BREAKING NEWS: DENNIS COOPER, THE EXPATRIAT?: As readers of DC’s blog already know, our favorite author is on his way to France for what could be lengthy stay. To learn the nitty-gritty, see his blog. But before your eyes go all misty from the romanticism of it all, let us assure you this is not a happy occasion for DC. Count him among the victims of the evil-doing, rights-stripping, maniacal Bush administration and their policies against most of the rest of the world. See, DC’s boyfriend, who happens to be a Russian citizen, has been denied a visa to enter the USA, so DC has to go to France to be with his true love until such time as they can find a way to get his boyfriend an American visa and finally be united in his home country. If you want to follow the progress of this sad turn of events, DC will be posting the blow-by-blow on his blog. We here at the website send him our profound sympathies and our hopes that everything works out well for him. Oh, and to the small-minded idiots running the United States these days, we send you a big Australian fuck off.

God Jr., by Dennis Cooper. Grove/Atlantic, 144 pages, $12 paper. The teen in this spare and startling new novel isn't a flayed skaterboy dancing on the razor's edge of sex and death, the kind of kid familiar from Cooper's earlier fiction. Tommy, the boy here, is dead as the story starts - killed in a car accident after toking with his depressed and addlepated dad, Jim, who drove them into a telephone pole while stoned. Now Jim is alienating his co-workers and his marriage is falling apart, all because of his obsession with building a memorial based on a series of sketches discovered in his son's notebooks. What he doesn't know, at first, is that Tommy plagiarized the drawings from a popular video game. When he learns this, he turns to playing the game obsessively - and Cooper's nuanced novel about overdone grief and guilt turns, seamlessly and with irony intact, into a trippy and mystical tale about seeking understanding and searching for redemption. God Jr. is a delicious departure for the author of Closer, Wrong, and other writing – not as edgy, sexually, but just as thrilling, literarily.

Also look for long feature articles/essays on ‘God Jr.,’ ‘The Sluts,’ and DC’s older novels in the next issue of Dave Eggars’ trend setting literary magazine McSweeney’s (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/) and Salon (www.salon.com), as well as for more reviews and articles soon to be appearing all over the place. Next month we’ll give you a rundown and links to some of the earliest and most pertinent. Also look for our slightly delayed but very soon to launch ‘God Jr.’ themed homepage revamp.

MEET AND GREET: If you haven’t checked out our new DC Message Board (http://groups.myspace.com/denniscooper) yet, hit the link and start perusing. Better still, take a second to join myspace.com for free and start weighing in. The Board is having a real population explosion, and DC fans turn out to be quite a cool looking and intelligent bunch. No surprise, right? Maybe you’ll meet your soul mate or life partner or some valuable new acquaintance there. By the way, the wonderful guy who runs the message board is Garrison Turner (not Taylor as we mistakenly said last month). Our apologies.

THE DENNIS COOPER CONFERENCE HITS TEMPORARY SNAG: The conference and festival celebrating Dennis Cooper’s work in Cork, Ireland, which was originally scheduled to take place this September at the Granary Theater (http://www.granary.ie/about_granary.htm), has been delayed until the spring of 2006 due to a combination of the grand scale of the conference and too little time for the organizers to raise enough funding to support what’s turning out to be quite a lavish and ambitious event. The organizers have reassured us that the event is a definite and the new dates and other information will be announced in the near future. Of course you’ll know all about it before anyone else. Watch this space.

‘WARM’ IS STILL HOT: Contrary to earlier reports in this news column, the independent feature film ‘Warm,’ written by DC for the filmmaker/video director/photographer Carter Smith (http://www.metroflix.com/index2.html) is not dead after all. ‘Warm.’ which DC has described as ‘a pornographic cliffhanger with soap operatic characteristics,’ was written by DC from a commission by Smith seven years ago. Originally scheduled to be filmed at the end of the 90s, Smith put the project on the back burner to direct ‘Three Days,’ his documentary on the band Jane’s Addiction, and his forthcoming feature film ‘Love Rome.’ Now it seems he’s ready to tackle this more controversial project, and preparations are finally underway to bring ‘Warm’ to the screen. We’ll try to keep you informed on the latest.

MUCHO DC IN THE WORKS: Don’t forget that this fall brings two major DC-related books. First, the more widely available and affordable version of his notorious novel ‘The Sluts’ will be published this October by Carroll & Graf. Preorder it now. Secondly, ‘Enter at Your Own Risk: The Dangerous Art of Dennis Cooper,’ editor Leora Lev’s collection of essays on DC’s work by the likes of William Burroughs, John Waters, Michael Cunningham, and many others, is due out in November from Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Finally, we can confirm that Void Books (www.void-books.com) will be publishing a limited edition, letter-press, full length book of new poetry by DC. Titled ‘The Weaklings,’ and featuring illustrations by New York artist Jarrod Anderson, the book will appear sometime in 2006. We’ll have the publication date and more details for you as they appear.

THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE BOWERY MINUTE: Living legend Richard Hell’s new novel ‘Godlike’ (LHotB book #5) is in stores now and Hell is crossing the US on his summer/fall reading tour as we speak. Check here for all the info on the book, Hell’s tour dates, and related scoop. Reviews of ‘Godlike’ are pouring in, so keep an eye on your favorite newspapers, mags, and websites. Here’s a good one we found on Pop Matters. ….. If you’ve read either of Derek McCormack’s recent masterpiece-ettes ‘Grab Bag’ (LHotB book #3) or ‘Haunted Hillbilly’ (Soft Skull Press), you’re probably as excited as we are about his elaborately designed, years-in-the making nonfiction book on the secret history of Christmas. Titled ‘Christmas Days,’ and featuring Advent calendar-like packaging by noted illustrator Seth, the book is due this November from House of Anansi Press. You can read all about it and pre-order your copy here.