ROBB TODD

I am a writer in New York City. I have lived all over the country, and was lucky enough to live in Hawaii twice. I also lived in Texas twice. And North Carolina twice. Actually, this is my second stop in New York, too, so I guess I just do not do things right the first time.

(Buy my book.) 

I spent most of my career working for newspapers, but happily left for the Interwebs. I like it here. I listen to music here. I discuss books here. I <3 videos here. I post photos here. I am not a fan of Facebook or Foursquare or the like. There are better uses for the Interwebs. Such as this. !OX?-eth!

I take an annoying amount of pictures with my phone. Sometimes I can barely walk down the sidewalk without stopping, but that’s usually because of all the people in my way. I am a fast walker. Sometimes, though, I stop to snap a shot. 

Say hi: robb (at) robbtodd (dot) com.

(Holi Festival in Richmond Hill, Queens)

My first book, Steal Me for Your Stories, is on sale — even at Amazon. This collection took me several years to write and holding it in my hands is pretty thrilling. 

Also, I’m donating everything I make from this book to a trust for my late cousin’s family, so even if you think the stories suck you can at least know it wasn’t a total waste of money. 

BOMB Magazine's Gregory Lawless: "Robb Todd’s debut collection of short fiction, Steal Me for Your Stories (Tiny Hardcore Press, 2012) offers an alternately gritty and lyrical exploration of contemporary urban adventure and malaise. Each of the fine pieces in the book is driven by voice as much as event. Todd’s narrators never give you the whole story; they don’t tell you their names; and they don’t smother you with exposition. Instead, they offer glimpses of larger traumas, erotic encounters, and romantic collapse. Their fragmentary narratives and crackling, minimalist disclosures might seem, at first, like down-and-out confessionals, but they’re really records of spiritual growth and defeat, scouring for beauty in street litter, and the aftermath of love. Steal Me for Your Stories is a tremendous book."

Fwriction Editor Danny Goodman: "A kickass, brilliant new voice in fiction. This collection is a necessary read."

Poet C.O. Aptowicz: "'Steal Me For Your Stories' evoked from me something extremely rare: the beautiful madness of NYC."

Brian Warfield: "Robb Todd doesn't want you to love him unless it is with a fierceness so close to hatred as to be indistinguishable."

Vouched Books: "Robb Todd wants us to remember that we need to be comfortable in our loneliness, that we need to remember every day is made of 1,440 moments and we never know which ones will be the loveliest, yes, Robb Todd wants us to remember these things and while he may not stick with you immediately, you will find yourself wanting to keep returning to his pieces to remember to discover them again."

Used Furniture Review:  "This collection is fantastic and dark and funny and, yes, gross. It’s more than just reading about people doing every day things; it’s reading about how we live within our own lives."

Sara Habein in Word Riot: "Steal Me For Your Stories is full of passion, loneliness, and intoxicated philosophy. It is a series of fucked up small moments that may or may not be true — despite the frequent 'Hand to God' insistence — but it doesn’t really matter. They feel true, and that’s good enough. ... It is 160 perfect little pages, and I’m so glad that the pages lived up to its excellent title."

Bong Is Bard: "steal me for your stories is robb's translation of the babble coming from the world surrounding him. and he is a master interpreter."

LitStack: "Sexy, cool, quick, brutal, hip, gut wrenching, toe curling stories. Buy the ticket, take the ride."

Reading Through College: "I expected parties, booze, drunkenness, cynical youth, objectifying and sexuality, and all the other sort of warm fuzzy things male 20-somethings do and think about, combined with some sort of glimpse into the main character’s tormented childhood. Or something. 

"What Robb Todd gives us instead—I mean, he does give us all of that, but in addition—is love. And he does it beautifully."

My first collection is available now:

STEAL ME FOR YOUR STORIES

> FICTION

Is Was

Published by Squalorly (with interview)

Quiet the Remedies

Published by The Fiddleback 

Everything I Think About When I Am Trying Not to Think

Published by > kill author (and here Carissa Halston discusses the story)

Gracias, Pero Sí 

Published by PANK  (Ask the Author / Best of the Net 2011 nominee) 

Our Costume Is A Kiss

Published by 3:AM Magazine

Better Than Prescription

Published by Smooth Magazine, Issue No. 56

The City from a Bridge

Published by Fwriction : Review

Origin Stories: Blues Harp (Past contributors were invited to share "one of their earliest stories and some thoughts on how it relates to their writing now.")

