May 2011
50 posts
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Short Story Month comes to a close
What a wonderful month for fiction writing—here at fwriction and fwriction : review, we had a blast showcasing some amazing short stories.
Here were the four waffle-rocking writers showcased at fwriction : review during Short Story Month:
S.H. Gall’s “Miniature Golf”
Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé’s Two Postcard Fictions
Alison Barker’s “Fact...
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“You wield a mean toothpick, Fly said as I skewered another cube. I like finger...”
– Julie Innis, “Fly”
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Story of the Day: Fly, by Julie Innis →
Julie Innis’s work has been featured as the story of the day several times before (the stories can be found here, here, and here), which should be an indication of just how strong a punch her writing can pack. She’s a waffle-rocker of the highest order.
This story, “Fly,” from the new issue of fwriction : review, is already creating a buzz. (Pun intended, please.)...
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From Hazel Foster - Short Story Month 2011: “Sweet... →
Thanks so much to Hazel Foster for saying such lovely things about fwriction : review, as well as showcasing Frank Hinton’s delicious “Sweet Potato Fries Please” for Short Story Month.
This gave me a case of the smiles.
fwriction : review is a fledgling online literary magazine, fresh with smart fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The site is simply designed and...
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Caught Telling Fiction by Jessica Francis Kane →
This is a great essay in The Morning News by The Report novelist Jessica Francis Kane. The line dividing literary and historical fiction is often so damn blurry.
I find it hard to define exactly the difference between fiction and historical fiction. When is the cutoff date? Who decides? Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, published in 1951, is set during WWII but is not generally described as...
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The new issue of fwriction : review is live! Our... →
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Top Ten Short Stories, according to us: The Long... →
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Where I Write #9: A Cabin On The Lakefront, from... →
“I spent most of my time on a lawn chair in front of the cabin, writing, my laptop warm on my thighs. I would stop every now and then to stare out at the lake, watching him fish, marveling at how he could sit so perfectly still, so patiently, waiting for the promise of something.”
This piece by Roxane Gay, written for The Rumpus, is one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever...
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Things Worth Saving, by Foster Trecost →
The new issue of Atticus Review brought this great story of the day from Foster Trecost. It’s some flash fiction for your Wednesday. I hope you enjoy, and share it with a friend. Keep Short Story Month going!
It felt like I was in the wrong house, one that looked like mine, but belonged to someone else. When she found me drinking a glass of water in the kitchen, her eyes glazed over. It...
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“The couples’ counselor gave them an assignment: draw your relationship, she...”
– Alison Barker, “Fact of Life”
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While She Is Dying, by xTx →
I love this story of the day, one I came across in Necessary Fiction (a freaking-amazing literary journal) a few months back. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Also, I hope it makes you crave Klondike Bars.
The first book from writer xTx, Normally Special, is available now from Tiny Hardcore Press. Enjoy “While She Is Dying,” and share it with people who love good fiction...
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SSM 2011: Charles Baxter Against Epiphanies, from... →
Characters in short stories, unlike the characters in novels, do not, as a rule, make long-term plans. They tend, instead, to be creatures of impulse.
The ending of the short story often does glance uneasily toward the future, but stories frequently try to keep both the past and the future bracketed and separate.
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“Someday I hope to sit in a chair in another country, looking out the window at...”
– Raymond Carver, “Kafka’s Watch”
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A review of fwriction : review's latest story for... →
thethingstheyread:
Alison Barker’s “Fact of Life” is up at fwriction : review. And it’s amazing. (Not just because it takes place in my two homes: Georgia & Massachusetts.)
Fantastic review of fwriction : review’s new issue, “Fact of Life” by Alison Barker. Thanks so much to The Things They Read. You’re swell.
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Fact of Life, by Alison Barker →
Alison Barker is no stranger to fwriction’s story of the day: her story, “Your Breakup,” (originally in Monkeybicycle), was both a story of the day, as well as a pick for “Best of Story of the Day” at the end of last year.
