Lydia Copeland’s stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Night Train, Quick Fiction, Twelve Stories, elimae, Glimmer Train, Dogzplot and others. Her chapbook Haircut Stories is available from the Achilles Chapbook Series, or as part of the chapbook collective Fox Force 5 from Paper Hero Press. She works at the Fashion Institute of Technology library in New York and lives with her husband and son in New Jersey.
what are you reading now
I’m finishing up Deb Olin Unferth’s Vacation and just started What It Is by Lynda Barry, which is a magical book. Also, State of Grace by Joy Williams is on interlibrary loan for me.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Somehow, I’ve never read Steinbeck.
last book to make you laugh out loud
I laughed a few times reading Mary Miller’s Big World and Barry Graham’s The National Virginity Pledge. Mary Robison’s Why Did I Ever always cracks me up.
book you borrowed and never returned
I don’t think I’ve ever done this. I hate borrowing books because it makes me nervous. If I borrow a book from someone, I’ll bring it back early. I’m too worried I’ll lose it or spill something on it that most of the time I don’t even finish the books I borrow.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be the girl from Island of the Blue Dolphins, or the girl brushing and combing the blue-haired pet from Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I have to say, my answers would probably still be the same today.
worst book-to-film adaptation
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
most challenging book you’ve ever read
Joy Williams is always a challenge to read but in a good way. I have to read her sentences slowly, sometimes re-reading whole paragraphs because she packs so much in and nearly every sentence is a marvel.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I don’t own a coffee table, but if I did this answer would change depending on who I was trying to impress. If I were trying to impress my husband for instance, I’d plant Basic Machines and How They Work or The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. For general houseguests, however, I’d probably go with Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Pushcart, hands down.
collected stories of
Ann Beattie
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
NOON
best thing you’ve read online recently
I loved FRiGG’s microfiction issue.
most anticipated upcoming release
This isn’t necessarily upcoming, but it is fairly recent and I can’t wait to read it: One D.O.A., One on the Way by Mary Robison.
recommended reading list:
Books I Read When I Can’t Write
I go through spells where I can’t write. I’m in one right now, and it’s the scariest thing because I think I’ll never be able to write again, that I’ve lost it, or that I never had it to begin with. When I try to write after weeks of not writing, every sentence sounds like shit, and I write for half an hour or so and give up. There are usually several days in a row like this before I decide to just not write at all. After awhile, sometimes a few months, I’ll break out one or all of these books (I just added What It Is to the list because it’s already helping me and I can tell I’m going to need it in the future) and read for a few days, though sometimes it only takes a few hours, and then my little writer’s voice comes back and I can sit down and type and nice things will happen. The Vintage Poetry book and the Frank Stanford book have been the absolute best books at getting me out of these blocks.
- The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry
- The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You by Frank Stanford
- Gathering the Tribes by Carolyn Forché
- Any of the Hate annuals by Peter Bagge
- Tell Me by Mary Robison
- Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison
- What It Is by Lynda Barry
- Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories
- Women by Charles Bukowski
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
31.5.09
29.5.09
Mary Miller
Mary Miller's short story collection, Big World, was published by Short Flight/Long Drive Books in February 2009. Her stories can be found in and forthcoming in Mississippi Review, Oxford American, Black Clock, McSweeney's Quarterly, Versal, Indiana Review, Hobart, and New Stories from the South 2008. She is an associate editor at Quick Fiction.
what are you reading now
I’m having trouble getting into a new book at the moment so I’m reading about five things. It’s sort of annoying. I’m reading James Baldwin’s Another Country (novel), Who Do You Love by Jean Thompson (story collection), Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald (memoir), Pank 3 (literary magazine), and a book on worry because I worry a lot. This list couldn’t be any more scattered or random.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Is Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter a classic? I’ve always been meaning to read this. It’s on my summer reading list.
last book to bring you to tears
I’m a huge James Frey fan. I don’t care about the whole memoir scandal thing. I just finished reading his novel, Bright Shiny Morning. It took me a while to get into, but then I didn’t want it to end. I don’t know if it made me produce actual tears because I don’t cry because I’m so tough, but it made me feel achy and sad. The only problem I have with reading James Frey is that I’ll start to write like him if I’m not careful. I’ll forget all the rules of punctuation and start running my sentences together and other crazy shit.
FYI: James Frey is on Facebook! I just friended him.
book you borrowed and never returned
One day I drove across town to my cousin’s house to babysit her kids and it was really early in the morning for me, like 8:30, and when I got there one of her kids was sick or something and she didn’t need me. I was kind of pissed. I mean, she could have called. Anyway, she started telling me about this great book she’d just finished called The Kite Runner. I worked at a bookstore at the time and refused to read anything popular because it was so annoying, how people are like cows and they all have to read the same thing at once and if someone dies they all rush out to get the memoir he wrote about his father, but she offered to let me borrow it and I wanted to get something out of the whole thing so I said yes. She wrote her name in it so I wouldn’t forget to give it back. I still haven’t read it.
guilty pleasure reading
Some of my favorite books feel like guilty pleasures because of the cover art. Kim Addonizio’s In the Box Called Pleasure, for example. The cover is a close-up of a woman’s feet in black stilettos and her ankles are cuffed together. It’s a small book and easy to carry around but it looks like I’m reading porn. I don’t appreciate that really.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Collected Stories of William Faulkner
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I love BASS and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. If I had to pick one, I’d go with Pushcart because it doesn’t all come down to one guest editor. Like BASS on the year Salman Rushdie picked is not as good as BASS on the year Ann Patchett picked, in my opinion. Of course, I’m partial to women and I don’t like Rushdie, so this makes sense.
collected stories of
Hemingway, Amy Hempel
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Tin House
best thing you’ve read online recently
I’ve been reading some good stuff at Fictionaut, but I guess not everybody is on Fictionaut. Here are a few things I like a lot:
"Cake" by Glen Pourciau
"Home Says" by Mazie Louise Montgomery
from Forever No Lo by Teresa K. Miller
most anticipated upcoming release
I’ve preordered Fox Force 5, a chapbook collective featuring Elizabeth Ellen, Suzanne Burns, Brandi Wells, Lydia Copeland, and Andrea Kneeland (Paper Hero Press). I’ve already read Andrea’s section, Damage Control, and it’s amazing. So, so good.
