Nik Cohn Returns Next Week With Corner Boy: Loiterings New And Old, A New Collection Of Writing

"[CORNER BOY] REVELS IN LIFE'S MARGINS AND RECAPTURES AURAS PAST…ARDENT, FOND AND KNOWING, AND IT HAS BITE" - DWIGHT GARNER, NEW YORK TIMES

READ AN EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK TODAY VIA VANITY FAIR: https://www.vanityfair.com/story/nik-cohn-corner-boy-memoir

RELEASE CELEBRATION ANNOUNCED FOR OCTOBER 27 AT NEW YORK'S 92ND STREET Y; COHN TO APPEAR IN CONVERSATION WITH CORNER BOY EDITOR BEN RATLIFF

Next Tuesday, October 6, ZE Books will release Corner Boy: Loiterings New And Old, an extraordinary collection from Nik Cohn, chronicling his seven decades as an "underground hero…and messenger for the gospel of street culture" (New York Times). Edited by Ben Ratliff, Cohn's longtime fan and friend (himself a revered and groundbreaking author), the pages of Corner Boy find Cohn interacting with boxers, self-styled prophets, outsider artists, fetish models, disco dancers, street singers, seminal figures in rock and roll (Phil Spector, Pete Townsend, The Rolling Stones); the famous and infamous, the celebrated and the unknown. The earliest pieces were written while Cohn was still in his teens, already a star, strutting his stuff in various British newspapers and magazines (The Observer, The Sunday Times, Queen), while the most recent were completed within the past year - including "Apprehension," an epic chronicle of his 1983 arrest on drug conspiracy charges. Corner Boy also features selected images from "Muriel" - Cohn's ever-evolving photo collage/visual journal which he has kept since 1964, and now measures 6 feet tall and 25 feet wide. "What Muriel represents is the inside of my head," says Cohn. "When I step back and take her all in, as I often do, I see my own reflection."

Today, Vanity Fair has run an exclusive excerpt from "Apprehension" - "a surreal account of the famed journalist's brush with the law," as they deem it - which you can preview here: https://www.vanityfair.com/story/nik-cohn-corner-boy-memoir

Pre-order Nik Cohn's Corner Boy: Loiterings New And Old here via ZE Books: https://www.zebooks.com/books/corner-boy

Cohn and Ratliff will appear together at New York's 92nd Street Y on October 27 to discuss Corner Boy and celebrate its release. For tickets (both in-person and livestream) and more information please visit: https://www.92ny.org/event/nik-cohn-with-ben-ratliff-corner-boy

Corner Boy is the culmination of a singular life and career. Cohn has been deemed "the best writer about pop music" by Jarvis Cocker, and his groundbreaking history of pop music Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom named one of The Guardian's 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time.

He grew up among the sectarian tribes of Derry, Northern Ireland as it lurched towards The Troubles. In 1960s London, he wrote a series of novels and non-fiction books including "the first best book on rock and roll" (Greil Marcus). In 1970s New York, Cohn wrote the magazine story that formed the basis for "Saturday Night Fever." He's also had a longtime connection to New Orleans, where in the early 2000s, he was an incongruous bounce impresario. As his work is summarized in the book's foreword by Ratliff: "His writing on any subject is for anyone who believes that the best option is usually off the menu, who suspects that membership may be a trap, that reputations are often misleading…he makes the impossible possible."

About ZE Books:

Founded in 2019 by Michael Zilkha, ZE Books publishes extraordinary literary and visual works by groundbreaking writers, journalists, artists, musicians, and thinkers from around the world. Titles span art, experimental writing, poetry, fiction, memoir, with an increasing focus on music.

FOR PRESS INQUIRIES:

Max Lefkowitz - [email protected]

Anna DeNelsky - [email protected]

Matt Hanks - [email protected]