October 2010
78 posts
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Halloween highlights of haunted house fiction →
Happy Halloween, everyone!
The classic haunted house story – whether or not the malevolence of the house, flat, garden or bathroom is later “explained” by a forgotten grisly suicide, murder most foul or Satanist conclave scribbling pentagrams on the floor – may seem a bit on the old-fashioned side. After all, it was Baron Bulwer-Lytton, of “dark and stormy night” infamy,...
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“Maybe we become New Yorkers the day we realize that New York will go on without...”
– Colson Whitehead, The Colossus of New York (via villagevoice)
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Warning! Teenagers Inside: The Appeal of the Young... →
From Edan Lepucki, whose debut novella, If You’re Not Yet Like Me, is out now from Flatmancrooked and available here, comes a great look at the appeal of the young protagonist:
Teenagers have a real drive to be independent, to discover and define (or defy) their identities. And yet, they’re also powerless. They have their parents’ will to contend with, and their friends’ complicated codes of...
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Writers’ keys explained, from HTMLGIANT →
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“As far as I’m concerned, we’re living in an age of great nonfiction...”
– Ira Glass, Introduction to The New Kings of Nonfiction
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The Question of Where We Begin, by Kyle Minor →
The new issue of Gulf Coast is out, and this nonfiction piece by Kyle Minor, author of the collection In the Devil’s Territory, just kicked my ass.
Today seems to be a day of nonfiction, with “Following Distance” striking me early this morning, and now I find myself lost in Ira Glass’s New Kings. Please enjoy today’s (nonfiction) Story of the Day, and think about...
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Following Distance, by Karen Eileen Sikola →
A wonderful piece of flash nonfiction to begin this Thursday:
There are days I appreciate the closeness of others when riding the train, the sense that I am not, in fact, alone. And there are days like today when the closeness is unsettling, the knowing of details without the knowing of names attached to them.
(via trainwrite)
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10 Writers Receive Whiting Awards Honor →
Congratulations to all the recipients!
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“He’d looked down the empty tracks, into the open mouth of the subway...”
– Matt Bell, “The Cartographer’s Girl”
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Notes to My Biographer, by Adam Haslett →
This short story is one of my favorites of all time. Let’s get that out of the way right now. In Frank Caldwell, Haslett crafted a character who has stuck with me since my initial reading. Caldwell is a bastard, a cold, seventy-three-year-old man, but Haslett brings him to life, makes the reader empathize with him. I hope you feel the same.
Though originally published in Zoetrope...
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Andre Dubus: An Appreciation →
From Michael Nye, managing editor of The Missouri Review, comes a strong look at the writing of Andre Dubus, a writer who I hold near and dear to my heart.
Asking me to pick his or her favorite writer is like giving a starving man a menu. Dubus died several years ago, so I’ll never have the opportunity to shake his hand and tell him how much his work has meant to me, just like I’ll never be...
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All Programs Considered →
Bill McKibben, writing for The New York Review of Books Blog, discusses the importance of public radio in the arts. If you like good things, read this piece, and start listening:
“But Glass figured out that he could make a weekly hour entirely of this kind of radio, dispensing with traditional news and talk; and since 1995, under the wing of Chicago station WBEZ, that’s what he’s done...
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Your Breakup, by Alison Barker →
This Story of the Day, from Monkeybicycle, was brought to my attention by Andrew Ervin, and I could not be more grateful. Alison Barker’s story has haunted me, in the best possible way, and I cannot stop reading it. Barker’s word choice and sentence structure, too, seem particularly appropriate in this piece, each syllable like a thorn, pressing ever so slightly, in the hopes of...
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“I sing of Brooklyn, the fruited plain, cradle of literary genius and standup...”
– Phillip Lopate, “Brooklyn the Unknowable” (from Harvard Review & The Best American Essays 2010)
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Tree Line, Kansas, 1934, by David Means →
Happy Monday to all. Today’s Story of the Day comes from a fwriction favorite: David Means, whose new collection, The Spot, is out now and pretty fantastic. (“Reading Chekhov” may be tops in the collection for me, followed closely by “Facts Toward Understanding the Spontaneous Human Combustion of Errol McGee.”)
I hope you enjoy today’s story, from The New...
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The Story of Dzanc Books →
Writing for Poets & Writers, Jeremiah Chamberlin, editor of fwriction-favorite Fiction Writers Review, profiles the story behind one of the best independant publishers around: Dzanc Books. For those of you who follow this blog, you know of my love affair with all things Dzanc. Now, spread that love, like Nutella over a waffle. Nom nom.
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7 Rants Taken Out of Context from Gordon Lish’s... →
from Electric Literature’s The Outlet, and the delightful Anna Prushinskaya, comes “[a] list to post above your writing desk for inspiration, for those of us that missed out on Lish as a mentor.”
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The 100 Best Books: A Competition →
A fantastic book blog, created by the two-headed literary avatar, Larissa Rachel:
“Two friends tackle the 100 best novels of all time. We’ll read, consider, discuss, argue… and then come to our own conclusions, and rank them accordingly. Are you with us?”
My reading pattern was this…read 4-5 pages, then fall asleep in awkward/embarrassing position.
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“There’s a palpable lack of contentment in the air. Which isn’t to say that New...”
– Sloane Crosley, “Thy Neighbor’s Duplex”
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"Pride and Prejudice": Behind the Anti-gay... →
Margaret Talbot, in the Comment section of The New Yorker, discusses anti-gay bullying, the duality of acceptance and tolerance, and the complicit role social media plays:
“The unobserved life is so totally worth living.”
