November 2010
85 posts
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Tumblr Tuesday Is "All of my filth is arranged in...
What a month. Bring it on, December.
I’d like full-time editorial work—who’s in? (Scribner, HMH, Vintage, Norton, Knopf…I’m looking your way.)
If you dig what fwriction does (and I love you for it—over 4,000 strong now), stop by and say hello today.
Or, if you prefer, here’s a hearty list of Tumblr folk whom I adore:
Fumbling Forward
Nouvelliste
The...
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Three Stories of the Day, from Used Furniture... →
I have a new online literary journal obsession, and it’s the Used Furniture Review! The simple, direct interface, strong writing, and fun interviews make this a journal I’m sure we’ll be hearing good things from for a long time.
Today’s stories of the day are three fiction pieces that rocked my waffle. Enjoy some Used Furniture Review:
“Beautiful Babette, the...
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Seven Beers for Seven Books: A Happy Birthday to... →
Sam Calagione, founder and president of Dogfish Head Brewery, makes a connection between a gorgeous beer and a brilliant book, something fwriction holds close to the heart.
A special Happy Birthday to Beer Goggins, one of the best writers and most passionate beer lovers around!
“Something enjoyed really young and fresh by the half-gallon jug from your most local brewpub”: Lolita, by...
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Bonnie Jo Campbell and the Strategy of Negation →
from Kyle Minor and HTMLGiant, a quick look at a wonderful short story by Bonnie Jo Campbell and the power of doing nothing:
“What interests me the most about the story, from a storytelling perspective, is that the solution Ben ultimately chooses — in effect, to do nothing, to tread water, to continue taking care of Connie and thereby enabling Connie but also keeping anything bad from...
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10 Great, New Books That Didn’t Make the Times’... →
from Flavorwire:
“Although it doesn’t come out in print until Sunday, The New York Times has posted its yearly “100 Notable Books” list online. And while it’s got most of the big names — Ian McEwan, Nicole Krauss, Zadie Smith, and, of course, the literary novel’s pop-culture poster boy, Jonathan Franzen — we couldn’t help but notice how many of our favorite new novels and non-fiction books...
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“There are really two kinds of life. There is, as Viri says, the one people...”
– James Salter, Light Years
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The Specialist's Hat, by Kelly Link →
Until last year, I had never read Kelly Link. I feel ashamed to admit that publicly, but we’ve shared so much together, I thought I should be honest. Then, a friend let me borrow Stranger Things Happen, Link’s debut collection of strange, quirky, fantastic short stories. Hooked. You will be, too, for sure. Enjoy today’s story of the day, “The Specialist’s...
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Waffle Rocking Two-fers from Houghton Mifflin... →
I am loving these “two-fers” from HMH. And, you know, it’s the holidays, so buy someone a book (or, in this case, two!):
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies & The Namesake
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway & A Room of One’s Own
George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia & Down and Out in Paris and London
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The TNB Self-Interview: Shya Scanlon →
A great way to begin this Monday: a TNB self-interiew (which I am big fan of) with Shya Scanlon. His new book, Forecast, is out now and should be snatched up, post haste.
Let’s talk about Forecast. This is science fiction. I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say, Well, it’s slipstream or it’s literary fiction that plays on common genre tropes. Or something equally evasive and...
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100 Notable Books of 2010 →
Holiday Bonuses:
Andrea Hoag’s Holiday Fiction Picks (from the Star Tribune)
Choosing the 100 Notable Books of 2010
Michiko Kakutani’s Top 10 Books of 2010
Janet Maslin’s Top 10 Books of 2010
Dwight Garner’s Top 10 Books of 2010
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“Reunion,” by John Cheever, as read by...
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“November evening, immemorial, clear.”
– James Salter, Light Years
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Where My Love of Literature and Science Fiction... →
Before he wrote Candide, Voltaire helped pioneer science fiction. For more from Cory Gross, check out Voyages Extraordinaires.
“For his part, Voltaire studied Newtonian optics and gravitation and popularized these ideas in Elements of Newton’s Philosophy.
These were among the few truly happy years that Voltaire enjoyed. An inability to keep his mouth shut resulted in countless,...
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“Yet, somehow, I never fancied broiling fowls; though once broiled, judiciously...”
– Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (via mcnallyjackson)
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Six Memos For This Millennium →
Sam Cooney, writing for The Rumpus, gave me something brilliant to enjoy this morning. You should, too:
“Imagine this: you swim out amongst a group of boats fastened to their moorings. These boats are ordinary. They exist, lolling heavy in the water, anchored to the sandy floor. Each one is of a particular size and shape; some are new and some old. None are distinctive or exceptional. The...
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Letter from ‘Manhattan’: Joan Didion on Woody... →
from The New York Review of Books:
“Self-absorption is general, as is self-doubt.”
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I Heart Ann Beattie →
Here’s more, too, from the Paris Review.
Go get The New Yorker Stories, perhaps now.
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“You become a writer because you need to become a writer—nothing else.”
– Grace Paley (via scribnerbooks)
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Death of a Pig, by E.B. White →
If you’ve never read White’s heartbreaking “Death of a Pig,” please do so now. It’s incredibly effecting and gut-wrenchingly powerful. Thanks to Maud Newton for refreshing my adoration for this piece.
from “Death of a Pig,” in The Atlantic:
“Everyone kept hoping for a break, but the break failed to come. Next day was another hot one. I visited the...
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“I read in order to write. I read out of obsession with writing…I read in...”
– Cynthia Ozick, “The Art of Fiction No. 95” (via The Paris Review)
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Dive, by Dawn West & God's Man, by Meg Sefton →
Today is a day for short, powerful stories. Right? Right. So, here are two that I’ve been enjoying lately: “Dive,” by Dawn West (from SmokeLong Quarterly) and “God’s Man,” by Meg Sefton (from Wufniks, a wonderful new online journal). Please, enjoy, and have a fourth cup of coffee for me.
from “Dive”:
“The cicadas are back, vibrating around...