recommended reading list:
Short Story Collections by Contemporary Female Writers
- Amanda Davis, Circling the Drain
- Judy Budnitz, Flying Leap
- Kuzhali Manickavel, Insects Are Just Like You and Me Except Some of Them Have Wings
- Heather Sellers, Georgia Under Water
- Kim Addonizio, In the Box Called Pleasure
- Susan Minot, Lust and Other Stories
- Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behavior
- Mary Gaitskill, Because They Wanted To
- Christine Schutt, Nightwork
- Lisa Glatt, The Apple’s Bruise
what are you reading now
I’m having trouble getting into a new book at the moment so I’m reading about five things. It’s sort of annoying. I’m reading James Baldwin’s Another Country (novel), Who Do You Love by Jean Thompson (story collection), Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald (memoir), Pank 3 (literary magazine), and a book on worry because I worry a lot. This list couldn’t be any more scattered or random.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Is Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter a classic? I’ve always been meaning to read this. It’s on my summer reading list.
last book to bring you to tears
I’m a huge James Frey fan. I don’t care about the whole memoir scandal thing. I just finished reading his novel, Bright Shiny Morning. It took me a while to get into, but then I didn’t want it to end. I don’t know if it made me produce actual tears because I don’t cry because I’m so tough, but it made me feel achy and sad. The only problem I have with reading James Frey is that I’ll start to write like him if I’m not careful. I’ll forget all the rules of punctuation and start running my sentences together and other crazy shit.
FYI: James Frey is on Facebook! I just friended him.
book you borrowed and never returned
One day I drove across town to my cousin’s house to babysit her kids and it was really early in the morning for me, like 8:30, and when I got there one of her kids was sick or something and she didn’t need me. I was kind of pissed. I mean, she could have called. Anyway, she started telling me about this great book she’d just finished called The Kite Runner. I worked at a bookstore at the time and refused to read anything popular because it was so annoying, how people are like cows and they all have to read the same thing at once and if someone dies they all rush out to get the memoir he wrote about his father, but she offered to let me borrow it and I wanted to get something out of the whole thing so I said yes. She wrote her name in it so I wouldn’t forget to give it back. I still haven’t read it.
guilty pleasure reading
Some of my favorite books feel like guilty pleasures because of the cover art. Kim Addonizio’s In the Box Called Pleasure, for example. The cover is a close-up of a woman’s feet in black stilettos and her ankles are cuffed together. It’s a small book and easy to carry around but it looks like I’m reading porn. I don’t appreciate that really.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Collected Stories of William Faulkner
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I love BASS and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. If I had to pick one, I’d go with Pushcart because it doesn’t all come down to one guest editor. Like BASS on the year Salman Rushdie picked is not as good as BASS on the year Ann Patchett picked, in my opinion. Of course, I’m partial to women and I don’t like Rushdie, so this makes sense.
collected stories of
Hemingway, Amy Hempel
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Tin House
best thing you’ve read online recently
I’ve been reading some good stuff at Fictionaut, but I guess not everybody is on Fictionaut. Here are a few things I like a lot:
"Cake" by Glen Pourciau
"Home Says" by Mazie Louise Montgomery
from Forever No Lo by Teresa K. Miller
most anticipated upcoming release
I’ve preordered Fox Force 5, a chapbook collective featuring Elizabeth Ellen, Suzanne Burns, Brandi Wells, Lydia Copeland, and Andrea Kneeland (Paper Hero Press). I’ve already read Andrea’s section, Damage Control, and it’s amazing. So, so good.
recommended reading list:
Short Story Collections by Contemporary Female Writers
- Amanda Davis, Circling the Drain
- Judy Budnitz, Flying Leap
- Kuzhali Manickavel, Insects Are Just Like You and Me Except Some of Them Have Wings
- Heather Sellers, Georgia Under Water
- Kim Addonizio, In the Box Called Pleasure
- Susan Minot, Lust and Other Stories
- Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behavior
- Mary Gaitskill, Because They Wanted To
- Christine Schutt, Nightwork
- Lisa Glatt, The Apple’s Bruise
28.5.09
Sarah Black
Sarah Black works as a Family Nurse Practitioner in a community health clinic that serves mainly homeless clients. She is a Vet (Navy), and a mother (James, 16). She has written romance, mystery, westerns, but gave up the good life to write flash fiction. This year she decided she would rather read than write, so she started Bannock Street Books, which is devoted to publishing flash fiction and street art. Three chapbooks have been published – Rough Beast, Stories of Exile; Skip, Patch, Eye, Brownie, Chalk, Coming of Age Stories; and Things Are Looking Up! Stories from Work.
what are you reading now
Let’s see – I think I spent the electric bill money this month at the book store: In the Devil’s Territory by Kyle Minor, Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy, just finished Monica Ali’s Alentejo Blue, which I loved. And in the batter’s box is GraceLand by Chris Abani and The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. I’ve been reading some great memoirs, too – Truck and Coop by Michael Perry, both wonderful. I have an affection for old pickup trucks and chicken coops; and The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson. I also recently picked up a copy of Ironweed by William Kennedy at the used bookstore – I must have missed it, and it looks great. I am embarrassed to say I could go on and on!
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Proust, Remembrance of Things Past – though I now understand the newly translated title is In Search of Lost Time. I just turned 49, so I guess I’m ready to have a go at it.
last book to bring you to tears
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx. I did throw up after reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. If I ever find that guy alone in an alley, I’m going to write him a prescription for lithium.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
I think I would like to go to Portugal and live inside the pages of Monica Ali’s Alentejo Blue. I’ve always loved living in a village, and my years in Italy were some of my happiest – my son was born when I was overseas. And that book is so tender and delicate in understanding human failings – lovely.
best book you’ve read so far this year
Oh, that’s hard – fiction, I fell in love with Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. I also really admired The Farther Shore by Matthew Eck. Short story – I read Claire Davis and Etgar Keret for the first time this year and now am a rabid fan of both. I really liked The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan for nonfiction (my family left Oklahoma during the dust bowl) and I loved the two books by Michael Perry mentioned above, Truck and Coop. I don’t really keep track of what I’ve read, I’m afraid.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I don’t have a coffee table! Though I did hide my collection of gay erotic murder mysteries when my mother came to visit.
collected stories of
I’m reading more regional stuff since I moved to Idaho. There is really a rich tradition in the northern Rockies – William Kittredge, Claire Davis, Kim Barnes, Pete Fromm, Mark Spragg. I’ve really enjoyed learning about this part of the country through its stories.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
I only read literary journals online. Faves are flashquake, Word Riot, Slow Trains, FRiGG, SmokeLong Quarterly, Wigleaf, elimae, and sometimes when I am feeling brave I’ll dive into Night Train. I like Blazing! Adventures, too – they published a Western serial pulp of mine I had so much fun writing. I love those old pulp covers.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Elaine Chiew’s "The Sentence" in the March issue of Word Riot. I’m a big fan of her stories. And I guess it’s time for me to go cruise my favorite journals! Oh, I loved the new micro issue of FRiGG.
recommended reading list:
Western Regional Lit
Before I lived in the Northern Rockies, I lived on the Navajo Reservation, so some of my favorite regional writers are from the Southwest, some from the Northwest.
