Kris Saknussemm is a cult novelist and multimedia artist. Born and educated in America, he has lived most of his life abroad, primarily in Australia and the Pacific Islands. He has published 10 books that have been translated into 22 languages. His science fiction-themed novel Zanesville, published by Villard Books, an imprint of Random House in 2005, was hailed by critics as a revolutionary work of surreal black comedy. It has attracted the devotion of outsider artists like the Legendary Stardust Cowboy and, according to Saknussemm, was the inspiration for Michael Jackson’s desire to have a giant robot of himself constructed to roam the Las Vegas desert. Another key novel, an erotic supernatural thriller Private Midnight is set in a noir crime world of jazz, junkies, and shadows from out of time.
Kris Saknussemm
Studios
Schelling
Kris Saknussemm worked in the Schelling studio.
Marian MacDowell funded construction of this studio the year that the organization was established and the first artists arrived for residency. It was called Bark Studio until 1933, when it was renamed in honor of Ernest Schelling, a composer, pianist, and orchestral leader who served as president of what was then called the Edward MacDowell…