Full Bio:
Professionally, Bradley Spinelli has done metal work for the installation in The New York Times building, slimed salmon in Alaska, and run away with the circus. Recreationally, he’s been diving with sharks, motorcycled the Mae Hong Son loop, and seen Komodo dragons in the wild. He was born in North Dakota and lives in New York and New Orleans when he isn’t traveling.
Spinelli’s most recent novel is the noir The Painted Gun (Akashic 2017), nominated for the Private Eye Writers of America 2018 Shamus award for Best PI Paperback Original, and a semifinalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Competition. The book’s 11-city 2017 tour included the Texas Book Festival (including a Noir at the Bar reading), the Miami Book Festival, the Virginia Festival of the Book, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the San Antonio Book Festival; readings at Book Soup (Los Angeles), Deep Vellum (Dallas), and Faulkner House (New Orleans); a Naked Girls Reading event in Chicago; a launch party in Brooklyn with a burlesque show and free tacos from Dos Toros (“best things to do in NYC” —TONY); AND a Subterranean SF event with City Lights Books in San Francisco—an immersive event, filmed surveillance-style.
Spinelli’s debut novel Killing Williamsburg was published with a launch party featuring a live set by DJ Questlove. The book won the 2013 Naked Girls Reading Literary Honors and was excerpted in The Ampersand Review and in Sensitive Skin with photos by Ruby Ray. Publishers Weekly called it “sharp and stylish prose,” and The Awl called it “the first visionary neo-Romantic novel of the 21st century.” It was excerpted in The Unbearables’ 2017 compilation From Somewhere to Nowhere: The End of the American Dream.
Spinelli wrote and directed the film #AnnieHall, which the Village Voice called “fascinating.” He was a principal actor in the well-received independent film Home (various festivals). He also wrote and directed the short film Kind of Blue (Dallas Video Festival). Spinelli’s play Elusive was presented by the National New Playwrights Network in Denver and stage-read at 13th Street Rep (NYC). His play Ifni was workshopped by Overlap (NYC), and his one-act Pretty Mouth was produced at the Duplex. He also wrote spec scripts for the scuba diving romance film Blueness and the heist The Cool Side of the Pillow.
Spinelli’s short fiction has appeared in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and in compilations by Sparkle Street Press and Le Chat Noir. Spinelli published the short story CHUCHOS. He competed in Canteen Magazine’s first flash fiction write-off versus Dana Goodyear, and has penned guest posts for Writer’s Digest, Mandy Boles, Frontier Psychiatrist, Prose ‘n Cons, and The Page 69 Test. He contributed to New York Magazine’s Bedford + Bowery from 2014 until its closure in 2020.
Under the pen name J.D. Oxblood, Spinelli co-founded the world-renowned burlesque magazine Burlesque Beat, and has contributed to 21st Century Burlesque, Burlesque Magazine, Zelda, and the academic journal Borrowers & Lenders. He has hosted burlesque and literary salons, and performed at storyteller series Lost and Found and The Moth. In the Burlesque Top 50 he was voted #10 in non-performing men for 2014, and #7 for 2015.
Spinelli is a dedicated world traveler and avid scuba diver, accomplished DJ, and amateur mixologist. He still wants a dog.
Thumbnail Bio:
Bradley Spinelli is the author of the noir The Painted Gun and the novel Killing Williamsburg. He wrote and directed the film #AnnieHall, and contributes to Bedford + Bowery.