- Dagoberto Gilb: Gritos, Woodcuts of Women, The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuna, The Magic of Blood
- Claire Davis: Labors of the Heart, Winter Range
- Kim Barnes: Finding Caruso, A Country Called Home
- Hampton Sides: Blood and Thunder
- William Kittredge: Hole in the Sky, Owning It All
- Mark Spragg: Where Rivers Change Direction
- Pete Fromm: Indian Creek Chronicles
- John Rember: Coyote in the Mountains (this wonderful chapbook was published by Limberlost Press)
- Ron Carlson: Five Skies
- Edward Abbey: Desert Solitaire
- Gloria Anzaldua: Borderlands
- Larry Watson: Montana 1948
what are you reading now
Let’s see – I think I spent the electric bill money this month at the book store: In the Devil’s Territory by Kyle Minor, Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy, just finished Monica Ali’s Alentejo Blue, which I loved. And in the batter’s box is GraceLand by Chris Abani and The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. I’ve been reading some great memoirs, too – Truck and Coop by Michael Perry, both wonderful. I have an affection for old pickup trucks and chicken coops; and The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson. I also recently picked up a copy of Ironweed by William Kennedy at the used bookstore – I must have missed it, and it looks great. I am embarrassed to say I could go on and on!
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Proust, Remembrance of Things Past – though I now understand the newly translated title is In Search of Lost Time. I just turned 49, so I guess I’m ready to have a go at it.
last book to bring you to tears
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx. I did throw up after reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. If I ever find that guy alone in an alley, I’m going to write him a prescription for lithium.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
I think I would like to go to Portugal and live inside the pages of Monica Ali’s Alentejo Blue. I’ve always loved living in a village, and my years in Italy were some of my happiest – my son was born when I was overseas. And that book is so tender and delicate in understanding human failings – lovely.
best book you’ve read so far this year
Oh, that’s hard – fiction, I fell in love with Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. I also really admired The Farther Shore by Matthew Eck. Short story – I read Claire Davis and Etgar Keret for the first time this year and now am a rabid fan of both. I really liked The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan for nonfiction (my family left Oklahoma during the dust bowl) and I loved the two books by Michael Perry mentioned above, Truck and Coop. I don’t really keep track of what I’ve read, I’m afraid.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I don’t have a coffee table! Though I did hide my collection of gay erotic murder mysteries when my mother came to visit.
collected stories of
I’m reading more regional stuff since I moved to Idaho. There is really a rich tradition in the northern Rockies – William Kittredge, Claire Davis, Kim Barnes, Pete Fromm, Mark Spragg. I’ve really enjoyed learning about this part of the country through its stories.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
I only read literary journals online. Faves are flashquake, Word Riot, Slow Trains, FRiGG, SmokeLong Quarterly, Wigleaf, elimae, and sometimes when I am feeling brave I’ll dive into Night Train. I like Blazing! Adventures, too – they published a Western serial pulp of mine I had so much fun writing. I love those old pulp covers.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Elaine Chiew’s "The Sentence" in the March issue of Word Riot. I’m a big fan of her stories. And I guess it’s time for me to go cruise my favorite journals! Oh, I loved the new micro issue of FRiGG.
recommended reading list:
Western Regional Lit
Before I lived in the Northern Rockies, I lived on the Navajo Reservation, so some of my favorite regional writers are from the Southwest, some from the Northwest.
- Dagoberto Gilb: Gritos, Woodcuts of Women, The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuna, The Magic of Blood
- Claire Davis: Labors of the Heart, Winter Range
- Kim Barnes: Finding Caruso, A Country Called Home
- Hampton Sides: Blood and Thunder
- William Kittredge: Hole in the Sky, Owning It All
- Mark Spragg: Where Rivers Change Direction
- Pete Fromm: Indian Creek Chronicles
- John Rember: Coyote in the Mountains (this wonderful chapbook was published by Limberlost Press)
- Ron Carlson: Five Skies
- Edward Abbey: Desert Solitaire
- Gloria Anzaldua: Borderlands
- Larry Watson: Montana 1948
26.5.09
Sean Lovelace
Sean Lovelace is a professor of creative writing at Ball State University. He writes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Recent publications include Willow Springs, Diagram, Sonora Review, and Black Warrior Review. His works have won several awards, including the prestigious Crazyhorse Fiction Prize. He blogs at seanlovelace.com. His chapbook, How Some People Like Their Eggs, is forthcoming from Rose Metal Press.
what are you reading now
USA Today, Merriam-Webster’s Manual for Writers and Editors, Hobart, Copper Nickel, Sonora Review, Mexican restaurant menus, Excitability by Diane Williams, Light Boxes by Shane Jones, Birdhouse by Ryan J. Rayder (self-published), bills, Brevity & Echo: An Anthology of Short Short Stories, edited by Abigail Beckel and Kathleen Rooney, Quick Fix: Sudden Fiction by Ana Maria Shua, more and more insistent bills, and Birds of America by Lorrie Moore.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Moby Dick, but I probably won’t. I tried twice and failed.
last book to make you laugh out loud
That’s easy. Iceland by Jim Krusoe. Oh man. It’s about this typewriter repairman and his, uh, adventures, with women and with Iceland and with robbing gas stations and with his “failing organ,” etc. The book is amazing in how it sets up characters, gets the reader to invest, and then throws them into volcanoes or ice floes. Krusoe can kill a man’s family in a paragraph, and then a paragraph later the same man is dating a woman who lives in a bar/pet shop. A seriously funny (oxymoron) book. I now want to visit Iceland, which is unfortunate since a plane ticket is $1300. I checked. Well, later.
book you borrowed and never returned
I have it right here in my office, The Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader. I borrowed it from the guy (name of Will) in graduate school. Will drove a Jaguar (never above 20 mph) and wore kilts to bars and often exposed himself to others and would drink these amazingly tall glasses of straight gin. Cool guy, but we later had a falling out. I got the feeling he despised me, not sure why, but possibly me stealing this book was the beginning. Seems fair.
strangest book you’ve ever read
The Singing Fish by Peter Markus. I am still trying to understand this book, honestly. But I return to try again and again, so that’s a good thing. I’m a little tired of people telling me what I am supposed to feel about Markus, so I just keep trying.
favorite book from childhood
Hmm. There was some book about a kid with a pet raccoon, but I can’t remember. So I’d say White Fang and its mirror image, The Call of the Wild. Both are exciting reads that make a young man yearn to read and write. I also like London’s “work-day” approach to writing. He thinks inspiration is bullshit. He says, “Just write.” Well, what he says is (paraphrase here), in a not so PC suggestion: “Go after writing like you would a seal with a club.”
