April 2010
80 posts
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Phantom Pain, by Lydia Peelle →
I woke up feeling strange. Later, while walking to get coffee, I saw a tree with the words “Fuck God” etched into the bark. Immediately, I was reminded of this Lydia Peelle story. Thus, today’s Story of the Day, bringing a bit of oddness to this final day of April:
“Twenty years in a taxidermy shop and Jack Wells has heard his share of tall tales, near misses, the one that...
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The Monster Impulse →
Reese Okyong Kwon, writing for The Rumpus, takes a look at the growing trend of young writers looking to “monsters” in order to cope with life’s difficulties:
“For the most part, realism has held sway ever since, making it easy to forget that a devotion to verisimilitude is still a relatively modern development in the history of the story. From Gilgamesh to the Bible, from...
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Tonight The Coastline Is Quiet, by Nick Mainieri →
Week two of Jazz Fest continues today, and even a cursory look at the schedule leaves me aching a bit: Mardi Gras Indians, Amanda Shaw, Soul Rebels, Elvis Costello.
In order to, selfishly, bring myself a little closer to the Crescent City, today’s Story of the Day is a nonfiction piece from Nick Mainieri, taken from New Orleans online journal NOLAFugees.com. “Tonight The Coastline Is...
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On Writing →
From Cobble Hill book purveyors Bookcourt comes a great list of resources for readers and writers alike.
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The House as Rita Sees It, by Ben Greenman →
From Harper Perennial’s Fifty-Two Stories with Cal Morgan comes the Story of the Day. Ben Greenman has an ability to write singularly unique stories, even in floor plan:
“When she just cannot eat another goddamned hamburger. She comes here to smoke in the dark.”
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“It’s basically, you know, welcome to my mind for twenty pages. See through...”
– David Foster Wallace, from David Lipsky’s although of course you end up becoming yourself
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Superman Comes to Dinner →
No, I’m not making my own piece the Story of the Day; rather, I sometimes forget about this short story (it’s a couple years old now), and just how fun it was to write. Superman, Murder, She Wrote, dentures in Chardonnay - it’s got it all:
“Nathan puts his face into his hands, wondering why nobody notices his new suit: the red and blue fabric, taken from pieces of...
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literary characters and their modern-day tabloid... →
paperbackgirl:
my latest piece for flavorwire.
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Acclaimed novelist Chang-rae Lee shares meticulous... →
Princeton Professor Chang-rae Lee—regarded as one of the most talented novelists of his generation—painstakingly composes every sentence of his works, revising each one 10 or 20 times, not moving on until he is satisfied[…]
As director of the Program in Creative Writing in the University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, Lee brings this meticulous nature to the classroom, where he...
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Awake, by Tobias Wolff →
Tobias Wolff is my current obsession, and thus, Story of the Day. This piece, “Awake,” was published in The New Yorker in the summer of 2008:
“He settled back against the pillow. He closed his eyes, but just then Ana made a little snort and moved beside him, giving off a fresh wave of warmth, and, faintly, that sweet warm bed-smell of hers, like baking bread, and he lay there...
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“For the details to be concrete and convey meaning, the language must be accurate...”
– Raymond Carver, “On Writing”
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Though We May Not Discuss, by Kelcy Wilburn →
Today’s Story of the Day is a bit of a cheat: it’s a poem. However, it’s a fantastic, waffle-rocking poem by Kelcy Wilburn, a writer and musician living in New Orleans and earning her MFA in poetry at the University of New Orleans. This is the title poem from her thesis:
and everything with a hardness to it like the canyon you paint over the white walls in your new white...
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Liberty Magazine Reborn →
Liberty Magazine, which brought together the writings of literary and cultural giants such as Winston Churchill, H.L. Mencken, Joe DiMaggio, George Bernard Shaw, Benito Mussolini, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been reborn, online, by Robert Whiteman:
Mr. Whiteman has spent the last couple of years collating and organizing the collected materials of the magazine, 1,387 issues’ worth, in the...
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Marvel's 'Avengers': Can the Superhero Film Be... →
Austin Grossman, author of the brilliant novel Soon I Will Be Invincible, takes a look at Joss Whedon’s ability to make a worthy superhero film:
“But there is a central truth about superhero films, that Whedon obviously gets. It’s not about banter or bigger explosions or CGI or moral clarity. Superheroes aren’t better or purer than other people, they are interesting because they’re...
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Author Alan Sillitoe, 82, dies in London →
Alan Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner is one of those seminal books in my writing life, one that pushed me, early on, in the right direction.
Rest in peace, Mr. Sillitoe.
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Last Teacher In, First Out? City Has Another Idea →
Dear Mr. Klein,
You know what else “upends [your] efforts of the last few years?” Laying off 8,500, desperately-needed educators:
“Facing the likelihood of the largest number of layoffs in more than a generation, Mr. Klein and his counterparts around the country say that the rules, which require that the most recently hired teachers be the first to lose their jobs, are...
