Kevin Bartelme

Kevin Bartelme (December 1, 1948 - February 23, 2024) was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, film screenwriter, cartoonist and painter. His first novel O'Rourk - another slop sink chronicle (2002) was introduced in Brooklyn Rail December 2003 - January 2004 as the article titled A Note From Underground. The Great Wall New York (2006) is a contemporary comedy of manners, in which a motley cast of characters in this novel offer a funhouse mirror to current events. The cover art was created by political cartoonist Robert Grossman. Taylor Mead blurbed “All art is a scandal. Life tries to be. I succeed. Kevin Bartelme comes very close". Ain't Life Swell (2018) is a generational family saga. This novel was written in response to the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. In both literary and artistic fields, his works always edge towards satire. Other novels are listed in list of novels and list of collection of short stories below .
Inside Out (1986 film) is an American drama film about an agoraphobia that was directed by Robert Taicher and written by him and Kevin Bartelme, and starred Elliott Gould, Howard Hesseman and Jennifer Tilly. Released 1987 Chicago Film Festival. Other film screenplays are listed in the list of film screenplay below.
==Early Life in San Francisco==
Kevin Bartelme was born on December 1, 1948 in Minnesota as the oldest of the three children of Kenwood Bartelme and Em-Marie Bartelme. Before Kevin was a year old, they moved to Berkeley, California. His father was a professor at San Francisco States University for over 40 years and his mother was a painter. Kevin's two siblings are Scott Bartelme and Jane Bartelme. Kevin started reading books when he was 3 years old. He won the Junior Art competition of San Francisco Chronicle seven times when he was 6-7 years old. He completed his high school graduation credits six months early. He studied Art and English at University of California, Berkeley. As a teenage, he was organizing an anti war protests. At an early age, deeply committed to exposing the corruption and hypocrisy he observed in the world he cultivated his wit and humor to expose the truth in the stories for all to see.
==Life in New York City==
Moving to New York City from San Francisco when he was 23 years old, he studied film at New York University and at State University of New York taking his Master’s degree in Communication Theory. He lived in SoHo where he continued his creative activities, writing film screenplays, essays and novels. His first novel O'Rourke he chronicles the hilarious escapades and misadventures of a pair of tile setters, Robert Bissel, also a tile setter and painter created the cover art for O'Rourke.
At his favorite watering hole Fanelli Café SoHo, he met Stewart Hitch, Gorge Kokines and many other artists, coming up in the world at the time. The Fanelli Show was held at OK Harris Gallery in 1998 featured artists who hung out at Fanelli Café. He wrote the statement of the show. The people and hustle and bustle of New York inspired him to write many works. He said "I am not just sitting on a bar stool, I am working 24 hours".
He wrote about Fanelli Café, "I know of no other place in this city where stockbrokers, hustlers, painters, drinks, floozies, maniacs, scholars, tourists, writers, beauties, real artists, bullshit artists, people of all stations, nationalities, and intents, can and do gather for no other reason than the need or desire for human companionship. I have sat next to wizened Gallegos, met famous writers, one hit wonders, heard any number of fabricated pasts and presents, heard preposterous bullshit, and wisdom, met people from every walk of like and work, argued, listened, learned, drank myself silly, and all in all experienced life in all its horror, comedy, and joy and sublimity within its walls and for which I am grateful, very grateful. And I know that I am not alone." (excerpt from Some Highly Subjective Notes on Fanellis)
==Life in Mexico and Japan==
Since 2015, Kevin Bartelme had expanded the base of his works by living in not only New York but also Mexico and Japan. He traveled around Japan and wrote Dreaming of Hokusai in 2019. Somewhat like Katsushika Hokusai, who walked around all over the place and made drawings of the people's everyday lives, Bartelme was inspired by peoples encountered during his travels. Dreaming Hokusai is a collection of short stories and translated into Japanese as 僕の中のバカジン Boku no Naka no Baka-jin (The Fool Inside of Me). And four more short stories were published combining the original English and Japanese translation. After Fukushima nuclear accident 2011, he wrote Ain't Life Swell, which is a story of three generations of a family manage to get into trouble and inviting readers to reflect on the mess the human have got themselves into. He co-wrote the film screenplay Shumatus with Steve Monroe in 2013, a romantic farce set in Tokyo one year after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Shumatsu (終末) means end of the world and also shumatsu (週末) means the week end in Japanese. At the end of picture main character asked "How was your shumatsu (週末 weekend)?　
