Gospel Of Now

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An astounding and astonishing debut novel by Brandon Pitts writing as Simon Occulis.

" Being a teenager in a Manhattan Project town forms the foundation of my art. When you grow up in a community where the people are proud that they made the plutonium flor the Nagasaki and trinity test bombs, you can't get away from it. I created The Gospel of Now and the companion artworks to document that surreal space of living in an isolated Manhattan Project town at the zenith of the Cold War, and its under-documented contribution, along with other rural Washington State communities, to the Seattle cultural explosion of the 90s."

- Brandon Pitts

"The day I quit taking Ritalin, I realized I was fucked. Eighteen, uneducated, and dependent on a drug I couldn't afford without my father's health insurance - I was already a loser. Could've tried harder, but what was the point? It was 1986, and my generation was the first in a century that wouldn't do as well as their parents. The music sucked, the clothes were shitty, and everything people valued seemed ridiculous. This is what happens when you elect a movie star as president. Life used to be different. I was a happy kid and felt good about myself. I was cool with Christ and enjoyed going to church until I was old enough to be called upon to read from the bible. That's when trouble began. My father sat like a despot, surrounded by darkness, one light over the table to save electricity, watching..."

- Opening lines of The Gospel of Now

Author Brandon Pitts, writing as Simon Occulis, was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Richland, Washington, then immigrated to Toronto, where he rose to become an influential force in the Gadist literary movement. Diaspora Dialogues cited him quickly as an "emerging voice" in the literary scene in Toronto. He has published three very successful books of poetry, Pressure to Sing, Tender in Age of Fury, and In the Company of Crows. Each book has received both popular and critical acclaim and enjoys a cult following. His latter two books, both published by Mosaic Press, have gone into multiple editions and he has performed his electrifying poetry recitals in Canada, the United States and Europe. These signature performances are available on youtube. The Gospel of Now is his debut novel writing as Simon Occulis and is the first of a series of projects under his new artistic identity. He now resides in Montreal.