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“Sometimes to walk in shaded parts of Manhattan is to be inserted into a...”
– Joseph O’Neill, Netherland
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Killer Heart, by Barb Johnson →
To celebrate the kickoff of Jazz Fest 2010, today’s Story of the Day comes from a brilliant New Orleans writer, Barb Johnson. Her debut collection of stories, More of This World or Maybe Another, is one of the most fantastic works in recent memory. This story, “Killer Heart,” will stick to your bones:
“The monster Victorian faces Magazine Street and, along with its...
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New 'Rant' from Canadian Jay - "Episode III: 'I... →
Need a taste? Here you go:
“God, I want a hooker right now. They’d be pretty cheap right?”
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Tasting The Flavors Of Life As Only 'George' Could →
Simon Van Booy, author of two story collections: The Secret Lives of People in Love and Love Begins in Winter, takes a stroll down Plimpton lane:
“Through the laughter and longing that echo in the pages of George, Being George, Plimpton has been returned to me, more alive than he ever was, an apparition hovering somewhere between my own life and the ones I can only imagine.”
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The Smoothest Way Is Full of Stones, by Julie... →
Today’s story comes from Zoetrope and a fantastic young writer, Julie Orringer. Her debut short story collection, How to Breathe Underwater, is one of my favorites of the last five years. This story is taken from that collection:
“We aren’t supposed to be swimming at all. It is Friday afternoon, and we’re supposed to be bringing groceries home to Esty’s mother so...
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© Infringement
After spending weeks writing my newest short story, I opted for immediate edits. One page in, however, it was quite clear that all I had done was bootleg the original Star Wars tale, replacing Luke Skywalker with David Smith and Han Solo with Danny Goodman, along with other subtle changes. The rest, with the exception of my mother supplanting Chewbacca, remained the same.
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“The thieves were singing, too. They turned at the end of the block and made...”
– Tobias Wolff, ”Worldly Goods”
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The Art of Nonfiction No. 3: An Interview with... →
A great interview, with one of the masters of nonfiction, from The Paris Review:
“You’re out there completely on your own—all you’ve got to do is write. OK, it’s nine in the morning. All I’ve got to do is write. But I go hours before I’m able to write a word. I make tea. I mean, I used to make tea all day long. And exercise, I do that every other day. I sharpened pencils in the old days...
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Rants from Canadian Jay, a Living Character →
If you’ve never taken a look at these hilarious, philosophical rants by Canadian Jay, please check them out. You won’t be sorry. Look for more in this continuing series under the “Fictions & Nonfictions” page on fwriction.
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The Books They Read on TV's 'Mad Men' →
What are you doing on July 25? I know what I’m doing. In the meantime, here’s a great book list from the folks over at Flashlight Worthy to tide you over.
School Districts Warn of Even Deeper Teacher Cuts →
The lunacy in this staggers me:
“As a result, the 2010-11 school term is shaping up as one of the most austere in the last half century. In addition to teacher layoffs, districts are planning to close schools, cut programs, enlarge class sizes and shorten the school day, week or year to save money.”
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Thoughts While Sitting On My Toilet, Which Is...
I read that, in some textbooks, use of the term Mother Russia is banned, as it may be offensive and sexist towards women, mothers in particular. Instead, a replacement has been chosen: Russia, vast land of rich harvests. So, rather than approach anything that could possibly be construed as controversial yet accurate, textbooks have resorted to altering history. I mean, where would some of us be...
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In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried, by Amy... →
For me, it’s hard to follow Ray Carver. But, if any short story writer can do it, it’s Amy Hempel. This isn’t my favorite Hempel piece, but it’s certainly her most widely known. If you’ve never read Amy Hempel, begin the journey here. You won’t be sorry:
“Tell me things I won’t mind forgetting,” she said. “Make it useless stuff or skip...
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The Poet →
A powerful, subtle new post from I Eat My Pigeon:
I walked on, but when I looked back, the poet was lashing a bottle of water over his work. And within minutes, both the words and the poet were gone.
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Six-Word Memoirs at SMITH Magazine →
The shortest non-fiction piece I’ve ever written.
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Beginners, by Raymond Carver →
Because every week should begin with some Ray Carver:
Herb looked at Laura. It was as if he couldn’t place her for a minute. She kept looking at him, holding her smile. Her cheeks were flushed and the sun was hitting her in the eyes, so she squinted to see him. His features relaxed. “Love you, too, Laura. And you, Nick. I’ll tell you, you’re our pals,” Herb said. He picked up his glass. “Well,...
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In His Private Books, Signs of Mark Twain as... →
One of the most insightful aspects of this article is the link to actual annotations and margin notes by Twain. (NYT, you are super savvy.) Twain’s sense of humor, as well as his stringent, unwavering eye for grammar, make the annotations more than just margin scribble. He corrects Rudyard Kipling’s verb form (“heaved” to “hove”) and changes a comma to a...
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Keep Your Team Out of My Book →
A hilarious essay by Joe Queenan on the intrusion of certain sports teams into writing:
“My revulsion does not end with the Yankees. I also refuse to read books whose characters or authors have any affiliation with the Dallas Cowboys, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Duke University men’s basketball team, the University of Southern California football team or Manchester United, the Yankees’...
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Third Degree Burns →
Interesting piece regarding publishing, MFA programs, writers, and editors:
“The membership director of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses takes the editor of Virginia Quarterly Review to task over his article on what’s killing literary fiction. Says Jay Baron Nicorvo, the writers aren’t the problem; it’s the editors.”
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The Southern Review Baseball Issue Is Out! →
The Southern Review’s baseball-themed Spring 2010 issue (Volume 46:2) has been released, and it’s a damn strong one. My buddy, Nicholas Mainieri, has a brilliant story, “This Game Do That To You,” published alongside Steve Almond, Ron Currie Jr., Michael Czyzniejewski, Pat Jordan, former ballplayer Doug Glanville, and many more.
To order this issue, or a subscription...
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A New Era in Short Fiction Publishing? →
“Orbit (US) has offered to publish digital editions of all original short fiction written by its authors. The digital editions will be distributed widely through major retail channels, for reading on a variety of devices. Authors will be paid a royalty for each story sold, rather than the flat fee more common in the short story market.”
What David Foster Wallace Circled in His... →
ubiquitousamericana:
(via campbasement)
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How to Write in 700 Easy Lessons, by Richard... →
I don’t agree with everything that Bausch asserts in this essay, included in Atlantic’s Fiction 2010 issue, but many of his observations make me think, which is ultimately the purpose, I believe:
“And wanting to write is so much more than a pose. To my mind, nothing is as important as good writing, because in literature, the walls between people and cultures are broken down, and...
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In Praise of the Light-Footed Indie Publisher →
“… The best writers write because they have to, but the best editors edit because they want to. It’s the editors, not the writers, who need encouraging.”
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Writers Read: Steven Church →
Steven Church, author of The Day After The Day After: My Atomic Angst, Theoretical Killings: Essays and Accidents, The Guinness Book of Me: a Memoir of Record, and founding editor of the literary magazine, The Normal School, was asked what he was reading.
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"Betty the Zombie," by Elizabeth Crane →
Check out a great short story from Elizabeth Crane on CellStories. Point your mobile devices and enjoy this innovative literary journal!
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The Shadow Editors: James Frey's Introduction to... →
Choire Sicha and Tom Scocca discuss James Frey writing about reality.
“The influence of fake reality IS pervasive.”
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Is it a Novel, Yet?
I showed the security man (I say “man,” because there was no “guard” in him) my ID—it still read New Orleans, LA, as I had neither the time nor resolve to replace it since my move back to Brooklyn—and he buzzed us in. He was old, much too old to be sitting outside this bar without a drink, and he called me Son as the beaten, wooden door scraped against the frame. Inside,...
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"About Ernest Hemingway": VQR's 1953 review of... →
“I confess that I am unable to share in the prevailing wild enthusiasm for this new book of Hemingway’s, The Old Man and the Sea. It is of course a remarkable advance over his last novel; and it has a purity of line and a benignity, a downright saintliness, of tone which would seem to indicate not merely that he has sloughed off his former emotional fattiness but that he has expanded...
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Roberto Bolaño: “Prefiguration of Lalo Cura” →
Short story, from the latest issue of The New Yorker.
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Willow Springs Interviews Charles Baxter →
The Spring 2010 issue of Willow Springs has a great conversation with author Charles Baxter.
His short story, “The Next Building I Plan to Bomb,” is still one of my favorites. I have used the story in teaching for years, especially when taken from Fiction Gallery, an excellent fiction anthology for writers and teachers alike.
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poet.writer. →
A blog about poetry, and writing in New York City, from teacher and award-winning poet, DéLana Dameron. Her debut collection, How God Ends Us, was awarded the 2008 South Carolina Poetry Book Prize.
It’s National Poetry Month: treat yourself to some brilliant writing.
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‘Tinkers’ by Paul Harding: The One That Got Away →
“Every now and then a good book completely passes us by: we don’t get a copy, for whatever reason, and we don’t request one because the book’s not on our radar. That’s what happened with Paul Harding’s first novel, Tinkers, which was published at the beginning of 2009 by the Bellevue Literary Press, a small publisher that had only been in business for a couple of years. Now Tinkers has gone...