most challenging book you’ve ever read
Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical Surgical Nursing, North American Edition: In Two Volumes. I spent two years with this book in nursing school. Have you ever been so anxious and down you woke every morning and cried into the showerhead? Just gripped that showerhead at 5 a.m. in the darkness of the shower and cried your lungs/heart/soul out? Wow. Being a nurse was great. Nursing school, not so much.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I can’t think of one. I’m sure I have done this, though—I can be as fake, if not more, as anyone. I once had a KILL YOUR TELEVISION bumper sticker on my truck. The whole time I was watching TV in bars, at friend’s houses and enjoying the experience. I finally took the sticker off. And bought a TV.
collected stories of
Chekhov, obviously.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Granta.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Reading through the Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions 2009 list right now. So far, they are strong. Jet fuel tequila, desiccated whores, all that. I adore flash, and I think online writing is often fresher than elsewhere. I prefer online at this reading moment of my life.
recommended reading list:
Quest Narratives That Rock
- A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
- Flaming Iguanas by Erika Lopez
- Deliverance by James Dickey
- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway.
I like books where the person has a goal and shit is thrown in the way and maybe they get it, or not, but at least they think a bit along the way. Also sex in a book is a positive. All of the above have sex.
what are you reading now
USA Today, Merriam-Webster’s Manual for Writers and Editors, Hobart, Copper Nickel, Sonora Review, Mexican restaurant menus, Excitability by Diane Williams, Light Boxes by Shane Jones, Birdhouse by Ryan J. Rayder (self-published), bills, Brevity & Echo: An Anthology of Short Short Stories, edited by Abigail Beckel and Kathleen Rooney, Quick Fix: Sudden Fiction by Ana Maria Shua, more and more insistent bills, and Birds of America by Lorrie Moore.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Moby Dick, but I probably won’t. I tried twice and failed.
last book to make you laugh out loud
That’s easy. Iceland by Jim Krusoe. Oh man. It’s about this typewriter repairman and his, uh, adventures, with women and with Iceland and with robbing gas stations and with his “failing organ,” etc. The book is amazing in how it sets up characters, gets the reader to invest, and then throws them into volcanoes or ice floes. Krusoe can kill a man’s family in a paragraph, and then a paragraph later the same man is dating a woman who lives in a bar/pet shop. A seriously funny (oxymoron) book. I now want to visit Iceland, which is unfortunate since a plane ticket is $1300. I checked. Well, later.
book you borrowed and never returned
I have it right here in my office, The Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader. I borrowed it from the guy (name of Will) in graduate school. Will drove a Jaguar (never above 20 mph) and wore kilts to bars and often exposed himself to others and would drink these amazingly tall glasses of straight gin. Cool guy, but we later had a falling out. I got the feeling he despised me, not sure why, but possibly me stealing this book was the beginning. Seems fair.
strangest book you’ve ever read
The Singing Fish by Peter Markus. I am still trying to understand this book, honestly. But I return to try again and again, so that’s a good thing. I’m a little tired of people telling me what I am supposed to feel about Markus, so I just keep trying.
favorite book from childhood
Hmm. There was some book about a kid with a pet raccoon, but I can’t remember. So I’d say White Fang and its mirror image, The Call of the Wild. Both are exciting reads that make a young man yearn to read and write. I also like London’s “work-day” approach to writing. He thinks inspiration is bullshit. He says, “Just write.” Well, what he says is (paraphrase here), in a not so PC suggestion: “Go after writing like you would a seal with a club.”
most challenging book you’ve ever read
Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical Surgical Nursing, North American Edition: In Two Volumes. I spent two years with this book in nursing school. Have you ever been so anxious and down you woke every morning and cried into the showerhead? Just gripped that showerhead at 5 a.m. in the darkness of the shower and cried your lungs/heart/soul out? Wow. Being a nurse was great. Nursing school, not so much.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I can’t think of one. I’m sure I have done this, though—I can be as fake, if not more, as anyone. I once had a KILL YOUR TELEVISION bumper sticker on my truck. The whole time I was watching TV in bars, at friend’s houses and enjoying the experience. I finally took the sticker off. And bought a TV.
collected stories of
Chekhov, obviously.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Granta.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Reading through the Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions 2009 list right now. So far, they are strong. Jet fuel tequila, desiccated whores, all that. I adore flash, and I think online writing is often fresher than elsewhere. I prefer online at this reading moment of my life.
recommended reading list:
Quest Narratives That Rock
- A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
- Flaming Iguanas by Erika Lopez
- Deliverance by James Dickey
- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway.
I like books where the person has a goal and shit is thrown in the way and maybe they get it, or not, but at least they think a bit along the way. Also sex in a book is a positive. All of the above have sex.
25.5.09
Blake Butler
Blake Butler is the author of EVER (Calamari Press 09) and Scorch Atlas (forthcoming from Featherproof Books). His work has been published in Ninth Letter, Fence, Unsaid, New York Tyrant, Willow Springs, etc. He lives in Atlanta and blogs at gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com.
what are you reading now
After just finishing Nicholson Baker's amazing pre-WWII history Human Smoke, I'm doing Georgi Gospodinov's Natural Novel from Dalkey: very meta and yet cohesive, about writing and dreams and people. Bulgarians are crunk.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Journey to the End of the Night by Céline has been that one book that I touch every single time I go into a bookstore, and swear to god that this will be the year: one day it will happen?
last book to bring you to tears
Michael Kimball's How Much of Us There Was (one of only two books to ever bring me to this point, honestly: I'm not much of a crier).
most treasured book in your collection
Easily my autographed 1st edition copy of Infinite Jest, which Wallace inscribed for me when I met and saw him read in Boston in 2005. It says, “To Blake, in the mind-bonding heat.”
best book-to-film adaptation
I've always been partial to Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, since it doesn't try to be the book, but becomes a whole new entity around it; also love A Clockwork Orange and Short Cuts and of course Wild at Heart.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I think I had that huge Cremaster compendium book out for a long time, though I'm not sure who it impressed. Also had some Ralph Steadman collection out for a while. I never have people over.
collected stories of
Amy Hempel changed my life.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
For its regularity and thoroughness of my blown mind: New York Tyrant.
best thing you’ve read online recently
I've been spending hours upon hours rolling through the archives at Ubu. There's so much there one could likely spend several years reading, watching, listening. Too good.
