Penknife

On April 8th, 1943 Otto and Elise Hampel, a working class couple from Berlin, are guilloti... more

Fallada hunkers down on his farm where he plans to wait out the war writing and tending to... more

In 1932 Hans Fallada releases his big hit, Little Man, What Now? a somewhat autobiographic... more

After spending less than two years in a posh sanatorium as punishment for the death of his... more

Early morning October 17, 1911. Two teenagers climb a hill outside of Leipzig, Germany wit... more

In 2019 the Leicester City Council granted preliminary approval to place a statue of Joe O... more

The story doesn’t end with Joe and Kenneth’s deaths. In fact, the most shocking part comes... more

Kenneth Halliwell’s mental health is deteriorating.  After he and Joe return from Tangier ... more

In December 1966, Joe Orton begins keeping a diary that he maintains for the final eight m... more

Beginning in 1964, conservative England is shocked and outraged by Joe Orton’s work.  In h... more

At his local library branch Joe Orton is enraged to find out that they don’t have a copy o... more

By 1953 Orton and Halliwell are both realizing they don’t have what it takes to make it as... more

One morning in 1949 Kenneth Halliwell comes downstairs for breakfast and finds his father’... more

A Village voice exposé denounces Kosinski for using ghostwriters and casts aspersions on h... more

On July 9th, 1981 Jack Henry Abbott, Norman Mailer and Jerzy Kosinki get together at an ex... more

If you’ve made it to Episode 8 and part of you still likes Mailer and/or Kosinski, that’ll... more

Mailer’s violent ways continue both off and on the page. He fictionalizes the stabbing of ... more

After spending the 1950s trying to follow up The Naked and the Dead with another hit, Mail... more

In fall of 1965 a book called The Painted Bird is published and begins to make waves acros... more

After defecting from Poland Jerzy Kosinski gets to work trying to make a name for himself ... more

When writer Joseph Harms hears of our idea to make a podcast about criminal writers, he le... more

Outside an East Village diner, in the early morning hours of July 18th, 1981, a writer nam... more

  With Mailer’s help, Abbott is released from jail. His book, In the Belly of the Beast, i... more

Penknife Season 1: Liberty and the Pursuit Coming Soon!