Book Buzz: Public Access Afterword by Jan Schoenbrun
“I think directing is performing and writing is performing. I find myself constantly aware that I’m not performing when I’m on the couch with my loved ones. I would even go a step further and say I’m really good at that, probably because of some trans trauma. Because when you’re a kid, you learn very young that people want you to perform a version of yourself that isn’t you. I learned how to do that really well, and I think it’s an essential part of filmmaking.”
― Jan Schoenbrun, On Friendship, Fiction, and Faking It, Interview Magazine
What booksellers are saying about Public Access Afterworld
- This is everything haunting about I Saw the TV Glow ramped up exponentially, and every feeling (good and bad and BAD BAD) about growing up and growing into yourself while looking at others through a screen wrapped into this glorious and disturbing thing.
― Frances, Blinking Owl Books, Fort Myers, Florida | BUY
- I am still buzzing as I write this. This book is tapped so hard into my subconscious that it feels magical. Bethany Peters is a hero our times needed and is still waiting for.
― Zack, Novel, Memphis, Tennessee | BUY
- Public Access Afterworld is a sprawling modern epic, perfect for internet weirdos and TV lovers. This novel is the perfect center between Schoenbrun’s other works, I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Even though it’s 600 pages, I flew through this book. I be recommending it to everyone I know.
― Em, Bookmiser, Marietta, Georgia | BUY
- Public Access Afterworld sucks you in and spits you back into the world with fresh eyes for shadows, static, possibility in the mundane. This maximalist novel keeps you on your toes, like channel surfing and hitting the most intriguing parts of shows until they culminate into something bigger. Jane Schoenbrun expertly paces their debut, braiding plot lines and timelines and blending sci-fi into the real world with all the tension of a thriller. Those who are already fans of I Saw the TV Glow will get to explore familiar themes and visuals while experiencing a new dimension of Jane Schoenbrun’s universe.
― Julie, Hub City Bookshop, Spartanburg, South Carolina | BUY
About Jan Schoenbrun
Jane Schoenbrun is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Their films include I Saw the TV Glow, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder. Public Access Afterworld is their first novel.
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“Bad Words didn’t have a single moment of inspiration! It sort of congealed over many years in book publishing, and I shaped it around a lot of elements I find fun to write and think about. I love a frightening critic character, and I love two characters in diametric opposition being forced to reevaluate each other. I also think it’s an underdiscussed and bonkers fact that the quiet agreement of professional criticism is that, someday, you will become the sworn enemy of somebody in your very small artistic industry, because you can’t like every book.” 
