…is not Franki Elliott’s real name. In part because of her employer’s potentially negative and retaliatory reaction to her creative endeavors (a grotesquely unfair situation to which I can certainly relate), it’s the name she blogs and writes under, though, and it’s the name under which she–and Curbside Splendor–have published her first book, Piano Rats. The book–designed by Shawn Stucky–looks like this… 

….and includes a blurb I wrote that says: “The 44 pieces in Franki Elliott’s Piano Rats are like the best kind of chance meetings—weird and unsettling, specific and transformative. They are Frank O’Hara meets Ellen Kennedy,  ‘first kiss’meets ‘fuck off,’ ‘hell’ meets ‘rainstorm,’ poetry meets prose, narrative meets lyric, trailer park meets city street. But they are also entirely themselves, places where you ‘remember who you wanted to be.'” Add to cart!

The release party will take place this coming Saturday, October 15th at 6:00 pm at Hinge Gallery at 1955 W. Chicago Ave. and will include Past Life Readings by Ryan Fukuda, live screenprinting, music, drinks, and readings from the book, of course. If you live–or are going to be–in Chicago, stop by.