Fagan Kuhnmuench carved more than 50 woodblock and linoleum prints by hand for his debut novel, and he wants you to know not a single line of it came from a machine. “Absolutely no AI slop,” the author wrote in an email pitching the book, “Blowing Up Bushwick: A Novel and Manual,” which he said is being printed this week.
Kuhnmuench, who introduced himself as a one-time Rolling Stone contributor, describes the book as a “punk rock illuminated manuscript” rather than a graphic novel: a printed text threaded with handmade illustrations he cut himself. He is circulating it to writers and outlets, offering copies for review and interviews.
The story spans two Brooklyns. It follows Miguel Martinez, who according to Kuhnmuench’s description fled political violence in Mexico for the street violence of 1977 Brooklyn, and finds friendship in the crumbling landscape and the city’s then-new punk scene. Kuhnmuench writes that those bonds are “boisterous, self-effacing, at times criminal, but always built upon loyalty and the code of the street.”
Then the book jumps to now. Most of Miguel’s friends are dead or locked up, and the neighborhood he knew is gone, replaced, in Kuhnmuench’s telling, by “glittered hipsters and their trauma therapy peacocks brunching at the boutique waffle house that replaced his bodega.” When Miguel witnesses police kill an unhoused man at a local park, protesters occupy the space, and Kuhnmuench writes that they are met by the NYPD, “fascist gangs, and robot dogs.” Miguel, after being doxxed, has to decide whether to say what he saw. The pitch frames the central question bluntly: “Can Bushwick be saved from being gentrified into annihilation?”
Kuhnmuench describes his background. He describes himself as a 44-year-old, stage-diving middle school teacher in Brownsville, and a punk since he was a kid. He wrote that he has contributed articles and artwork to Rolling Stone, Playboy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications, holds an MFA in creative writing from The New School and an MA in English education from Brooklyn College, and was a Fulbright finalist in fiction for this novel.
His connection to the neighborhood he’s writing about is long, by his account. Kuhnmuench says he has been a Bushwick tenant rights advocate for 14 years and was a volunteer creative writing teacher at Rikers Island jail. He also wrote that he spent four years in Mexico researching the cultural distinctions between Mexican migrant and indigenous identities, the background for Miguel’s story.
Kuhnmuench sent along the book’s cover and art samples, including a print he titled “Stage Dive.” He said he would send the finished book the moment it comes off the press.
Featured image: Courtesy gnarlyheadache.com