The kaleidoscopic absurdities of life were his canvas. Through satirical fiction Bartelme labored to make human shortcomings palatable, even humorous. Ultimately it was love, not misanthropy that informed him. He said "I believe that comedy is more than just an easy laugh, and when the time comes, it can bring greater benefits and virtue to everybody"
==Novel List==
O'Rourk - another slop sink chronicle (2002, Cool Gove Press)
The Great Wall of New York (2006, Cool Gove Press)
The Great Redstone (2009, Cool Gove Press)
The Instituto (2012, Muyil Press)
Reich (2012, Muyil Press)
Ain’t Life Swell (2018, Cool Gove Press)
The Tin Hat (2019, Cool Gove Press)
A Chart Too Far (2019, Muyil Press)
Big Me (2020, Muyil Press)
Twofer (2022, Muyil Press)
==Collection of Short Stories List==
Let Them Eat . . . Rubbish (2013, Cool Gove Press)
Dreaming of Hokusai (2019, Muyil Press)
Boku no Naka no Baka-Jin (2020, Muyil Press) is Japanese translation of Dreaming Hokusai by Emi Nishiwaki
The Phrenal Colony (2023, Muyil Press)
Other short stories
Fu Chan (2022), Wasp Under Glass (2022), The Caveman (2023), The Energetic Man (2023), original English with Japanese translation by Shin Ono
==Film Screenplay List==
1986. Co-wrote scleenplay with director Robert Taicher for featuer film Inside Out (1986 film)|Inside Out (1986 film), an American drama about agoraphobia starring Elliott Gould, Haward Hesseman and Jennifer Tilly.
1986. Original screenplay entitled Acting School for John Sheinberg, Lee Rich, Los Angels
1987. Original screenplay entitled Babyface for Bill Teitler, Joel Silver, Los Angels
1989. Story consultant for screenwriters of the film Eversmile, New Jersey, American-British comedy drama film, director Carlos Sorin and starring Daniel Day-Lewis.
1989. Original screenplay with commissioned rewrite entitled The Mummy of Canal Steet for Elliot Kastner, NYC
1994. Co-writer of screenplay for the feature film Dreamland (Released in 1996), an ironic fairy tale, director Susi Graf and starring Lisa Lawley, Zoë Lund and Eric Mitchell.
1995. Dead Already co-writen with Michael Kasino, NYC
2002. Ayn and Nate, written and directed by Kevin Bartelme, NYC
2004. The Hide Behind for Kasino Prod., NYC, 2004
2007. Commissioned screenplay Transgression for Lech Kowalski, Paris
2013. Shumatsu co-written with Steve Monroe
2012. Original story FogFog is included in Let Them Eat...Rubbish. , made into the short film Fog by Sebastian Piras, NYC
2016. Original story EscapeEscape is included in Let Them Eat...Rubbish. , made into the short film Happy Hours by Michael Kasino, NYC
== Paintings and Drawings ==
Kevin Barthelmes' novels are filled with many unique characters, and his paintings and drawings often feature unique characters as well, such as anthropomorphic iguanas. The painting Pipe Dream evokes the novel O'Rourke, which he reminds his novel O’Rourke. "whose clear water has arrived at this place through a mysterious labyrinth of ducts to make communion with sundry human excerptions and from thence be borne back to the mother of us all, the uterine sea," (excerpted from chapter O’Rourke’s Attitude.)
Category:1948 births
Category:2024 deaths
Category:American novelists
Category:American people