Alumnus Chris Vola '10 has published a work of nonfiction, I is for Illuminati, with Morrow Gift through HarperCollins.
The book, which is accompanied by full-color illustrations designed exclusively for the work by Keni Thomas, riffs on the classic style of the ABC primer to explore some of the most enduring conspiracy theories of our time.
Topics include "A is for Aliens," "C is for Chemtrails," "E is for Earth (Flat, Hollow),"L is for Lizard People," "V is for Vaccines," and 21 other alphabetically organized, "baffling global conspiracies."
The sense of dark humor and irony which permeates I is for Illuminati is similarly present in Vola's past work, which includes Pour One Out (Morrow Gift/Harper Collins, 2019)—a compendium of cocktail recipes dedicated to "TV's most dearly departed," which the San Francisco Book Review says "fills a niche I didn't even realize was empty"—his debut novel, Monkeytown (S A M Publishing, 2012), which The Brooklyn Rail calls "an indictment of American suburbs, a reminder that there is nothing scarier than young white people with lots of free time," and second novel, Only the Dead Know Brooklyn (Thomas Dunne Books, 2017), which author Jobie Hughes calls "a taut and intriguing tale that is, quite frankly, tremendously fun to read."
Chris Vola was born in Hartford, Connecticut and now bartends at New York City's neo-speakeasy Little Branch, where he trained under the late cocktail pioneer Sasha Petraske. He is the author of the short story collection How to Find Your Flock, a poetry collection called E is for Ether, and two novels. His writings about drinks, literature, food, and pop culture appear widely in print and online journals, including PopMatters, Paste Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Thrillist, Supercall, and Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency.