Published by Necessary Fiction

Published by LITnIMAGE

Eardrum Alphabet Orbit

Published by JMWW

All You Need Is Love (And A Job (Or Maybe Not A Job))

Published by PANK (interview)

{ tonight : under scaffolding }

Published by Specter Magazine 

Every Moment Is Lovely, Yes

Published by Wigleaf (Postcard)

He Brushes His Teeth Just to Call Her

Published by Mud Luscious 

How to Survive Strong Pesticides

Published by Spork Press (Interview)

A Short Conversation

Published by Monkeybicycle

Salmon Jump Into the Open Mouths of Bears

Published by Staccato Fiction (Longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50)

Following Sea

Published by Flashquake

Outskirts

Published by Hitotoki

Drunk Dynamite Fishing

Published by Bluestem

And Her Eyes Said Something I Did Not Understand

Published by New World Writing (formerly Blip Magazine, formerly Mississippi Review)

Razor Wire

Published by Thieves Jargon

A Voice That Will Get You Anything Everything Ever

Published by Necessary Fiction (with Discussion)

Proof That God Loves Us and Wants Us to Be Happy

Published by Red Fez

The Faces of Tiny Animals

Published by > kill author

so how was your day who cares

Published by Full of Crow

Yeah Yeah I Will I Promise

Published by DOGZPLOT

The Shape of the Winter Wind

Published by Thirst for Fire

Untitled

Published by Nanoism

Untitled

Published by Nanoism

Tickled to Death (Seriously)

Published by Six Sentences

Reunion

Published by Six Sentences

Don’t Let Impotence Ruin Your Sex Life

Published by The Beat

Circles for I’s

Published by Two with Water

“Off the Verge”

Read by Mel Bosworth

> POETRY

fears, illusions and how best to use each other

Published by Bong Is Bard

doo-doo butt jones

This poem “is a decidedly woody blend of humor and fantasy. We’ll be looking for more from this poet soon, but we won’t count on it since it seems like Robb has gotten into a little legal trouble with the San Antonio Humane Society.”

> FEATURES, COLUMNS, ESSAYS, REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS

Unfastening This Ridiculous Shit

Published by BOMBLOG

Attention and Anger and Joy Wherever I Go: A Conversation with Robb Todd

Published by Used Furniture Review

Great American city: Detroit

Published by The New York Daily News

LCM: Hug Beecher's One Before Bed and It Hugs Back

Published by HTML Giant

Episode 84: Pillow Talk

Orange Alert Podcast that includes me reading two short stories

Uptown Collective Q&A

Interviewed about Steal Me for Your Stories

xTx Is Not a Real Person but ___ _____ Is Not a Real Writer (Yet)

Published by The Lit Pub

The History of Labor Day: People Died So We Can Barbecue and Drink Beer and Watch Football

Published by me

Published by Sling.com

Black History Month Movies

Published by DishOnline.com

Exclusive Interview: Kimjongilia director NC Heikin

Published by DishOnline.com

Best of the Best: TV's Top Mustaches

Published by DishOnline.com

Thanksgiving Movies: A Cornucopia of Craziness

Published by DishOnline.com

Road less traveled: Nicaragua

Published by the New York Daily News

Blue Light Special

Published by  the Burlington, N.C., Times-News

Bird watchers flock to the Brownsville Landfill

Published by the Harlingen Valley Morning Star

The History of Newspapers and Duck Sauce

Published by me 

What’s Old is New at VMAs

Published by CBSNews.com

Taking Messages For ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star

Published by CBSNews.com

Uptown Artist — Robb Todd

Published by The Uptown Collective (It's weird being the interviewee instead of being the interviewer)

> HEADLINES

BUILT BEER BY BEER | $125,000 buys a round for the house

Won a Hearst Award for this front page headline on Houston’s famous beer can house.

400 million pennies for your thoughts

(Rewritten for N.Y. Daily News online edition) U.S. Army scientists studying ways to read minds with $4 million grant

50 Cent’s 2 Cents: Oprah’s A White Woman

Rapper Says She Used To Share The Views Of Black Women, But No More

Jay-Z Makes H2izz0 Crisis ‘Cristal’ Clear

Inspired By Africa Visit, Will Use Tour To Raise Water Awareness

Cartoonist draws gun on paper

(Check out the story. AJR mentioned this headline on Take 2.)