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Online Literary Journals Come of Age: 15 Top... →
If you read fwriction, you know of my love for the online literary journal. Hence, I enjoyed Anis Shivani’s HuffPo Books piece a great deal; check out what some of the top online literary editors have to say about this “coming of age” story.
Thom Didato, founding editor of failbetter.com:
And let’s face it, what is “new” changes rather quickly. In many ways,...
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Literary Remains
newsweek takes a tour through the late David Foster Wallace’s just-released archives. Read the story; see the photos:
On Feb. 7, 1972, when David Foster Wallace was 9 years old, he began work on a creative-writing assignment—a one-page story narrated by a tea kettle. “Hi I am a kettle,” his protagonist says, by way of introduction, adding: “Ouch! Listen I come to you for advice. This flame is...
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“I’ll hold on to the world tight some day. I’ve got one finger on it now; that’s...”
– Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
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The Birthday Girl, by Kevin Canty →
I’m a big fan of Kevin Canty’s short stories, and I think it’s about time everybody knows it, dammit. Here’s “The Birthday Girl,” from the collection Where the Money Went, published in The L Magazine. Enjoy today’s story of the day, please!
“The Sip ‘n’ Dip Lounge, you see, is on the second floor of the motel, and the pool is on the...
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You Are Not the Only One Writing About Moldavian... →
from The Faster Times, Chloe Cooper Jones’s “Dialogues,” with George Saunders and Deb Olin Unferth discussing MFA programs. A wonderful read:
The Faster Times: Deb and George: How do you encourage your students to use their discomfort or disequilibrium toward the production of good writing? How do you encourage students to do more than what is expected of them? To break them...
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2010 National Book Awards →
Congratulations to the 2010 NBA winners and nominees:
Fiction—Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule
Nonfiction—Patti Smith, Just Kids
Poetry—Terrance Hayes, Lighthead
“There’s nothing more beautiful in the material world than the book.” — Patti Smith, in her National Book Award acceptance speech.
(Bonus: A great piece on Jaimy Gordon, and how her novel almost never...
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10 Online Lit Mags You Should Be Reading →
Thanks to Flavorwire for this. I adore online literary journals, and I think you should, too. This is a great list (be sure to check “hungry for more” at the end, which notes fwriction favorites: The Collagist, Annalemma, and failbetter).
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“…it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you...”
– Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
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If you're into that sort of thing, fwriction is... →
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A Certain Number of Bedrooms, A Certain Number of... →
After finishing up Matt Bell’s How They Were Found, I was, admittedly feeling a small hole in my literary life. How to fill this void? Oh, I know—share some of Bell’s brilliance with my readers.
So, today’s stories of the day are two of my favorites from the collection: “The Receiving Tower,” from Willow Springs, and “A Certain Number of Bedrooms, A...
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Tumblr Tuesday Is You're the Best Around Day
Well, not me. I’m having more of a “why the fuck do I bother to write anymore?” kind of morning. However, I realized, as I downed my coffee at an unhealthy yet furiously satisfying rate, there are many Tumblr blogs that brighten my day and which I fail to recognize often enough. So, on this Tumblr Tuesday, listen to some Joe Esposito and check out the following...
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“He was ready to stop moving, finally, to stop becoming.”
– Andrew Ervin, “14 Bagatelles”
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A Kind of Flag-Planting: Sarah Layden Interviews... →
I love Aimee Bender’s writing, and I love Guernica, so this interview, by Sarah Layden, scratches me right where I itch:
Guernica: Your book really gripped me. For some reason, the ending and the character of Joseph left me thinking of David Foster Wallace, a writer I never got to meet, but whose writing and interviews have impacted me greatly. Perhaps I am projecting my own experience...
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April 20, 2008, by Benjamin Percy →
I had the pleasure of seeing Benjamin Percy read at McNally Jackson a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been anxious to share some of his writing on fwriction. His new novel, The Wilding, is making the literary rounds, wowing and delighting readers. (I cannot help but hear Percy’s voice when I read his work.)
Today’s story of the day comes from Esquire, where Percy is a...
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“Tossing the note back onto the oak, Karen went to Richard. She settled her body...”
– “This Is How You Will Die”
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Reasons To Revisit Kafka →
from HTMLGiant, a reminder:
“I believe that you should only read books that bite and sting. If the book we are reading doesn’t hit us like a fist on the head, why are we reading the book? For it to make us happy, you write? My God, happy we would also be if we had no books, and such books that make us unhappy we can write ourselves if need be. We need books that affect us like a misfortune, that...
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KVJ's Tips for Writing Fiction →
Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
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“The ending changes everything that came before it.”
– Edan Lepucki, If You’re Not Yet Like Me
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Robert Lowell, "For The Union Dead" (The Atlantic,... →
“The old South Boston Aquarium stands in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded. The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales. The airy tanks are dry.”
Robert Lowell, “For The Union Dead” (The Atlantic, 1960). The poem turns 50 today.
Today is Veteran’s Day. If you know someone who has served the country, be sure to thank them....
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Signposts in a Strange Land: Writing in New... →
Matt Robison, of The Morning News, discusses writing in New Orleans, “from Early Times to Katrina cliches,” with a circle of writers:
Pia Z. Ehrhardt: The city’s charms and clichés are hard to keep at bay. Before Katrina, I worked small, inside the houses, inside the characters. I’m interested in the unexpected, corner-of-the-frame details. The stuff tourists can’t get to without a...
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“bravado:
should not be confused with bravery. It is a swaggering or boastful...”
– Bill Bryson, Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words