Arthur Nersesian is an underground writer known for his novel The F***-Up, which became a classic after being published by MTV Books. He is considered the definitive writer on the struggling artist’s life in New York City’s East Village area. Nersesian ran a literary magazine called The Portable Lower East Side during the 1980s and ’90s. His writing is accessible, realistic, and humorous, with a keen observation of writers’ competitiveness and narcissism. He has expanded on his novels with works like Manhattan Loverboy and Suicide Casanova. Nersesian taught in the South Bronx and now devotes most of his time to writing.
Arthur Nersesian is a writer who first came to public attention with his novel The F***-Up, published in 1997. The book was first published by Akashic Press, a small publishing house literary. The MTV Books quickly took over the book and it became an underground classic. Arthur Nersesian is considered the definitive writer on the struggling artist’s life in New York City, especially the East Village area.
Arthur Nersesian had been writing about the East Village for many years before finding literary success. During the 1980s and ’90s he ran a literary magazine called The Portable Lower East Side. The magazine focused on all things artistic regarding the East Village. Copies of the magazine can still be found with a careful scour of eBay.
Although Nersesian is considered an underground and cult writer, his writing and voice are accessible to anyone who has stood up for something he believes in. The F***-up is the story of an aspiring writer trying to make his way through New York in the 1980s. Though published by MTV Books, it is considered by many to be a literary masterpiece of storytelling, beginning with a relationship breaking up and ending with the homeless narrator on the streets of New York.
Nersesian’s writing is both realistic in tone, while retaining humor, and a keen observation of the writers’ competitiveness and narcissism. Writer’s Block, a play on his book East Village Tetralogy, perfectly captures the unpublished writer’s jealousy and despair. Although the name Arthur Nersesian has become synonymous with the struggling artist’s life in New York, the author has since expanded on novels by him. Manhattan Loverboy, published in 2000, is a twisted, surreal, Kafkaesque story. It attacks some of the modern aspects of life in New York.
Suicide Casanova (2005) is a dark, multilayered and tragic love story. It’s about a man who, after killing his wife, becomes obsessed with a porn star and his real life. With Suicide Casanova, Arthur Nersesian upped the ante in writing about him. Gone are the cute underdog characters that populate Arthur Nersesian’s previous novels. Instead, the reader is given a tour of people most would not even remotely want out of their lives.
Until recently, Arthur Nersesian taught a school in the South Bronx. He now devotes most of his time to his novels. Other Arthur Nersesian books include Dogrun, Chinese Takeout and Unlubricated.
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