TOM BISSELL was born in Escanaba, Michigan, in 1974. His short fiction has won two Pushcart Prizes and has been published in multiple editions of The Best American Series. He has also written eight works of nonfiction, including Apostle and (with Greg Sestero) The Disaster Artist, as well as many screenplays for video games and television. Bissell lives in Los Angeles with his family.

A BRIDGE UNDER WATER
1
MY INTERVIEW WITH THE AVENGER
33
PUNISHMENT
51
LOVE STORY, WITH COCAINE
87
THE FIFTH CATEGORY
119
CREATIVE TYPES
153
THE HACK
179
Acknowledgments
207

"Tom Bissell is one of America's best and most interesting writers." --Stephen King, from the introduction to Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales
From the best-selling author of The Disaster Artist, a new collection of stories that range from laugh-out-loud funny to disturbingly dark--unflinching portraits of women and men struggling to bridge the gap between art and life
A young and ingratiating assistant to a movie star makes a blunder that puts his boss and a major studio at grave risk. A couple hires a partner for a threesome to rejuvenate their relationship after the birth of their child. An assistant at a prestigious literary journal reconnects with a middle school frenemy and finds that his carefully constructed world of refinement cannot protect him from his past.
In these and other stories, Tom Bissell vividly renders the complex worlds of characters on the brink of artistic and personal crisis--writers, actors, and other creative types who see things slightly differently from the rest of us. Surreal, poignant, squirmingly awkward--and always just a little bit off--this collection is a brilliant new offering from one of the most versatile and talented writers in America today.