Greg’s Publication Portfolio
Hey Everyone,
Thanks for checking out the page! Below is a compilation of my published works. Some are free to read, some are for purchase. Click on the titles or pictures to be transported into the world of my imagination!
Happy Reading,
-G
For information on Greg’s novel click here!
For Online Purchase
Published in 2018 by Mystery Weekly
After being duped by a vanity publishing company under the guise of ‘hybrid publishing’, an aging writer of crime fiction ends up becoming the hardboiled inspector he so often wrote about…
Published in 2018 by Allegory Ridge
My first published essay!
The blurb from the magazine reads: “Gregory Cioffi analyzes the reasons why society is built upon people placing themselves in one bubble after the other in this thought-provoking essay.”
Published in 2022
Poetic Anthology edited by Kathleen Donnelly
I have two poems published in this collection: “An Empty Chair” and “Never the Same”
“Paumanok~Transitions” is a tour de force – an impressive performance by poets, photographers and the editor and co-editors! This year-long anthology of poems and photographs begins each month with Whitman’s words which transition the reader from the past to the present. The illuminating poems in this anthology lead the reader backward and forward at the same time - an oxymoron, a feat only possible with words. The poetic words in these pages document transitions of the personal, spiritual, social, sexual, emotional and political, akin to Whitman’s own journey.”
- Cynthia Shor, Executive Director, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association
Published in 2014
I have two poems featured in this anthology: “Love Verboten” and “The Interlocking”
Published August 2022
Greg's poem Confined But Commemorating, written about Memorial Day during the pandemic, won third place in the Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Poetry Contest.
Read now
Published in 2019 by Queen Mob’s Teahouse
Much to the horror of the abbots, a Zen priest opens a “Pleasure Palace” across from a monastery as a means to follow the life of Buddha in the most authentic way possible.
Published in 2019 by The Five-Two
A poem
In 2018 I visited the Zen Mountain Monastery in the Catskill Mountains in Mount Tremper, New York. It was a magical, surreal, eye-opening experience. It also allowed me to conjure up some pretty comedic premises - that's just where my mind goes sometimes. This particular narrative arose when I was sweeping the floor (everyone has to do chores at the monastery) and came across a tiny little arachnid friend. Given where I was, hilarious thoughts ensued...
Published in 2020 by Fleas on the Dog
George’s life is one without structure. He goes about his day as he normally does, in disarray, until he stumbles upon a mysterious Architect atop a secluded hill overlooking the city…
From the editors:
“We love the premise in this fascinating short—like an existential fable—and the provocative questions it raises. There is an aura of mystery that surrounds the enigmatic character of the architect, and much to the author’s credit, it is never explained. George, the protagonist, whose life up until their unexpected meeting is the picture of disorder, is shown the possibility of a harmony that is both material and transcendental, one rooted in the very idea of ‘structure’. The visionary style of Borges has come to play here and Cioffi’s ‘lite’ prose—with its touch of outsider-ism is the perfect ‘voice’ and vehicle. Dialogue sings.”
Published in 2020 by Little Old Lady (LOL) Comedy
A man enters a museum and sees a sculpture (yes, this one) entitled Roman Charity. He has some thoughts about it.
Fun fact:
This is a sequel of sorts (no you don't have to read the first one to enjoy the second) to "A Rousing Good Day," a story about a man who frequents a museum and is so overcome by lust while looking at a painting of Venus, he contemplates stimulating himself right there in the middle of the exhibit. And before you dismiss it as smut, dare I tell you it was actually a piece I was requested to read aloud at an Honors English Conference. “A Rousing Good Day” is collected in A Peep at London Life, which can be found below in the Feral Press collection.
So yea.
Same narrator. Different museum. All new art.
Published in 2020 by Fleas on the Dog
From the editors:
“This New York New School neo-constructionist tautological excerpt is a fiction of equivalences where the relentless repetition drives the narrative energy to the point of ‘constructed monotony’ and creates, in the process, a reductive aesthetic.
Cioffi’s minimalist style, spartan prose and mechanical ‘voice’ are the perfect fit for this exceptional modernist work of art.”
I don’t know what that means either but the story itself is a pretty simple one to read. It transposes a 1950’s housewife over the mythological character of Sisyphus and his life of monotony. Fun stuff.
Published in 2023 by The RavensPerch
A poem
Published in 2023 by The RavensPerch
A poem
Harmony in the Ecosystem
Science Fiction Stories published by Aphelion Webzine
Published in 2023
"Strangers in the night...."
Published in 2023
Long Fiction
A robotic legal drama in three parts. A speculation on the possible evolution of non-biological life on Earth …
Published in 2023
In 2020, Comet NEOWISE was discovered and observed during the height and confusion of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On its next visit, in the year 8703, Comet NEOWISE returns and is observed by very different inhabitants of the Earth...
"A sense of wonder is something to cherish..."
Published in 2022
A "spinoff" style sequel to my 2017 piece Lineage and Legacy (which can be found below). While you can certainly read this piece as a standalone adventure, the former story would indeed expand upon the mythology and background of this universe.
This nonlinear narrative teeters back and forth between a passionate yet time sensitive romance and a perilous journey that stacks the odds against survival itself.
Published in 2020
A son goes to see his dying father in the hospital, hoping to finally be named the head of his family’s business empire. Instead, he learns that his father has had both of their genomes fully sequenced and his plans for the future are nothing short of shocking…
Published in 2018
After a fine-tuned artificial wormhole has successfully been created, the second great space race begins. When America is the first to send a manned spacecraft through, they soon lose complete contact with the ship until one garbled message makes it through. Only one word is comprehensible: heaven. This story explores the complex relationship between science and religion in a vein and sentiment inspired by Carl Sagan's novel Contact.