I felt amazingly honored to receive this story at fwriction : review. “Fact of Life” is dynamic, poignant, and heartbreaking at...
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Berthier Door, by Mark Reep →
Today’s story of the day comes from Used Furniture Review, one of my favorite literary journals. Mark Reep, editor of Ramshackle Review, has written a lovely piece of flash fiction here, and I’m happy to share it with you all.
Say there’s a Berthier door somewhere. If you don’t know, look it up.
Are you enjoying Short Story Month? I know I am.
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“The end of a song should arrive before it signs its last heave or sigh. A...”
– Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, “Wait Please”
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Shudder, Click, by Lindsay Tigue →
Lindsay Tigue, who blogs about fiction at I Heart Short Stories, has a wonderful new short story, “Shudder, Click,” at Bearcreekfeed, a swell online literary journal that only publishes a few stories each year. Congrats to Tigue for making the exclusive cut; after reading this story of the day, you will know why.
Dill handed a copy of the woman’s series of severe and unsmiling photos...
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"Fanboy" by Alexander Chee, from The Morning News →
I am in love with this essay by Alexander Chee in The Morning News. Comic books, superheroes, a boy growing up—I’m not sure I could separate the three anymore.
My fantasy of being a mutant was something that helped me keep going. At the supermarket when people asked my white mom, “Whose little boy is this?” sometimes I would defiantly insist I was hers, sometimes say nothing, but I’d...
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Will Ferrell Channels Raymond Carver — And It... →
I saw this movie yesterday, and I must say: Yes. Combining my love for Will Ferrell and Raymond Carver, Everything Must Go is a movie full of laughs and sadness. Dan Rush has done a wonderful job of taking Carver’s gorgeous short story, “Why Don’t You Dance?” and building it into a larger, wholly-satisfying narrative.
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Two Postcard Fictions, by Desmond Kon... →
From the new issue of fwriction : review comes Two Postcard Fictions, well-crafted and engaging short stories written by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé.
This weekend’s story of the day continues our celebration of Short Story Month. I’m excited to be publishing such wonderful work. As always, thank you for reading.
from Two Postcard Fictions (“Wait Please):
Gerard’s...
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Nine, by Aryn Kyle →
I really, really enjoyed Aryn Kyle’s short story collection, Boys and Girls Like You and Me; in addition, she blogged about her book tour, which provided hours of entertainment.
This story, “Nine,” originally published in The Atlantic, might be my favorite (though, it was hard to pick a fav).
I know that the story of the day here at fwriction hasn’t been as consistent as...
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"New York, I love you but…" - A review of my long... →
Over at this page is infinite, the blog for Found Press, there’s an amazing review by Kurt Wong of my long story, “Somehow There Was More Here.”
This made me smile.
Let me let you in on a little secret I was told post-coital. New York is merely a reflection of her residents. When the city is raw and uncontrollable, indecisive and manic, so too are the lives of the bankers,...
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“She is afraid of falling off the earth.”
– Aryn Kyle, “Nine”
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Short Story Month continues at fwriction : review!... →
Read it. Love it. Share it on Facebook. Tweet it. Reblog it. However you do it, pass it on to anyone who loves good writing!
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“I was confused, and sad in a way I didn’t yet understand.”
– S.H. Gall, “Miniature Golf”
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The joy of unhappy marriage literature →
Guardian Books takes a look at the literature of unhappy marriage, from Richard Yates to Madame Bovary. If you’ve read my writing, you know I’m a fan of this literary arena.
The kind of fury and disgust, often inspired by little more than boredom, that someone can feel against a spouse is explored at length in the novels and short stories of Richard Yates. For Yates, every husband is...
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Roxane Gay's Review of Other People We Married →
fwriction favorites Roxane Gay and Emma Straub come together in this HTMLGIANT review of Straub’s collection, Other People We Married. Win.
