Upcoming Events:
Thursday, 22 August, 1 pm
Book Talk, “Why Books?”, Fitchburg Community Center, 5510 Lacy Rd., Fitchburg, Wis.
Thursday, 19 September, 6:30 pm
Book Talk, “Why Books, and Why This Book?”, Oregon Public Library, 200 N. Alpine Parkway, Oregon, Wis.
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NEW Video
The Coming of Age Quartet
by David Benjamin
Benjamin talks about his inspiration for a coming-of-age “quartet” that has few parallels in contemporary literature.
Coming Soon to Last Kid Books:
Christmas in a Jugular Vein
by David Benjamin
David Benjamin has always been fascinated by Christmas—and by Christmas stories, starting with the Book of Luke. But the holiday tale that tickled Benjamin’s literary fancy was Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a story which, Benjamin believes, opened the door to countless variations on holiday themes, from Scrooge to Kris Kringle to the Grinch and beyond.
“Beyond” is where Benjamin began to venture with his first Christmas story, “The Little Red Dot,” written when he was sixteen and published (in a slightly censored form) in his high-school newspaper’s holiday edition.
Since then, said Benjamin, “I’ve tried to compose a new Christmas story every year. During my tenure as editor of the Mansfield (Mass.) News, I contrived to fill our fat holiday issue with Christmas stories written by kids in every grade of the Mansfield schools. The results were a joy to the world.
Christmas in a Jugular Vein compiles 38 of Benjamin’s wildly variant and slightly transgressive holiday tales and poems. Among the contents of this sometimes startling, often humorous and occasionally poignant anthology:
July 2024 •
“GabTalk” with Benjamin
At the Independent Press Awards “Book Camp” in June, the IPA’s vivacious Gabby Olczak interviewed author and publisher David Benjamin about two of his award-winning Last Kid Books titles, Dead Shot (in Crime Fiction) and Bistro Nights (in Romantic Suspense). Both books were honored at the Book Camp’s awards gala in June as “Distinguished Favorites” in the 2024 Independent Press Awards.
Here’s Benjamin with Book Camp impresario Ted Olczak. Click below to view Benjamin’s “Gab Talk” conversation.
Last Kid News:
As usual. author David Benjamin is juggling numerous objects. But with all those balls and chainsaws up in the air, a couple of pleasant surprises landed this weekend. Benjamin received notice from the Colorado Independent Press Association (CIPA) had honored his novel, Bistro Nights with a Silver Medal in its 2024 Evvy Awards. This was Last Kid Books’ first Evvy entry and first award from CIPA, a very active literary group. The award came in the Thriller/Suspense category.
In the same batch of mail, Benjamin found out that his collection of short stories, The Melting Grandmother and Other Short Works, had been named one of the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Books Notable 100 for 2024. This is the fifth award bestowed on the Melting Grandmother and the sixth time Shelf Unbound, one the leading U.S. book review publications, has honored Last Kid Books. Previous Shelf Unbound Notable 100 books by Benjamin are Black Dragon, They Shot Kennedy and Summer of ’68 in 2020, Witness to the Crucifixion in 2022 and Bistro Nights in 2023.
Meanwhile, Benjamin was immensely pleased that his next title, Christmas in a Jugular Vein, delayed while awaiting a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN), has got its number and is on the press at Park Printing Solutions in Verona. Benjamin will have copies of his humorous volume of yuletide stories, essays and poems available at book events before Christmas as well as online at the LKB website.
Finally, Benjamin’s spring title, a long-lost memoir about the arduous purchase of French real estate, An Apartment in Paris, is in an advanced state of editorial revision and embellishment, with publication scheduled—hopefully—on 1 April, the sixth anniversary of Last Kid Books.
NEW!
NEW!
Christmas in a Jugular Vein
Cheat
The Voice Of The Dog
The Melting Grandmother
Bistro Nights
Dead Shot
The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked
Last Kid Books
is a publishing house with a sense of humor. Dedicated — at its outset — to publishing the works of prolific storyteller David Benjamin, LKB embodies Benjamin’s wry wit and narrative adventurousness.
Last Kid Books takes its name from David Benjamin’s beloved Midwestern coming-of-age story, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked (published by Random House in 2002). Benjamin is also author of SUMO: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Japan’s National Sport, a Charles E. Tuttle title, revised in 2010, that has been in print since 1990. Two previous Benjamin novels, Three’s A Crowd (a noir comedy) and A Sunday Kind of Love (a football romance), have been added to the Last Kid Books imprint, as well as Black Dragon, released in July 2019.
David Benjamin is a novelist, journalist, provocateur and habitual humorist who has lived his life — occasionally to his chagrin — by the words of Nobel laureate Juan Ramon Jimenez: “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.”
Last Kid Books is Benjie’s showcase.
