Publishing

2 Jul

One of my former interns made this for me on her last day of the internship at the publishing house. Isn’t it so cute? I was really touched. I don’t know that I taught her everything about a career in book publishing, but hopefully I gave her a good foundation.

I thought I’d share a few tips on careers in book publishing and being a businessperson in a creative field:

Take a wide variety of classes as an English major
Set goals for your MFA in creative writing
Get a writing mentor
Maintain your alumni network
Network — even if you feel awkward
Attend writing festivals and expos — like the Brooklyn Book Festival and Book Expo America
Attend publishing industry events — I’m a fan of MediaBistro’s book club
Learn to love social media and make sure to post on Facebook and Twitter
Get yourself on Goodreads — the social media page for those in the literary industry
Blog
Read other industry blogs and newsletters
Read the classics and the latest bestsellers

What’s your favorite piece of advice?

Tags: blog, book, career, Classics, English major, Facebook, goals, Goodreads, internship, literary conference, literary festival, mentor, MFA, MFAism, networking, publishing, reading, social media, Twitter

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Categories Writing

Friday Links: For the Literary Traveler

27 Jun

Happy Friday! I’ve rounded up a bunch of Buzzfeed articles that feed my need to travel. Hey, if you’re a starving artist and not traveling anywhere this summer at least you can read!

The Trainspotting Guide to London

12 Literary Spots in London That Every Book Lover Needs to Visit

17 Bookstores That Will Literally Change Your Life

23 Beautifully Bookish Places to Explore This Summer

26 Real Places That Look Like They’ve Been Taken Out of Fairy Tales

40 Books That Will Make You Want to Visit France

Tags: bookstore, France, literature, London, Trainspotting, travel

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Categories Travel, Writing

The Pits: Bridge That Jack Kerouac’s Watermelon Man Walked Demolished

27 Jun

The other day I talked about how “karpouzi” is just one of those words I always say in Greek and shared my recipe for watermelon-and-feta salad. Since I’m a big fan of tying things together, can I tell you about a connection between watermelon and Jack Kerouac?

In his novel Dr. Sax, Kerouac writes about a man who died while carrying a watermelon across a bridge in Lowell. My coauathor for Burning Furiously Beautiful, Paul Maher Jr., actually discovered the identity of the man the memory is based on. You can read Paul’s story about Kerouac’s watermelon man in Pop Matters.

At last year’s Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival, the group visited the bridge where this took place (also known as the Textile Memorial Bridge, the University Bridge, and the Moody Street Bridge). Well, this February the bridge was demolished. In its place is the Richard P. Howe Bridge.

Maybe its a suburban thing but when I was a teenager, I used to hang out a lot at a bridge. Do you have memories of hanging out at this bridge or any other bridge?

Tags: Beat Generation, death, Dr. Sax, Jack Kerouac, Lowell, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, Paul Maher Jr., Pop Matters, watermelon

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Categories Beat Generation

The Starving Artist Eats Watermelon Feta Salad

24 Jun

Yesterday I shared that summer was all about karpouzi at my house.

The other Sunday, after church, I had my friend Sandra over for brunch and wanted to make something special. I decided to try my hand at a watermelon-feta salad. This isn’t something I ever grew up eating, but when I attended the GABBY Awards a few years ago, one of the passed meze they served at Ellis Island before the ceremony was cubed watermelon with feta speared with a toothpick. Since then I’ve seen delicious recipes for it watermelon and feta salads. I decided to make my own version, topped with an exquisite dark chocolate vinaigrette my friend Rori gave me as a housewarming gift.

Here’s my super-easy, super-quick recipe:

Cut watermelon into chunks
Cut Feta cheese into chunks
Mix the watermelon and feta in a bowl and top with pistachio meat (meaning pistachios out of their shell)
Drizzle dark chocolate vinegar over the salad
Serve!

See how easy that is?! You can prep ahead by cutting the watermelon and the feta into chunks the night before, but I recommend waiting until you’re about to serve guests to mix the ingredients together so that they retain their individual flavors and so the nuts don’t get soggy.

The ingredients are, admittedly, a bit on the pricier side, but when you make it yourself you save a lot of money. This is part of a new series I’m doing called “The Starving Artist.” I used to do posts called “Tasty Tuesday,” but I’m switching it up a little now to focus on budget-friendly recipes for writers. You might also like these feta-inspired appetizers:

Feta Salsa — via Smitten Kitchen
Htipiti (a spicy feta cheese dip that has jalapenos in it) — via Parea Bistro (now closed)
The mezze I made for my writing workshop

I’m looking to get more fruit in my diet this summer. If you have any unique watermelon recipes, please share them in the comments below!

Tags: chocolate, feta, food and drink, Gabby Awards, meze, money, pistachio, Starving Artist, Tasty Tuesday, vegetarian, watermelon

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Categories Food and Drink, Greekish

It’s All Karpouzi to Me

23 Jun

That’s me as a kid eating karpouzi!

Last week I wrote about Feta burgers and how my family used to BBQ all summer long. Our BBQs weren’t complete without karpouzi—watermelon—at the end of the meal, so this week is all about watermelon!!

Now I may have grown up in a mono-lingual household, only speaking English, but there were a few words that for whatever reason (probably because my mom knew them) we always said in Greek—to the point that it felt more natural to say them in Greek than in English. “Karpouzi” was one of those words. Even when I went off to college, that’s the word I used, and my friends picked it up and used it too—just as I picked up words like “haole” and “okole” from my Hawai’ian friends and learned “hella” from my Bay Area friends. Funny how even when you live in one country your entire life, and even when your friends are American, regionalisms and ethnic identities can influence your language.

Tomorrow I’ll share one of my favorite recipes for karpouzi!

In the meantime, I’d be curious to know if any of you switch in and out between languages or if you’ve picked up words from a language that isn’t your own mother tongue?

Tags: childhood, cultural identity, food and drink, Greek language, identity, language, my family, my mom, New Jersey, watermelon

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Endangered Languages, Food and Drink, Greekish

Friday Links: Summer 2014 Reads

20 Jun

When I was a kid I used to participate in the summer reading challenge at my local library. I think I need to challenge myself to do something like that again. I want to spend a lot of lazy hours in Central Park with a book and some fancy French lemonade.

I decided to check out what’s on everyone’s summer 2014 reading list and share it with you:::

NPR came up with 12 summer reading lists by category — including a miscellaneous one about “drugs, dragons and giant peaches”

Goodreads is a good place to find good reads for summer

Flavorwire offered 10 Must-Read Books for June

Modern Mr. Darcy released the 3rd annual summer reading guide

The New York Times offered A Critic’s Survey of Summer Books

Or you could always take a cue from J. P. Morgan’s Summer Reading List

A summer 2014 reading list from TED

Add your own list in the comments section!

Tags: Friday Links, literature, reading, summer