most anticipated upcoming release
So many: really curious about Wallace's The Pale King, kind of scared too, but will read with big eyes; excited for a heap of things forthcoming from Six Gallery Press, including books by Sean Kilpatrick, Evan Lavender-Smith, and Sam Pink; and super excited also for Brian Evenson's very soon forthcoming Fugue State, as he completely changed my head with every new book.
recommended reading list:
Six Books with One Word Titles that I Can’t Remember Ever Having Talked About Online Before
- Correction by Thomas Bernhard
- Impotent by Matthew Roberson
- Atlassed by Jane Unrue
- Oblivion by David Foster Wallace
- Povel by Geraldine Kim
- Twilight by William Gay
Six Books I’ve Had on My To-Read-Soon Pile for 2+ Years At Least, Which I Plan to Break Before the End of the Year
- Iceland by Jim Krusoe
- 10:01 by Lance Olsen
- The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso
- Drought by Suzanne McNear
- Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
- The Questionnaire by Jiří Gruša
Six Nonfiction Works that Have Infected My Writing as much as Any Fiction, On and On
- The Next American Essay edited by John D'Agata
- The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
- Rising Up and Rising Down by William Vollmann
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
- A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze & Guattari
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Wittgenstein
what are you reading now
After just finishing Nicholson Baker's amazing pre-WWII history Human Smoke, I'm doing Georgi Gospodinov's Natural Novel from Dalkey: very meta and yet cohesive, about writing and dreams and people. Bulgarians are crunk.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Journey to the End of the Night by Céline has been that one book that I touch every single time I go into a bookstore, and swear to god that this will be the year: one day it will happen?
last book to bring you to tears
Michael Kimball's How Much of Us There Was (one of only two books to ever bring me to this point, honestly: I'm not much of a crier).
most treasured book in your collection
Easily my autographed 1st edition copy of Infinite Jest, which Wallace inscribed for me when I met and saw him read in Boston in 2005. It says, “To Blake, in the mind-bonding heat.”
best book-to-film adaptation
I've always been partial to Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, since it doesn't try to be the book, but becomes a whole new entity around it; also love A Clockwork Orange and Short Cuts and of course Wild at Heart.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I think I had that huge Cremaster compendium book out for a long time, though I'm not sure who it impressed. Also had some Ralph Steadman collection out for a while. I never have people over.
collected stories of
Amy Hempel changed my life.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
For its regularity and thoroughness of my blown mind: New York Tyrant.
best thing you’ve read online recently
I've been spending hours upon hours rolling through the archives at Ubu. There's so much there one could likely spend several years reading, watching, listening. Too good.
most anticipated upcoming release
So many: really curious about Wallace's The Pale King, kind of scared too, but will read with big eyes; excited for a heap of things forthcoming from Six Gallery Press, including books by Sean Kilpatrick, Evan Lavender-Smith, and Sam Pink; and super excited also for Brian Evenson's very soon forthcoming Fugue State, as he completely changed my head with every new book.
recommended reading list:
Six Books with One Word Titles that I Can’t Remember Ever Having Talked About Online Before
- Correction by Thomas Bernhard
- Impotent by Matthew Roberson
- Atlassed by Jane Unrue
- Oblivion by David Foster Wallace
- Povel by Geraldine Kim
- Twilight by William Gay
Six Books I’ve Had on My To-Read-Soon Pile for 2+ Years At Least, Which I Plan to Break Before the End of the Year
- Iceland by Jim Krusoe
- 10:01 by Lance Olsen
- The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso
- Drought by Suzanne McNear
- Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
- The Questionnaire by Jiří Gruša
Six Nonfiction Works that Have Infected My Writing as much as Any Fiction, On and On
- The Next American Essay edited by John D'Agata
- The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
- Rising Up and Rising Down by William Vollmann
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
- A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze & Guattari
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Wittgenstein
24.5.09
John McNally
John McNally is the author of two novels (The Book of Ralph and America's Report Card) and two story collections (Troublemakers and Ghosts of Chicago). He has edited six anthologies of fiction and essays. His next novel, After the Workshop, will be published in 2010 by Counterpoint. His short stories have appeared in over seventy magazines and anthologies, including Virginia Quarterly Review and New Sudden Fiction (Norton). He also writes screenplays. A native of Chicago's southwest side, he presently lives and teaches in North Carolina.
what are you reading now
I'm a slow reader, so I tend to read several books at once to keep from getting bored.
A Way of Life, Like Any Other: A Novel by Darcy O'Brien
The Cider House Rules: A Novel by John Irving
Jimmy Stewart: A Biography by Marc Eliot (I'm always reading at least one film-related book.)
I'm also reading about a dozen books for research purposes. These probably don't count, but the most interesting one of the batch is Challenging Chicago: Coping with Everyday Life, 1837-1920 by Perry R. Duis.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Sadly, there are dozens. If I started naming all of them, I would probably get my college degrees revoked. I was a total slacker when I was an undergrad. For my Shakespeare class, I went to the library the day before the final and checked out all of the albums of the plays that I was supposed to have read. In those days, there was a room full of turntables and headphones, so I sat down and began listening to the albums, but as time started running out, I had to change the speed of the album from 33 1/3 to 45. It took a while to adjust to the higher pitched voices, but I managed. That is, until the final two hours when, panicking, I turned the speed from 45 to 78. At this point, all of Shakespeare's characters sounded like The Chipmunks, and nothing at all made sense. All I could tell was that everyone died at the ends of the tragedies. Amazingly, I passed the class. Barely. And when I returned to school to work on a Ph.D., I went out of my way to take Shakespeare courses as a kind of penance.
But if I had to pick only one classic...
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
last book to make you laugh out loud
The novel I'm reading right now -- A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien -- has some funny stuff in it, but I have to confess, it takes a lot for me to laugh out loud. The writer that will do it every time for me, however, is Charles Portis, and my favorite book by him (and, in my opinion, his funniest) is Masters of Atlantis. I love this friggin' novel! Love it!
book you borrowed and never returned
I'm dutiful about returning books to friends, so probably none. But watch: I'll probably get a dozen emails after this appears, demanding that I return books I've borrowed.
most treasured book in your collection
A signed 1st edition (the rare 1st state) of Eudora Welty's The Bride of the Innisfallen. The first state had the wrong copyright information. I bought it at a garage sale in Nebraska for five bucks.
best book you’ve read so far this year
Safer by Sean Doolittle. Sean is a friend of mine who writes thrillers that have been praised by Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos. The publisher wants Safer to be his breakout book. It deserves to be.
