Michael Grandone is co-founder, co-editor, and a staff writer. He is based in Worcester, MA.
Paul Jackson is co-founder, co-editor, and staff writer of the Obsolete Vernacular. He’s been published in the Village Voice, and co-founded various comic newspapers and zines in his years. He currently works in book publishing in New York City, after years in the temporary employment and bookselling industries.
John Broderick co-founded the Obsolete Vernacular before disappearing off into the woods, which he tends to do with some regularity. His love of the outdoors and wild silences has both its strengths and its drawbacks, many of which are encapsulated in the peripatetic life he’s led since college. The best books John has recently read would have to be Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion and James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk. John currently lives in Massachusetts.
Mark Cichra lives in Chicago, IL, where he is earning a Ph.D. in ancient history at the University of Chicago. His news and feature articles have been published in the British newspaper The Tablet. Mark spends 90-95% of his waking life thinking about guitars, and must expend tremendous effort to think, speak, or write about anything else. He currently owns 11 guitars and has owned 14 throughout his life. Mark is engaged; he and his fiancée enjoy feeding the feral cats outside her apartment. Mark values the perspective which ancient history, guitar playing, and feral-cat feeding offer for reflecting on the issues and values of our culture.
Mike Davin is a Minneapolis-based writer and co-author of the play “Blackbeard, For Instance,” which sold out during its initial run at the historic Brave New Workshop Theatre. He has contributed to several publications from the makers of Obsolete Vernacular, including the splendidly titled “Qu’est-ce Que C’est” and “Tort’s Climax” periodicals. He mainly enjoys the company of his wife, but when she’s busy, he occupies himself with his other love, television and film. He has worked as a newspaper designer and news editor and holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Steve Calme is a staff writer, specializing in satire and humor. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Justin McNeil has written for Boston’s Weekly Dig and the Cambridge based outdoor-video-gallery Lumen Eclipse. Currently, he is writing a no-budget film about a fictional meeting between Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, the film’s working title is: Interior Bananalogue (look for it online - but not until at least 2010). When Justin turns the radio on really late at night he hopes the song “This Must Be The Place,” by the Talking Heads will come on.
The banner image on the front page is a detail from a Takashi Murakami painting. All rights reserved by artist. All other art care of Michael Grandone and Paul Jackson.
The Obsolete Vernacular is a not-for-profit webzine founded in February 2007 in Massachusetts.
The Vernacular’s stated goals are to:
- Challenge the way information is exchanged in the literary community
- Replace pandering with conversation
- Promote quality writing
The Obsolete Vernacular is a subset of Wildcat Publishing. To date, Wildcat has published three periodicals, including the cultural journal “Qu’est-ce Que C’est” and the much celebrated “Tort’s Climax.”