When we talk about clean writing and minimilast writing, our natural instinct is to discuss Raymond Carver who is so widely known for his stripped down writing, telling big stories with as little artifice as possible. The stories in Other People We...
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Read a Tumblr Devoted to Ridiculous High School... →
Perhaps my favorite:
“The potato literally encouraged the Irish to overbreed.”
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“I wrote this book. Please buy it. I love you.” -... →
This look at writer/booksellers by J. Courtney Sullivan inThe New York Times Book Review is a great read.
Like all good independent bookstores, BookCourt in Brooklyn has a robust section of staff recommendations. There, nestled in with titles by Jennifer Egan, Haruki Murakami and David Foster Wallace, is “Other People We Married,” a collection of short stories by Emma Straub. A handwritten note...
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The Wigleaf TOP 50 [Very] Short Fictions 2011 →
This is a ridonculously awesome list, with kickass writers like Matt Bell, Aaron Burch, Blake Butler, Roxane Gay, Len Kuntz, Sara Lippman, Kyle Minor, and Amber Sparks, along with many more brilliant writers. Congratulations to all, and a thanks to Wigleaf for putting this together.
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TrainWrite: "Violoncello," by Danny Goodman →
trainwrite:
by Danny Goodman Conductor’s Note: Today marks the one year anniversary of TrainWrite. To celebrate, please enjoy some new flash fiction by fwriction’s Danny Goodman, who has been a contributor to and supporter of TrainWrite since its first post. This weekend, be sure to re-visit…
A big, big thank you to KES over at TrainWrite. Amazing writer, editor, and person. Heart.
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Happy Cinco de Mayo! Short Story Month kicks off... →
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“The words meant something once, when they were young and perfect. When she...”
– Danny Goodman, “Don’t Forget You Love Me” (forthcoming, in Used Furniture Review)
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NOÖ Journal gives me a case of the smiles →
I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve such kindess, but there have been some nice things said about fwriction : review and fwriction over the past week. (This past weekend, I picked up a copy of Paul Lisicky’s The Burning House at McNally Jackson and found fwriction : review mentioned in the Acknowledgments; this is the first time I’ve seen the journal in print,...
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Short Story Month at fwriction : review
Four writers will make Short Story Month awesomeface at fwriction : review:
S.H. Gall: “Miniature Golf”
Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé: Two Postcard Fictions
Alison Barker: “Fact of Life”
Julie Innis: “Fly”
I cannot stop smiling, and the writers published in fwriction : review have a lot to do with it. It feels like a gift, the opportunity to...
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“…I felt certain no one else could see Long Island like this. We were so...”
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Sloane Crosley Finds Sad Stuff →
Thought Catalog interviews fwriction favorite, Sloane Crosley:
Your stories are also heavily centered around New York City and the New York life-style, so what’s your favorite thing about living here? What’s your least favorite thing?
Some favorite things are the food, the architecture, the very late nights, Central Park, The Westside Highway, outdoor drinking, The New York Public Library...
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On Call of Duty: Black Ops and Lydia Davis →
Ryan Call, writing for HTMLGIANT, brings a strong early addition to Short Story Month.
I found that I could read again, and suddenly I could write again too. And so now I’m back to work, writing on a story collection that’s been an ongoing thing since late 2007 as well as something that could be a longer thing, which I just started. This is a step that has been incredibly difficult for me to...
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Nominees for Danuta Gleed Literary Award announced →
Congratulations to all the nominees of this fine award!
The finalists for the 2010 Danuta Gleed Literary Awards, which recognizes the best debut collection of short fiction released each year, were announced on Monday. The award is named after Danuta Gleed, a writer whose first collection of short stories,One of the Chosen, was posthumously published after her death in December, 1996.
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“Forms of play: head butting; mounting, either at the back or at the front;...”
– Lydia Davis, The Cows
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