favorite neglected book by a celebrated writer
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I have a lot of art books, like Dali, that I periodically put on my coffee table, as though I'm some kind of art aficionado, when in fact I don't know jack-shit about art.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Best American Short Stories. I have a sentimental attachment to BASS because they're the first of those anthologies I bought when I started trying to write short stories. I still remember reading the 1985 Gail Godwin volume on an Amtrak train when I was returning to Chicago from Carbondale, Illinois one holiday.
collected stories of
Richard Yates
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Alaska Quarterly Review. I like good magazines that are underdogs. And I forgive them for rejecting everything I've ever sent to them. (Damn you, AQR!)
best thing you’ve read online recently
This one's tough. As soon as I read something online, I can't remember where I've read it, and in many instances, I can't remember what it is I've read. I'm really old school when it comes to reading. I love books. I love everything about them -- the dust jackets; the quality of the pages; the publisher's colophon; the author photo. When I read stuff online, it's almost always very short pieces or lists like this one. Or interviews. I read a lot of interviews online. Or news stories about dumb people. I think the Internet was invented for news stories about dumb people. Or Wikipedia entries. Last night I was watching the 1945 David Lean movie Brief Encounter. The background score is Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Opus 18. But all of a sudden it started sounding, note for note, like Eric Carmen's "All by Myself”. WTF? After the movie, I typed in "All by Myself" in Wikipedia, and sure enough, Carmen had used Rachmaninoff's music thinking it was in the public domain. But it wasn't in the public domain, and so he had to come to an agreement with the Rachmaninoff estate. And so this is probably the best thing I've read online recently: the Wikipedia entry for "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen.
most anticipated upcoming release
Richard Russo, That Old Cape Magic
recommended reading list:
A Short List of Serious(ly) Hilarious Literature
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Here Lies by Dorothy Parker
- The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
- Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
- Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
- Who's Irish? by Gish Jen
- Pastoralia by George Saunders
- Little Children by Tom Perrotta
Top it off with Ian Frazier's short piece "Coyote v. Acme" and then kick back with the DVD of Triumph: The Insult Comic Dog.
what are you reading now
I'm a slow reader, so I tend to read several books at once to keep from getting bored.
A Way of Life, Like Any Other: A Novel by Darcy O'Brien
The Cider House Rules: A Novel by John Irving
Jimmy Stewart: A Biography by Marc Eliot (I'm always reading at least one film-related book.)
I'm also reading about a dozen books for research purposes. These probably don't count, but the most interesting one of the batch is Challenging Chicago: Coping with Everyday Life, 1837-1920 by Perry R. Duis.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Sadly, there are dozens. If I started naming all of them, I would probably get my college degrees revoked. I was a total slacker when I was an undergrad. For my Shakespeare class, I went to the library the day before the final and checked out all of the albums of the plays that I was supposed to have read. In those days, there was a room full of turntables and headphones, so I sat down and began listening to the albums, but as time started running out, I had to change the speed of the album from 33 1/3 to 45. It took a while to adjust to the higher pitched voices, but I managed. That is, until the final two hours when, panicking, I turned the speed from 45 to 78. At this point, all of Shakespeare's characters sounded like The Chipmunks, and nothing at all made sense. All I could tell was that everyone died at the ends of the tragedies. Amazingly, I passed the class. Barely. And when I returned to school to work on a Ph.D., I went out of my way to take Shakespeare courses as a kind of penance.
But if I had to pick only one classic...
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
last book to make you laugh out loud
The novel I'm reading right now -- A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien -- has some funny stuff in it, but I have to confess, it takes a lot for me to laugh out loud. The writer that will do it every time for me, however, is Charles Portis, and my favorite book by him (and, in my opinion, his funniest) is Masters of Atlantis. I love this friggin' novel! Love it!
book you borrowed and never returned
I'm dutiful about returning books to friends, so probably none. But watch: I'll probably get a dozen emails after this appears, demanding that I return books I've borrowed.
most treasured book in your collection
A signed 1st edition (the rare 1st state) of Eudora Welty's The Bride of the Innisfallen. The first state had the wrong copyright information. I bought it at a garage sale in Nebraska for five bucks.
best book you’ve read so far this year
Safer by Sean Doolittle. Sean is a friend of mine who writes thrillers that have been praised by Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos. The publisher wants Safer to be his breakout book. It deserves to be.
favorite neglected book by a celebrated writer
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I have a lot of art books, like Dali, that I periodically put on my coffee table, as though I'm some kind of art aficionado, when in fact I don't know jack-shit about art.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Best American Short Stories. I have a sentimental attachment to BASS because they're the first of those anthologies I bought when I started trying to write short stories. I still remember reading the 1985 Gail Godwin volume on an Amtrak train when I was returning to Chicago from Carbondale, Illinois one holiday.
collected stories of
Richard Yates
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Alaska Quarterly Review. I like good magazines that are underdogs. And I forgive them for rejecting everything I've ever sent to them. (Damn you, AQR!)
best thing you’ve read online recently
This one's tough. As soon as I read something online, I can't remember where I've read it, and in many instances, I can't remember what it is I've read. I'm really old school when it comes to reading. I love books. I love everything about them -- the dust jackets; the quality of the pages; the publisher's colophon; the author photo. When I read stuff online, it's almost always very short pieces or lists like this one. Or interviews. I read a lot of interviews online. Or news stories about dumb people. I think the Internet was invented for news stories about dumb people. Or Wikipedia entries. Last night I was watching the 1945 David Lean movie Brief Encounter. The background score is Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Opus 18. But all of a sudden it started sounding, note for note, like Eric Carmen's "All by Myself”. WTF? After the movie, I typed in "All by Myself" in Wikipedia, and sure enough, Carmen had used Rachmaninoff's music thinking it was in the public domain. But it wasn't in the public domain, and so he had to come to an agreement with the Rachmaninoff estate. And so this is probably the best thing I've read online recently: the Wikipedia entry for "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen.
most anticipated upcoming release
Richard Russo, That Old Cape Magic
recommended reading list:
A Short List of Serious(ly) Hilarious Literature
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Here Lies by Dorothy Parker
- The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
- Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
- Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
- Who's Irish? by Gish Jen
- Pastoralia by George Saunders
- Little Children by Tom Perrotta
Top it off with Ian Frazier's short piece "Coyote v. Acme" and then kick back with the DVD of Triumph: The Insult Comic Dog.
