God is Dead
- Nietzsche

God’s not dead, (no) he’s alive
- Christian song

Opinions are like assholes. What I want are facts- cold, hard facts. Like Antonius Block in The Seventh Seal, I want knowledge, not belief.

God Is Not Great offers a little bit of both. But it is more an argument against religion than a scientific study on the existence of god. So if you are of a similar opinion, Hitchens will be preaching to the choir. The book contains a handy (but short) list of references, but otherwise assumes a certain amount of knowledge on the reader’s part. If you are not familiar with things like 16th century philosophy, the history of astronomy or the Burgess Shale, you will learn little here other than names and dates. Hitchens doesn’t go into much scientific detail. He cites and moves on.

Buy God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything from Amazon.com

An unnamed motorist is sitting at a stoplight when he is inexplicably struck blind. A good Samaritan offers help and from there it spreads, introducing us to our cast of characters, becoming an epidemic in the process. An ophthalmologist’s wife remains unaffected, but feigns blindness in order to accompany her husband to quarantine. Together they experience the horrors of a world without sight, and we become witness to the best and worst of humanity.

Buy Blindness from Amazon.com

Today we present not five, but six stories selected from our Workshop's April nominations and sent to Chuck.  Yes, Chuck's been gracious enough to up the ante and read our top six stories each month.

What does this mean for you?

Well, it means an even better chance of getting your story selected, read by Chuck, reviewed in a careful way that will shed insight and enhance your skills at self-editing, and ultimately, the opportunity to have a story of your own featured in our upcoming Anthology.

So, don't miss out.

Join The Workshop!

Looks like the good people behind Operation Havoc have awarded a winner of thei photo contest.  Chuck himself selected his favorite pic.  See below for an update from their newsletter.

A message to all members of Operation Havoc:

All hail most Glorious King of the Pygmy Photo Challenge. Most deftly has he demonstrated the tactic of Flying Giant Stork Death Kick.

Aaron Bonogofsky is now relishing his copy of Pygmy, inscribed and signed by comrade Chuck Palahniuk.

*To see the favorite photo larger, click the below link or the smaller image to the right: http://operationh.ning.com/photo/flying-giant-stork-death-kick-3?context=top

Well, there's a catch.  But fortunately for you, it's a GREAT catch.  Because you'll be getting all of Chuck's books loaded onto a brand new Sony Digital Reader!

All you have to do for a chance to win is click here and enter your information.

Your information is not used for ANY PURPOSE other than this sweepstakes.  When you submit, you are not taken to another site, but stay right here at The Cult. 

Besides the opportunity of rewarding you with this awesome prize, the purpose of this sweepstakes is to promote PYGMY with a fun giveaway AND to promote a new feature on The Cult's Vortex.

We have some great news to share with you today!  Badass author and fan favorite, Craig Clevenger, has relented (after much wheedling on my part,) to share two exclusive short stories!  The first one is called mother howl and can be read in our Author Shorts section.  (The second, subcarrier, will be posted next week.) Both are from his forthcoming novel, Saint Heretic (2010).

In addition, we have a few exciting updates from Craig:  His story 'The Numbers Game' was published last February in the anthology San Francisco Noir Two.  Next week he is heading to Oregon to read both 'Dermaphoria' and 'The Contortionist's Handbook' for Blackstone audio books!

Most exciting OF ALL...drum roll, please... Craig and I have been discussing his return to The Cult as a visiting instructor.  Craig is interested in leading a series of two week long "shotgun" workshops, limited to 12-15 students.  The focus will be geared intensely on one aspect of the writing craft.  These workshops will run throughout the year as his schedule permits. 

We are discussing it further when he returns from narrating the audio books. But we should have an update for you by the end of this month.  So stay tuned for more details as this exciting opportunity develops.

For now, enjoy mother howl, and be sure to check out San Francisco Noir Two!

Recently I've noticed a lot of questions popping up in our inbox about our Writers' Workshop Anthology on the ChuckPalahniuk.net website.  So I figured I'd take a few minutes to provide some much needed details.

1. So what exactly is this thing?
   
   First of all, this isn't primarily a 'short story' contest.  I made it the title of this thread because many people are referring to it this way and it is very important to clarify that it is not a contest, but something much, MUCH more exciting!  If you think about this venture we're doing as a contest, you're probably going to be let down.  This is a Writers' Workshop, meaning, you submit your original work to our website and it gets rated, read and reviewed by your peers.  Then, depending on its overall standing each month, it has the possibility of being selected to be screened by our editors.  If it makes it past that process, it goes before our final screeners.  And it it makes it past that, it goes to Chuck Palahniuk himself.