John Brizzolara

Born in Chicago on December 11, 1950, Brizzolara has been writing since childhood. At age 29, he sold his first two short stories to Weird Tales. Since then his writing has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Whispers, Weirdbook, and Twilight Zone Magazine. His short fiction has been translated to German, Russian, and Japanese. In 1987 he published his first novel, Wirecutter, followed by the science-fiction novel Empire's Horizon in 1989. Thunder Moon, a sequel to Wirecutter, soon followed. In 1997 he won the National Conference Media Award for Journalism for a San Diego Magazine story on hate crimes. He has reviewed numerous books for the Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. He has also written for the Chicago Reader, Pages, and San Diego Home Garden & Lifestyle. Brizzolara has been writing for the Reader since 1989.

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Recent Articles

The Hood

After the sun goes down, the fists and sushi start flying.

The Story Store

Hang on. We must have it somewhere. We've got everything.

Author John Brizzolara interviews thrift-store magnate Jeff Clark.

John Brizzolara’s Last Column

“Hey, brother. Can you give me a clean pee sample?”

This will be the last “TGIF” column. It has been a great 12-year run. Well, mostly. Lord knows there were some turkeys in there over the years, but you can’t hit ’em all out of ...

This Reminds Me of December

It took me years to learn that the books I had sent home were unread and gathering dust.

Associations with December: too many. I will economize on my reflections. My birthday is in December, as is that of my good friend, writer and elementary school teacher Elizabeth Cullen, as well as historical and ...

David Ross

"Hi, Guys. David Ross. Okay, Carl, are we ready to go, big guy? Hey, Tony, Mister Presidente!" David Ross is ...

TGIF Troubled Sleep

I was walking along C Street Downtown, past the Fish Joint, closed now for hours. It was around 11 pm. ...

How do you spend your Friday night?

In the nascent days of my TGIF column I would get the same response frequently to a single question begged ...