23.5.09
Barry Graham
Barry Graham is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. He also teaches writing at Rutgers and wrote The National Virginity Pledge (Another Sky Press). He is the editor of DOGZPLOT.
what are you reading now
I’m reading Matthew Simmons’s A Jello Horse.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I keep meaning to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. I’m not sure if that’s a “classic” though. New Classicism? Did I just coin that term?
last book to bring you to tears
I’ve never cried while reading a book. I’m a big sucker for crying during TV shows and movies though. I just cried last week during an episode of Flashpoint. It was about love. It was beautiful.
book you borrowed and never returned
I borrowed The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin a few years ago from Aaron Burch when we were in Vegas and I noticed it on my bookshelf when I was packing up to move. I don’t feel bad because I loaned him a self-publishing primer and he’s still got it.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
I really wish I was a character in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. I don’t think any elaboration is necessary. It’s obvious isn’t it? Yes?
best book you’ve read so far this year
I read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz about a month ago. Great stuff.
most challenging book you’ve ever read
I’m trying to contextualize Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! in relation to his entire written universe. It’s pretty fucking explosive.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I’ve never owned a coffee table or spit game to a female who would be impressed by what book was sitting on top of one.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
BASS. Although I prefer Dzanc’s Best of the Web to all of the above.
collected stories of
Sherman Alexie (I kid I kid)
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Hobart
best thing you’ve read online recently
I really dug "Household Poisons" by Thomas King. I found it in the archives over at Contrary. I wouldn’t mind turning it into some sort of mini-film, so Thomas King, if you're reading this, holla.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m really looking forward to Suzanne Burns’s Misfits and Other Heroes.
recommended reading list:
Obscure Religious Texts That Are Worth Your Time to Read Even If You Are Foolish and Believe Me to Be Wrong
(in alphabetical order without the “the”)
- Adi Granth
- Apocrypha
- Arzhang
- Avesta
- Bhagavad Gita
- Book of Mormon
- Book of Zodiac
- Buddhavacana (Sutta, Vinaya, and Abhidharma)
- Dhammapada
- Doctrine and Covenants
- Guru Granth Sahib
- Hadith
- Kitab-i-Aqdas
- Kojiki
- Nag Hammadi Library
- Pearl of Great Price
- Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy
- Tao Te Ching
- Tattvartha Sutra
- Tripitaka
what are you reading now
I’m reading Matthew Simmons’s A Jello Horse.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I keep meaning to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. I’m not sure if that’s a “classic” though. New Classicism? Did I just coin that term?
last book to bring you to tears
I’ve never cried while reading a book. I’m a big sucker for crying during TV shows and movies though. I just cried last week during an episode of Flashpoint. It was about love. It was beautiful.
book you borrowed and never returned
I borrowed The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin a few years ago from Aaron Burch when we were in Vegas and I noticed it on my bookshelf when I was packing up to move. I don’t feel bad because I loaned him a self-publishing primer and he’s still got it.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
I really wish I was a character in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. I don’t think any elaboration is necessary. It’s obvious isn’t it? Yes?
best book you’ve read so far this year
I read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz about a month ago. Great stuff.
most challenging book you’ve ever read
I’m trying to contextualize Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! in relation to his entire written universe. It’s pretty fucking explosive.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I’ve never owned a coffee table or spit game to a female who would be impressed by what book was sitting on top of one.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
BASS. Although I prefer Dzanc’s Best of the Web to all of the above.
collected stories of
Sherman Alexie (I kid I kid)
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Hobart
best thing you’ve read online recently
I really dug "Household Poisons" by Thomas King. I found it in the archives over at Contrary. I wouldn’t mind turning it into some sort of mini-film, so Thomas King, if you're reading this, holla.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m really looking forward to Suzanne Burns’s Misfits and Other Heroes.
recommended reading list:
Obscure Religious Texts That Are Worth Your Time to Read Even If You Are Foolish and Believe Me to Be Wrong
(in alphabetical order without the “the”)
- Adi Granth
- Apocrypha
- Arzhang
- Avesta
- Bhagavad Gita
- Book of Mormon
- Book of Zodiac
- Buddhavacana (Sutta, Vinaya, and Abhidharma)
- Dhammapada
- Doctrine and Covenants
- Guru Granth Sahib
- Hadith
- Kitab-i-Aqdas
- Kojiki
- Nag Hammadi Library
- Pearl of Great Price
- Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy
- Tao Te Ching
- Tattvartha Sutra
- Tripitaka
22.5.09
Jimmy Chen
Jimmy Chen has a full-time job at a large unnamed institution and enjoys occasionally reading. He is the head horticulturist at Embassy of Misguided Zen's National Philodendron Conservatory. His chapbook typewriter was recently released by Magic Helicopter Press.
what are you reading now
I'm re-reading Oblivion by D.F. Wallace. When I first read it in 2004, I wasn't as involved in writing as I am now, and my perception of the book has changed for the better, as much as I've always loved him. For example, in "Mister Squishy", I never understood the man scaling the outside of the building, and I still don't 'understand' it -- which I think is the point, a kind of blind faith we must give to a piece of fiction, to embrace its artifice.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I tried The Brothers Karamazov two times but just couldn't get into it. Either we're getting more shallow, or our concerns are different. It just seems so melodramatic.
last book to make you laugh out loud
I'm always laughing out loud, so I'll talk about the only time I laughed uncontrollably, like actually heaving. It was from reading Murakami. I don't even remember what book, but the narrator said something about how fat women were like clouds to him -- very large and having nothing to do with him. I guess what struck me was that Murakami wasn't trying to be funny; it was his unique logic which I found so humorous.
book you borrowed and never returned
A bunch of Penthouse back issues (c. '87 - '89) from my former (self-explanatory) best friend's dad's collection in his garage.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
Definitely Raymond Carver's stories, just because they are so beautiful. It sounds funny, but I wish I lived in Carver's world. Just this morning while jogging I saw a chair through a window and started imagining scenarios of someone who sits in that chair after work everyday. I'm always thinking 'this feels like a Raymond Carver story'. I think he deeply cultivated my conception of voyeurism in relation to anonymous intimacy.
worst book-to-film adaptation
Great Expectations with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. The latter also butchered Hamlet. Maybe I'm just jealous because he frenched Winona Ryder.
strangest book you’ve ever read
Mason & Dixon, and not because of typical Pynchon 'weirdness', but for the exact opposite reason. There are books you remember easily, and there are books you don't remember anything about, but you remember reading. Does that make any sense? Like, I remember the act of reading it more than I do the actual novel. His language had gotten to this very strange place, and it may have just been 'Old English', but it was Pynchon's Old English. I remember feeling so alive reading each word.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
The Koran for some Koreans that came over for dinner. I was so confused.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I used to really enjoy Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry, but I actually like Best American Essays more.
collected stories of
I really enjoyed Charles Ryder's School Days and Other Stories by Evelyn Waugh. Like Oscar Wilde, and I would even say David Sedaris, Waugh's stories are riddles, like the way you set up a joke. His stories are not so much about the characters or even content (however socially relevant at the time), but about the way they're told. It's like rhetorical agenda without meaning. I often try to approach writing this way, tight 'packages' of a mere idea for the sake of its writing. I consider Waugh to be a 'shallow' writer, and part of me really enjoys that.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
One Story because I really love that concept: great faith in the paltry form of the short story. Plus I would think 'why this one?' and hopefully learn from the one they chose.