Published in 2017
Flash Fiction
A message from, you guessed it, the last generation of humankind urging us to halt our destructive ways.
Published in 2017
This piece, at its core, is a very simple human story set in a time and place that is neither very simple nor very human. It acts as an homage to the great science fiction writers and stories that many refer to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction and was constructed in that same vein. It also acts as a re-imagined or modernized (or perhaps "futurized") take on The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta. The traditional African tribal values are replaced with the aftermath of the technological singularity as two retirees reflect back on their lives.
Published in 2017
While we can never precisely predict the future, what we do in the here and now irreparably changes it…
Horror Stories published by Blood Moon Rising Magazine
Published in 2019
A story told in the style of a dark and somber fairy tale.
“People have claimed to catch a glimpse of her over the years and they all say roughly the same thing. She would come out of her shack, be it morning or afternoon, dressed in a long-sleeve black blouse, at the end of the sleeves rested apricot ruffles. A long three-tiered orange skirt hung over her feet and dusted the ground when she walked. A matching scarf wrapped around her neck and a black pointed hat adorned her head. Her hands and face were the only parts uncovered and that is what scared most away, for the last vestiges of soft tissue her corpse once displayed had decayed, leaving only her skeletal underpinnings.”
Published in 2018
Man meets woman. Man falls in love. Man marries woman. Woman passes away unexpectedly. Man finds out woman did horrible, atrocious things in her past. Man upholds his solemn vow to meet her in her afterlife, which he believes is Hell, by doing what he can to ensure that he gets there...
Published in 2018
An epistolary story about a woe-stricken wife writing to the state hospital in regard to her husband who, while experiencing fever dreams, believed he was in contact with entities calling themselves The Extras.
Fun fact: This piece was inspired by an actual fever I had in 2016 where I too literally called out to “The Extras.” Haven’t heard from them since though. Or have I…
Published in 2016
A young couple moves into a quiet suburban neighborhood only to discover that their next door neighbor harbors a dark past that might unveil a mystery the newlyweds wish to keep secret…
Fun facts:
Shortly after writing the short story, I met a film major at CW Post, where I was studying, looking for a senior thesis project. Dark Circles ended up being adapted in 2011 and turned out to be one of my first acting roles on film.
The film went on to win some awards at the 2nd Annual Loomings Film Awards (the 2011 CW Post Student Film Festival) including:
Best Supporting Actor in a Thesis Film: Alan Bendich
Best Ensemble Cast for a Thesis Film
The John Koshel Award for Best Editing in a Thesis Film: Patrick Mackey
The Vivek Adarkar Memorial Award for Best Thesis Picture
Check out more about the film in the links below:
Good times.
Published in 2015
“Faceless” was a story conceived while sitting through Hurricane Sandy at a former girlfriend’s house because my parents and I had to evacuate ours. It was written upon seeing the destruction of the storm’s aftermath.
“Faceless” details what were, at the time, from my perspective,, the greatest horrors of the 21st century all rolled into one story: natural disasters, terrorism, and motiveless home invasions.
The Feral Press/New Feral Press Collection
The following pieces have been archived in many libraries including Yale University’s Beinecke Collection (Rare Books and Manuscript Library). There were only ever 100 copies of each work printed. To inquire about purchasing one or more of these, please email info@gandeproductions.com
The Divine Tragedy
Published in 2022
16 poems over 26 pages. All chronicling my frustrations, introspections, questions, yearnings, examinations, grievances, desires, and dissatisfactions. Some poems are comedic, others were composed out of indignation. All attempt to discern my feelings in some way.
A Strange Affinity
Published in 2021
A collection of poetry inspired by the wonderments of science. Featuring 20 pages of cosmic rhythmical composition.
A Literary Siesta
Published in 2020
Comedic travel stories collected into one chapbook inspired by my 2018 travels to Spain (where, by the way, Ricardy Fabre won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Museum of Lost Things at The Madrid International Film Festival). Collected here are: The Return of Pablo Picasso, The Incredulous Commoner Mister Qubi of Los Angeles, From Gaudy to Gaudi, and Hard As Stone.
The Irregularity
Published in 2018
A short story that chronicle's an astronomer's search for the universe's ultimate irregularity. Plot twist: it's not at all what you would expect...
A Peep at London Life
Published in 2017
Three stories in one! Collected here are: The Winchester Geese, Her Sepulchral Chamber, and A Rousing Good Day. These satirical travel shorts were inspired by my 2016 travels in England. When I came back, after spending about a week abroad, I wrote 8 stories and these three were the publication’s favorites!
Cuisine Aquatic
Published in 2016
A man goes on a date to an aquarium with a woman who subsequently informs him how she would kill, season, prepare, cook, and serve each gill-bearing creature they see to his, and everyone else's, horror.
Plot
Published in 2015
A work dedicated to my parents as it was their weird fascination and morbid seriousness with their future "plot" that inspired this story. Anything more might give away, well, the plot...
Sleeper
Published in 2014
This piece originated as a conversation between my dear friend Ross Altman and myself around my old kitchen table in Oceanside after a few whiskies. The question posed was: can you do something meaningful while being completely unproductive? Turns out you can and this story explores just that...
The Catacombs of Truth
Published in 2013
This short story aims (and I dare say succeeds) to disprove René Descartes' "I think therefore I am" philosophical statement. It started out as a paper I wrote for a college philosophy class that I later turned into fiction.