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An interview with Ben Greenman →
Thom Didato, editor of the brilliant online literary journal, failbetter.com, interviews kick-ass writer/editor Ben Greenman, whose new collection, Celebrity Chekhov, is out now.
“Before setting off for her audition, Lindsay Lohan kissed all the movie posters.” —Ben Greenman, “A Classical Student”
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“Things may happen and often do to people as brainy and footsy as you.”
– Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
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Be Careful Where You Read the Autumn Issue of 'The... →
from Jessica Faust-Spitzfaden, TSR’s new issue sounds pretty lit-tastic:
The autumn issue is about to hit mailboxes and store shelves, and if you don’t have access to a copy, then you should definitely consider subscribing. The pages are filled with wonderful works from writers whose names are familiar to our readers: We have letters from Robert Penn Warren; an essay from Lee Zacharias;...
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HTML Giant launches a Literary Magazine Club! →
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Tumblr Tuesday Is Excessive Amounts of Coffee Day
Two fwriction milestones yesterday: 500th post, and 3,000 followers. I love working on this blog, and I thank you all so much for your continuing support.
If you enjoy Story of the Day, Canadian Jay’s rants, or any of the other literature and writing posts on fwriction, stop by and give a high-five.
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from HTMLGIANT: What book made you want to write,... →
My comments:
The first: The Outsiders, by SE Hinton, followed, by “The Metamorphosis,” by Kafka. Later, and still: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, by Ray Carver, to both.
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“My husband eats with a good appetite. But I don’t think he’s really hungry. He...”
– Raymond Carver, “So Much Water So Close to Home”
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Conversation Imagined, On the E Train
—If you were me, he asked, feeling this way, about you, what would you do? He used his index finger to tuck her hair behind her ear. What could you possibly do?
—Let me go, she said, slipping the remaining hair behind her other ear. The train came to a halt, between stations. Though, she said, I could never be you.
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The Smile on Happy Chang's Face, by Tom Perrotta →
To celebrate tomorrow’s Boston Book Festival, today’s Story of the Day comes from the “One City One Story” initiative, a project meant to encourage folks around Boston to read the same short story and create a literary community involving this shared reading experience. And, of course, this story is offered to readers free of charge.
A project after my own heart, and one...
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The Art of the Essay No. 1: E. B. White →
E.B. White, as interviewed by George Plimpton and Frank H. Crowther in The Paris Review, Fall 1969:
“I never knew for sure that I would follow a literary profession. I was twenty-seven or twenty-eight before anything happened that gave me any assurance that I could make a go of writing. I had done a great deal of writing, but I lacked confidence in my ability to put it to good use. I went...
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The Book Bench: A Zadie Friday →
“It’s Friday. A good day to read things by and about Zadie Smith.”
Yes, please.
(via aliciakennedy)
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“The great author and dramatist Anton Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860, in...”
– Ben Greenman, Celebrity Chekhov: Stories by Anton Chekhov
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New Fiction Podcast: David Means reads “Chef’s...
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“For years after our mother’s death, the post office continued to deliver...”
– Thomas Bernhard, “Mail”
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Coping With an Unfinished Life →
DFW’s impact on my literary life—as a writer, student, teacher, editor—continues everyday, and this piece in the NYT, regarding Wallace’s widow, Karen Green, reminded me how charming and powerful language can be:
Midway down the sheet, stamped “Medical Center,” are rows of embroidered tally marks representing the number of days Ms. Green, 50, has been a widow. In the...
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Stories of the Day: elimae Showcase
I had been queueing up stories from one of my favorite online journals, elimae, and ultimately I could not decide between several fantastic stories. (Kim Chinquee is a wonderful editor.)
So, they’re all here, for Story of the Day, and each one rocks me in a different way. I hope you enjoy:
“Master of Fine Arts,” by Kyle Minor
“Boy,” by Ani Smith
...
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A life in writing: David Sedaris →
Guardian Books’ Hadley Freeman profiles David Sedaris and his new book, Squirrel Meets Chipmunk. Bill Bryson calls Sedaris “the funniest and most original American writer since SJ Perelman.”
Sedaris knew he wanted to be a writer from the age of 25, when he read a collection of Bobbie Ann Mason stories; he attempted to fulfil his ambition by “writing a lot of bad...
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John Crace's digested classics →
This is an interesting list of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century, broken down by decade. Is it a random, arbitrary list? Sure. But, I like lists.
Here are six excerpts from “digested classics.”
Vote for the 101st digested classic here.
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“Well, okay, swell, Michael wanted to say, but do you think you could sort of...”
– Richard Yates, Young Hearts Crying
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National Book Award finalists announced →
Congratulations to all the finalists, though I am shocked Jennifer Egan did not make this list.
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Birdwatching in Fresno, by Steven Church →
I heart Wag’s Revue, and I heart Steven Church. Today’s Story of the Day, from Wag’s Revue’s new issue, combines those two hearts. Enjoy some “Birdwatching,” and keep your windows open.
(Red Dawn Bonus: Steven Church’s “Lag Time,” from Brevity)
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“The act surprised her, but Katie liked the way her body felt, pulled in one...”
– Lish McBride, author of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, “Just the Mustache” (from The Normal School, Volume Three, Issue One)
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'Hold Me Closer, Necromancer': An Excerpt →
Here it is, the opening chapter. If you can’t feel it in your tits, you’re not alive. There, I said it. Holy Blood!
The stranger shook his head in dismissal. “No, no. It’s not a big deal. Again, a simple misunderstanding.” He walked over and shook Lesser Kevin’s hand. Kevin still looked sort of apprehensive, but he didn’t seem to be having the same problem touching the stranger as I...