Meet Clay, a Brooklyn performance artist who is sick of being broke. Sporting a row of stitches from his last show, and severely in debt to both family and girlfriend, he decides to do the unthinkable: get a straight job. Clay shaves off his green hair, teaches himself to type, and gets a secretarial gig on Wall Street. But is this just another form of theater? Will his girlfriend still love him in a necktie? What about his artist friends--will they forgive him for consorting with the enemy? Is the enemy actually an enemy at all?
Starting in a hospital emergency room, meandering through corporate cubicles and cafeterias, galloping through an underground Williamsburg performance, and closing in the Twin Towers with Clay's tortured, self-destructive boss and an unflappable goat, "The Beginning of the End of the Beginning" is a bittersweet romp through the innocence of 1999 New York City, a time when heartbreak was still heartbreak and broke was still broke, but the city itself felt unsinkable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Elliott's stories can be seen in Crab Orchard Review, Witness, Hobart, FRiGG, JMWW, Bellevue Literary Review, Fugue, Opium, Pindeldyboz, The Normal School, and others. She has received The Normal Prize in short fiction, a Bridport Prize Highly Commendable in short fiction, and was a finalist for the Spokane Prize. She was awarded fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Table 4 Writer's Foundation, and Tomales Bay Writer's Workshop. Elliott is a veteran of the New York spoken word circuit, with stage credits including The Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, PS122, and St. Mark's Poetry Project. She earned an MFA in visual art from University of California, San Diego, and lives in Brooklyn, USA with 3 cats, 2 dogs, and 1 husband. She works by day in the finance industry. Visit her at www.AnneElliottStories.com.
Starting in a hospital emergency room, meandering through corporate cubicles and cafeterias, galloping through an underground Williamsburg performance, and closing in the Twin Towers with Clay's tortured, self-destructive boss and an unflappable goat, "The Beginning of the End of the Beginning" is a bittersweet romp through the innocence of 1999 New York City, a time when heartbreak was still heartbreak and broke was still broke, but the city itself felt unsinkable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Elliott's stories can be seen in Crab Orchard Review, Witness, Hobart, FRiGG, JMWW, Bellevue Literary Review, Fugue, Opium, Pindeldyboz, The Normal School, and others. She has received The Normal Prize in short fiction, a Bridport Prize Highly Commendable in short fiction, and was a finalist for the Spokane Prize. She was awarded fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Table 4 Writer's Foundation, and Tomales Bay Writer's Workshop. Elliott is a veteran of the New York spoken word circuit, with stage credits including The Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, PS122, and St. Mark's Poetry Project. She earned an MFA in visual art from University of California, San Diego, and lives in Brooklyn, USA with 3 cats, 2 dogs, and 1 husband. She works by day in the finance industry. Visit her at www.AnneElliottStories.com.
