Awake: A Reader for the Sleepless

Perfect for dipping (even while drowsing), this collection of lively, literate riffs make sleeplessness not just tolerable but fun.

Millions can't sleep; millions more sleep with those who can't sleep. This collection is ideal for both the casual light sleeper and the dedicated insomniac (as well as their bedmates), delighting and distracting night owls with irresistible fiction, articles, blogs, art, photographs, comics, and more.

Fiction, including previously unpublished stories by Aimee Bender and Arthur Bradford; essays from Yale neurobiologists to Priscella Becker; the probably true fictions like Jonathan Ames's masturbation solution to insomnia; comic writing from Howard Cruse and Seth Tobocman; poetry from Charles Simic and Rebecca Wolff; Davy Rothbart of FOUND magazine chips in some found texts--all combine to offer a nighttime companion for the sleepless reader.

Steven Lee Beeber is a writer and editor who also plays saxophone and worked with bands such as the Chowder Shouters, a gospel-punk bank in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a frequent contributor to a variety of magazines and is the editor of Awake: A Reader for the Sleepless, an anthology featuring fiction, comics, essays, poetry, found texts, and other material for insomniac readers. He is the author of The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk.