September 2010
57 posts
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“Competitive tennis … requires geometric thinking, the ability to calculate...”
– David Foster Wallace, “Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley”
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The Rumpus Interview With Lydia Davis →
I heart Lydia Davis, and so does The Rumpus. Enjoy some insights from one of the greatest writers working today:
“I’d say of course love exists—we have only to consider our child, or our dog, to know that. It’s changeable just because everything is changeable, because we’re alive. In fact, I think it is a very deep instinct in us to welcome change. That’s why sometimes good things are...
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Dead Writers Club: Happy Deathday Monsieur... →
French Poet Charles Baudelaire died of a stroke on this day in 1867. He is buried in Paris, France.
If you’ve not read Baudelaire’s work and you like cynical, deeply moving, dramatic, dark and sensually lyrical poetry with a dash of melancholy thrown in for good measure; then Baudelaire is…
August 2010
44 posts
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The World In Flames, by Jess Row →
FiveChapters is an endless well of wonderful short story writing, a truth heightened by the announcement of FC’s move into book publishing: next year, both Emma Straub’s Other People We Married and (today’s SoTD author) Jess Row’s Nobody Ever Gets Lost will be published via FiveChapters Books.This makes me immensely giddy.
For today, please enjoy this short story from...
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Mrs. Budweiser, by David Kirby →
A friend read me a couple of David Kirby’s poems yesterday in Central Park, and now I cannot get enough. I saw him read years ago in Tallahassee, but I’d forgotten just how affecting his work was.
Smartish Pace has published a few of Kirby’s poems, but this one, “Mrs. Budweiser,” is available online. I hope you enjoy today’s SoTD, in poetry form:
“Busty...
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“Such are the Splendors and Miseries of memory: it is proud of its ability to...”
– Milan Kundera, “The Total Rejection of Heritage, or Iannis Xenakis”
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Encounter: Essays by Milan Kundera →
Currently reading. You should, too.
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When I Say Love, by Meredith Martinez →
I came across this poem/flash fiction piece in the Best of the Web 2010, with which I am currently obsessed, and now I cannot shake it from my mind. I hope you enjoy this Story of the Day over the weekend. Deep breaths, courtesy of Meredith Martinez and Contrary Magazine.
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“It is to erase the fixed smiles of sleeping couples that Satan trained roosters...”
– Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume
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Novels for the Emerging Adult →
Am I an emerging adult? Hmm. Well, I’m something.
Love this list from The Book Bench:
“So Robin Marantz Henig’s piece about emerging adulthood in the Times (twenty-somethings who flit from job to job and relationship to relationship and live in their childhood bedrooms) resonated, even with those of us who are, ahem, no longer in our twenties (it would make me feel much better, in...
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'Dear Sugar' Does It Again: Write Like A... →
The Rumpus’s Sugar is just fantastic. Here’s her latest, which is a keeper:
“But the best possible thing you can do is get your ass down onto the floor. Write so blazingly good that you can’t be framed. Nobody is going to give you permission to write about your vagina, hon. Nobody is going to give you a thing. You have to give it yourself. You have to tell us what you have to...
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The 17 Most Innovative University Presses And the... →
I love me some UP, hardcore. Here, Anis Shivani provides a solid list of those doing great things in the literary world.
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“For he who follows every shade,
Carries the memory in his breast,
Of each...”
– Charles Baudelaire, “The Owls”
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On Coincidence, Love, and The Unbearable Lightness... →
I’ve been thinking a lot about Kundera lately, and I think, before September ends, I’m going to have to reread The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Book of Laugher and Forgetting. Both brought me to a place, as a reader and a writer, where I was able to spin the camera, so to speak, to add dimension, to “see it all from a new angle, one you didn’t even know was...
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“It is important to remember to use the correct form for subject and object when...”
– The Essential Writer’s Companion
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S.E. Hinton and 'The Outsiders' - Could It Have... →
The Outsiders remains the book that sparked my desire to be a writer. This look at Hinton’s new book, Some of Tim’s Stories, explores the impact The Outsiders has had over the years on teenagers and adults alike:
Inspired by the youth gang rivalries in her hometown, Tulsa, Okla., Hinton began writing “The Outsiders” when she was 15; she received the publishing contract on the day of...
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How To, by Aaron Burch →
I came across this story in the Best of the Web 2010 anthology, and I immediately fell in love with it. Aaron Burch’s How to Predict the Weather can be ordered through Keyhole Press. (A pre-order double pack is available with Matt Bell’s How They Were Found!) Burch also edits the kickass lit journal, Hobart. Enjoy today’s Story of the Day:
“Cut from the front of scalp...
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Short Stories, Summer, and a Lovely Cup of Coffee
I just returned from a kickass reading at Housing Works Bookstore, and I can say positively that it rocked my waffle. Four short story writers, a packed house, and a delicious cup of coffee. Check out all four of these writer’s collections—they’re all worth your time:
Matt Debenham’s The Book of Right and Wrong
Justin Taylor’s Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever
...
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Losing a Pole, by Laura Zigman →
On her blog, HearMeBrant, Zigman writes some wonderful short pieces. “Losing a Pole,” though, struck a cord and has yet to leave me. (Perhaps, in a way, I feel I lost a pole, too, in Harvard Square.) Zigman, author of the novel Animal Husbandry, explores so poignantly the difficulties of what “losing a pole” can mean:
“And we’re always waiting for the strange guy to...
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Literary Boston →
I enjoy Boston quite a bit, so when I found this list from The Boston Globe, it made my day. Perhaps there’s a literary excursion in my future.
(TrainWrite, I see a potential series for you…)
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“I know I’m in here.”
– Joshua Braff, Peep Show
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Why are American writers so good at coming-of-age... →
Another insightful article from the folks at the Guardian Books Blog (this time, Imogen Russell-Williams):
“Does a recent wave of compelling coming-of-age stories by American authors suggest a national quality that lends itself to a mastery of the genre?”
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Do You Like Me?
Yes
No
Maybe
(If “Yes”: good, because I like you too. Let’s go get malteds and share onion rings.)
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European fiction: dry and academic? →
From the Guardian, an interesting look at comments made during the Edinburgh Int’l Book Festival regarding European fiction:
Christos Tsiolkas blew into the Edinburgh international book festivalat the weekend and – in his rather charming and straightforward way – added to the little aura of controversy that is hovering around his book The Slap, by opining that contemporary European...
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“The feeling wasn’t so bad, the feeling of being lost.”
– Leonard Michaels, “Nachman at the Races”
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The Missing Statues, by Simon Van Booy →
I’ve made no secret of my love for Simon Van Booy’s writing. This Story of the Day, one you should enjoy over the weekend, will stick with you. (Thanks to Cal Morgan and Fifty-Two Stories for this.)
Like SVB’s previous contribution to SoTD, this story appears in his collection, Love Begins in Winter; both it and his first, The Secret Lives of People in Love, are worth your time...
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The Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 3:... →
Graham Greene has some interesting thoughts on character and novel writing in this interview with The Paris Review from Autumn 1953:
“No, one never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one cannot remember what toothpaste they use, what are their views on interior decoration, and one is stuck utterly.”
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Is He Really the Great American Novelist? →
Is Jonathan Franzen worthy of being the first living American novelist in ten years to grace the cover of Time?
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Who are your favorite underrated writers? →
A great list of underrated writers, from Alison Flood and the Guardian Books Blog.
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“I wondered if it was the residue of adolescence that biased me, that had me...”
– Nic Brown, Doubles
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Literary Drinking Games →
I’ve long celebrated the connection between writing and drinking. It’s nice to see others, like Jennifer Schuessler, enjoying that bond as well. Cheers!
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In Praise of Short: The Novella is Making a... →
I am a big fan of the novella [and read a few this summer: Walks With Men, Fly-Over State, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Women with Men (three novellas), and First Love], and this article from Book Beast does a great job of articulating its versatility and energy:
“But what is a novella anyway? Page count provides the only broadly responsible definition: roughly 60 to 120 pages of prose fiction,...
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Four Short-Short Stories, by Kim Chinquee →
Today’s Stor(ies) of the Day come from Kim Chinquee, a ridiculously talented writer whose work I have only recently discovered but am now devouring with purpose. Dubbed a “queen of flash fiction,” Chinquee’s collections, Oh Baby and Pretty, are worth some summer.
From “It Was Hard to Get Off”:
“She put her wardrobe into boxes, and found a hooded...
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If You Love: monkeys, tacos, zombies, destruction... →
If you love those things, and damn good writing, then check out Lish McBride’s Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, coming in October 2010. You won’t be sorry.
For Lish: Holy Blood!
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20 classic works of gay literature →
“Today U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker struck down Proposition 8, ruling that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry.”
Thank you, Carolyn Kellogg! This is a wonderful list.
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“I hated dancing, but I had never wanted to dance so much in my life. I invented...”
– Nic Brown, Doubles
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The Caterer, by Ann Beattie →
I was reading Narrative on their new iPhone App, and I just fell in love with this story from Ann Beattie. Having read her new book, Walks With Men, this summer, I felt that I should show some of my Beattie love. Thus, today’s Story of the Day:
“Janet hated caller ID, which had simply materialized after she’d had to replace the old phone. To her dismay, after living alone for almost...
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Pottery, by Naomi Kruger →
I love this Story of the Day, and I hope you do, too. Originally published in Wag’s Revue, this piece felt Carver-esque to me. Enjoy “Pottery”:
“Max laid the ingredients out on the dark granite counter. First the pastry, still in its packaging, then the mushroom stuffing he had chilled overnight in the fridge, and finally the beef. It was still fresh, he noticed—no pooling...
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I Think You're Swell
Pretty please.
You’re the best.
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Slate.com's Pre-College Reading List →
A fun list, albeit a difficult one. I love Joseph Mitchell’s presence on the list. Win.
bellcurved:
Of these, the only one I’ve read is Thomas Mann’s Confessions of Felix Krull: Confidence Mann, which I loved and highly reccommend. As for most of the others, feh, but I would consider checking out the Saul Bellow, Geoff Dyer, and Muriel Spark (I enjoyed Memento Mori).
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Indie Bookstores Rising: New York Authors'... →
From New York Magazine comes a great list of indie bookstores. There’s still so much reading to be done.
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“To be a writer was a thing that was.”
– Richard Ford (2009 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival)
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Leaving for Kenosha, by Richard Ford →
Today’s Story of the Day comes from Richard Ford, one of my favorite writers (previously featured on SoTD), and it manages to combine my love of his prose with a passion for New Orleans. That’s a Monday win.
Enjoy “Leaving for Kenosha,” from The New Yorker:
“Because he was a lawyer, Walter knew you didn’t expect to know why most things happened. You made the...
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Lydia Davis: 'My style is a reaction to Proust's... →
Lydia Davis is one of my favorite short story writers, and her ability to write “flash fiction” is something that every student of writing should take note of:
“Lydia Davis is an American short story writer whose work redefines the meaning of brevity. While a few of her stories are of a conventional length, most range from one to three pages, and many are shorter still,...