Highbrow Magazine

The band A Hero A Fake meet their demise at the hands of a supermodel armed with scissors, tree branches, and a wooden plank. There’s a lot of blood — little is left to the imagination. You can’t say they didn’t warn you. There’s a message scrolled at the beginning of the music video for their new single, “Dead and Done,” that’s read aloud by the ominous voice of the narrator: “Tonight’s presentation,” we’re told in capital letters, “contains depictions of human horror and the atrocities commited [sic] during the violent massacre of A Hero A Fake one evening in June...."

Mike Mariani, a contributing writer at Highbrow Magazine,  was raised in Connecticut and now lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. While working on his Master’s in English at Fordham University, he wrote features and reviews for Premiere. His writing career expanded eclectically from there: He has written about politics, culture, international affairs, and film for The Faster Times, Cinema Blend, and L Magazine spinoff Listicles. He currently has a weekly Game of Thrones column for The Faster Times. He teaches at Mercy  College in New York. 

Sam Chapin hails from Vermont but resides in Brooklyn, NY, and spends much of his free time playing with his dog and writing. He is currently co-orchestrating a musical that he wrote and is working at an off-Broadway theater in the Village. He is getting married next year and is very excited.

Carol Berens, an architect and writer, whose work concentrates on design and urban change, lives in New York. She wrote Hotel Bars and Lobbies (McGraw-Hill, 1996) and most recently, Redeveloping Industrial Sites (John Wiley, 2010), as well as articles for design and general interest magazines. She was also the associate editor for The Paris Times, a now sadly defunct English-language monthly newspaper in Paris. Although no longer practicing as an architect, she can never get away from the world of building and sees the world through architect’s eyes, always on the lookout for great design, a new detail, and the little things that make cities great. 

Lee Polevoi, Highbrow Magazine’s chief book critic, is a graduate of Amherst College and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. He has received a Bread Loaf writing scholarship and a screenwriting fellowship sponsored by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg’s studio. He is the author of a novel, The Moon in Deep Winter, and is currently completing a new novel, The Confessions of Gabriel Ash.

Forrest Hartman, a Highbrow Magazine contributing writer and Video Verdict columnist, is an independent film critic whose byline has appeared in some of the nation's largest publications. He also reviews movies for several radio stations and for Fox 11 TV in Reno, N.V. When he isn’t reporting on projects of his own, you’ll find him teaching journalism and English at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

Kurt Thurber came to Highbrow Magazine a struggling professional with a dream and stays to this day because of the rock star-like perks (booze, cash, the option to sleep in). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Mary Washington College and a Master’s degree in International Relations from Villanova University. He currently uses all the knowledge he obtained from watching ‘80s action movies and seeing “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” in the theater to good use by writing for Highbrow Magazine’s entertainment section.

Christopher Karr is originally from Barbourville, Kentucky. After graduating from Northern Kentucky University with a BFA in Theatre, he co-founded the experimental theatre group Artemis Exchange. Since moving to New York City in 2008, Karr has written a novel, poetry, essays, a slim adaptation of the Bible, and an unfilmable screenplay based on Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. His award-winning plays have been performed in Cincinnati and Chicago. He is currently listening to the Drive soundtrack. Beyond that, he has no plans.