The Hunger Artist
A Novel
Look Away.
In a sold-out arena at the height of her fame, The Hunger Artist took the stage before a wine dark sea of ravenous faces. She was meant to untie her robe, expose her emancipated body, and silently join the musty straw strewn across the floor of her heavy iron cage.
Instead, the Hunger Artist approached a microphone and did the unthinkable.
She spoke.
She asked you, pleaded with you, to look away.
And you hated her for it.
Now, the man who knew her best has decided to break his silence and set the record straight on The Hunger Artist. Featuring exclusive journal entries from the artist herself, this is the only true and authorized account of The Hunger Artist’s rise to fame, fall from grace, and the real meaning of her controversial art.
A Novel by Danny Judge
Currently Seeking Representation
From the Hunger Artist's journals:
A diary, it's been said, is the lowest form of literature. But that's perfectly fitting, because I am the lowest form of lifeform practicing the lowest form not merely of literature but of all art: Hunger.
Additional Information
for Literary Agents, Editors, and Curious Strangers.
Hook:
Similar to the concept at the center of the Franz Kafka short story on which the novel is based, the central hook of The Hunger Artist is an image: a mysterious woman sitting cross-legged and silent in a large iron cage, performing supernaturally long fasts in complete silence.
Word Count:
Approximately 80,000
Publishing Category
Adult Literary Fiction / Epistolary / Experimental / Metafictional
Status:
The manuscript is 100% complete.
Special Features:
The Hunger Artist is a unique blend of experimental form and mainstream accessibility. Due to its unique premise, the novel features no chapter or paragraph breaks. The main author makes errors and has trouble with certain sequences, experiencing vulnerability, self-doubt, and anxiety to which many readers (and writers, for that matter) will relate. It features a unique introduction from the manuscript’s “Transcriptionist” and “Editor” which hooked my beta readers immediately.
Audience:
Readers drawn to strong female characters, epistolary fiction, provocative book club fiction, fiction with experimental and metafictional elements, psychologically driven fiction, voice-driven fiction, and unreliable narration.
Comp Titles:
Tell Me How This Ends by Jo Leevers
(Lake Union Publishing, 2023)
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
(Atria Books, 2022)
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
(Pantheon, 2020)
Brief Synopsis:
The Hunger Artist rose to fame sitting calmly in an iron cage strewn with dusty straw. Performed in complete silence, her supernaturally long fasts captivated millions. A divided public consumed her livestreams and flooded social media with debates and interpretations of her provocative art. Then one night, standing alone on a shadowy stage in a packed auditorium, the Hunger Artist did the unthinkable. She approached a microphone and spoke. Everything changed. When she died weeks later, she died a pariah. A false prophet. A fraud.
Four years later, relying on firsthand knowledge and exclusive access to her private journals, her grieving former manager is finally ready to set the record straight on her life and legacy. Complicating matters, he intends to do so while embarking on an ill-advised fast of his own. He will write his manuscript in the style of her journals: unpolished, unadorned, and uncorrupted by nourishment of his body and mind.
But when it becomes clear he is not built to endure hunger like she was, time becomes a factor. How long can he imitate her grueling art form, and how much is he willing to sacrifice to tell The Hunger Artist's story the way he believes she would want it told?
Status on July 8, 2024:
In-Progress Partial Requests: 0
In-Progress Full Requests: 5
Available:
Samples, Full Synopsis, Full Manuscript
Contact:
Note:
Given the recent trend of bad actors impersonating literary agents, I am carefully scrutinizing the authenticity of all communications from agents. Translation for scammers: I know what to look for, so please don't try it, guys. It won't work.
From the Hunger Artist's journals:
Who knows how many words I have left. So to me, you see, the diary is forgivable. Besides, it brings me closer to you. Sometimes my low art is beautiful. At least to me.
The Hunger Artist will be my debut novel. My short fiction has appeared in Litro, The Boiler Journal, Lunch Ticket, and many other magazines. I've been nominated for several awards, including two Pushcarts. I didn't win any of them, but as they say, "It's an honor just to be nominated." I suppose that's a good line. I graduated from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, and currently live in the Midwest with my wife and son. I work as a Marketing Director and enjoy fishing—but not eating fish. I throw em all back.
I am heavily influenced by Modernist writers like Joyce, Faulkner, and Dos Passos, and Postmodernist writers like Nabokov and Morrison. While capital-M "Modernism" has been relegated by academics to a dusty file cabinet hastily labeled "Dead and Gone," I think we're struggling more than ever to answer the fundamental questions with which the Modernists grappled. What is the true price of progress? How do we ground ourselves psychologically in an age in which the exponential proliferation of technological innovation is matched only by its ability to divide us? Anyway. Moving on.
I am a complete unknown in a flyover state and have no ties to the literary community—no writing groups; no fiction workshops. (I know a guy named Kevin who's read Faulkner, but I don't know if that counts as a literary connection.) My approach to fiction is the result of an unusual and ambitious process. The road to The Hunger Artist is paved in tens of thousands of hours of hard work performed in "splendid isolation," as Warren Zevon put it: reading, writing, thinking, rewriting and rethinking and rereading and writing RE: thinking, rereading and rewriting and rewriting. I had the idea for this project in 2016 and waited six years until I was prepared to do it justice. I've been my own biggest critic and talked myself into (and out of) giving up more times than I can count. It took years, but I finally put in the work to earn the right to write the opening lines:
"I'll begin with one of her journal entries. Partly because I don't know how to begin, and partly because I do. If I'm going to tell you about the Hunger Artist, I'll have to let her speak."
Today, I face an uphill battle. I will need someone willing to take a chance on an unknown entity, a debut author with an unusual story to tell. But that's okay. I'm happy to take the time—and do the work—to find that person.
And finally, when I began work on The Hunger Artist, my primary goal was to write a nuanced work of literary fiction that could grab and hold the interest of my wife, Sarah, whose tastes are firmly rooted in mainstream, fast-paced bestsellers. She has a crummy poker face (said with love), so I knew it would be readily apparent if I failed to hold her interest. I'm happy to report that I passed my first test. She flew through it, loved it, and when I asked what sucked her into it, I was surprised by her answer: it was the Transcriptionist's Note at the very beginning. Go figure.
In conclusion, The Hunger Artist is a strange little book with very sharp hooks, and I look forward to finding the right agent to represent it.
About Danny Judge
From the Hunger Artist's journals:
There is nothing in life about which you cannot learn to think differently, including the end of it. My feverish dreams will stop soon. I am terrified of that yellow envelope.
The Hunger Artist: A Novel by Danny Judge
Currently Seeking Representation
© 2024 The Hunger Artist: A Novel by Danny Judge
Silhouette graphic designed by Adam Mlcoch