New Jersey Fan Club

Artists and Writers Celebrate the Garden State

Alex Flannery, Haley Simone, Jonathan Conner (LANK), Emily Thompson, Joy Velasco, Kasey Bohnert, Julie Benbassat, Sean Rynkewicz, Mikhaila Leid, Veronica Casson, Dan Misdea, Kristen Broderick, Tori Wehringer, Kerri Sullivan

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781978825628
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Despite the many jokes and stereotypes about New Jersey and its residents, in reality the state is a wildly diverse place, home to a vast variety of landscapes, cultures, and people. There is no singular New Jersey experience, and the stories that its residents have to share about the state will surprise you. New Jersey Fan Club: Artists and Writers Celebrate the Garden State is an eclectic anthology featuring personal essays, interviews, and comics from a broad group of established and emerging writers and artists who have something to say about New Jersey. It offers a multifaceted look at the state's history and significance, told through narrative nonfiction, photographs, and illustrations. New Jersey Fan Club is edited by Kerri Sullivan, founder of the popular Instagram account Jersey Collective (@jerseycollective), which features weekly takeovers by different New Jerseyans. This book functions the same way: it gives dozens of different contributors the chance to share what New Jersey looks like to them. The book is an exploration of how the same locale can shape people in different ways, and it will inspire readers to look at the Garden State with fresh eyes and appreciate its bounty of beautiful places and vibrant spaces.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Why Do They Hate Us?
• The Challenge
• I Pledge Allegiance to the Mall
• Suburban South Jersey
• Selling Balloons to New Jersey
• The New Jerseyest Summer of My Life
• The Golden Age of Bicycle Racing
• The Ultimate Bike Tour of Trenton
• On Immigration and Sandwiches
• Keansburg
• Why I Want My Son to Grow Up in Jersey
• Garden State Breakfast Pie
• The Only Bar That Matters
• Why Did the Salamander Cross the Road?
• Exit 0
• Signs I’ve Been Meaning to Read
• Me and Mary Murray
• New Jersey Black History Sites
• State Prerogatives
• New Jersey like You’ve Never Seen It
• A Couple of Blocks from the Boardwalk
• Heaven in a Six-Hundred-Square-Foot Apartment
• Block by Block
• Bagels, Bollywood, and Bhajans
• An Interview with Weird NJ
• Near & Dear
• Why I Left
• A History of New Jersey in Artifacts
• Going Home to New Jersey
• The LGBTQ Community’s Complicated Relationship with New Jersey
• Fable and Flora
• Alone on the Turnpike
• Havana on the Hudson
• Finding Religion in New Jersey
• Finding Home
• My Favorite Devil
• Somewhere in New Jersey
• “The Fields! The Orchards! The Roads! The Lanes!”
• Seasons Eatings
• The Egg-O-Mat
• Fourteen Things You Didn’t Know Were Invented in New Jersey
• The Sopranos Family Tour
• La miramira
• New Jersey Trivia
• Acknowledgments
• Further Reading
• About the Contributors
• About the Editor