best thing you’ve read online recently
"Pagoda" by Crispin Best at Abjective. I find the oblique allusions very instructive, in terms of how I should try to write more that way. The worst thing is for a writer to not trust the reader, and I think I do this sometimes. "Pagoda" doesn't worry about making sense, yet doesn't alienate the reader.
most anticipated upcoming release
I'm sorry that I'm being so DFW-centric, but The Pale King. I will admit I wasn't blown away by the excerpt from the New Yorker, but prior to that Harper's published a piece called "The Compliance Branch" that seemed to also be an excerpt, which was completely brilliant. I'm also looking forward to The Wild Things by Dave Eggers, which I think 'accompanies' the release of the movie. One thing I admire about Eggers is each of his books are completely different, not necessarily in the writing, but its self-aware 'projectness', like it's never just a fiction or non-fiction, but this really earnest, ambivalent struggle of what and why the book is.
recommended reading list:
Books Written by Japanese People
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
- Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
- A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe
- I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki
- The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
- Monkey's Raincoat by Matsuo Basho
what are you reading now
I'm re-reading Oblivion by D.F. Wallace. When I first read it in 2004, I wasn't as involved in writing as I am now, and my perception of the book has changed for the better, as much as I've always loved him. For example, in "Mister Squishy", I never understood the man scaling the outside of the building, and I still don't 'understand' it -- which I think is the point, a kind of blind faith we must give to a piece of fiction, to embrace its artifice.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I tried The Brothers Karamazov two times but just couldn't get into it. Either we're getting more shallow, or our concerns are different. It just seems so melodramatic.
last book to make you laugh out loud
I'm always laughing out loud, so I'll talk about the only time I laughed uncontrollably, like actually heaving. It was from reading Murakami. I don't even remember what book, but the narrator said something about how fat women were like clouds to him -- very large and having nothing to do with him. I guess what struck me was that Murakami wasn't trying to be funny; it was his unique logic which I found so humorous.
book you borrowed and never returned
A bunch of Penthouse back issues (c. '87 - '89) from my former (self-explanatory) best friend's dad's collection in his garage.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
Definitely Raymond Carver's stories, just because they are so beautiful. It sounds funny, but I wish I lived in Carver's world. Just this morning while jogging I saw a chair through a window and started imagining scenarios of someone who sits in that chair after work everyday. I'm always thinking 'this feels like a Raymond Carver story'. I think he deeply cultivated my conception of voyeurism in relation to anonymous intimacy.
worst book-to-film adaptation
Great Expectations with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. The latter also butchered Hamlet. Maybe I'm just jealous because he frenched Winona Ryder.
strangest book you’ve ever read
Mason & Dixon, and not because of typical Pynchon 'weirdness', but for the exact opposite reason. There are books you remember easily, and there are books you don't remember anything about, but you remember reading. Does that make any sense? Like, I remember the act of reading it more than I do the actual novel. His language had gotten to this very strange place, and it may have just been 'Old English', but it was Pynchon's Old English. I remember feeling so alive reading each word.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
The Koran for some Koreans that came over for dinner. I was so confused.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I used to really enjoy Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry, but I actually like Best American Essays more.
collected stories of
I really enjoyed Charles Ryder's School Days and Other Stories by Evelyn Waugh. Like Oscar Wilde, and I would even say David Sedaris, Waugh's stories are riddles, like the way you set up a joke. His stories are not so much about the characters or even content (however socially relevant at the time), but about the way they're told. It's like rhetorical agenda without meaning. I often try to approach writing this way, tight 'packages' of a mere idea for the sake of its writing. I consider Waugh to be a 'shallow' writer, and part of me really enjoys that.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
One Story because I really love that concept: great faith in the paltry form of the short story. Plus I would think 'why this one?' and hopefully learn from the one they chose.
best thing you’ve read online recently
"Pagoda" by Crispin Best at Abjective. I find the oblique allusions very instructive, in terms of how I should try to write more that way. The worst thing is for a writer to not trust the reader, and I think I do this sometimes. "Pagoda" doesn't worry about making sense, yet doesn't alienate the reader.
most anticipated upcoming release
I'm sorry that I'm being so DFW-centric, but The Pale King. I will admit I wasn't blown away by the excerpt from the New Yorker, but prior to that Harper's published a piece called "The Compliance Branch" that seemed to also be an excerpt, which was completely brilliant. I'm also looking forward to The Wild Things by Dave Eggers, which I think 'accompanies' the release of the movie. One thing I admire about Eggers is each of his books are completely different, not necessarily in the writing, but its self-aware 'projectness', like it's never just a fiction or non-fiction, but this really earnest, ambivalent struggle of what and why the book is.
recommended reading list:
Books Written by Japanese People
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
- Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
- A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe
- I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki
- The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
- Monkey's Raincoat by Matsuo Basho
21.5.09
Greg Gerke
Greg Gerke lives in Buffalo, NY. His work has or will appear in Rosebud, Fourteen Hills, Pedestal Magazine, Pindeldyboz, Flash Forward Press 2009 Anthology and others. There’s Something Wrong With Sven, a book of short fiction has been published by BlazeVOX Books. He edits flash fiction for Buffalo’s Artvoice. His website is www.greggerke.com.
what are you reading now
My girlfriend yells at me because I have books everywhere. On the couch, in the bed. I read too many at once. Because I think I should read more classics I have the collected tales of Gogol. (If he was around today would he sue the biggest web company for infringement?) The W.S. Merwin collection that just won the Pulitzer, The Shadow of Sirius. And my old friend Louise Glück’s Meadowlands (google and read "Purple Bathing Suit" to feel good about your current relationship). But I also sparingly dip into The Wavering Knife, and so I don’t over-Evensonize myself I scarf down a William Trevor story from Cheating at Canasta or A Bit on the Side every once and a while to keep me honest. Also the Pushcart Prize XXXIII (2009 edition). For all you writers out there, read Jeremy Thomas’s "Shadow Boxing" which originally appeared in The Georgia Review. It’s an essay about art, composition, running marathons—mostly delving into Sly Stallone’s career and Rocky’s influence on the author.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For the first time since sophomore English, but it just doesn’t happen.
last book to make you laugh out loud
There’s probably another but because I was sick and bedridden and delirious I couldn’t help going crazy over the first fifty pages of The Verificationist by Donald Antrim. Just imagine: psychologists meeting in a pancake house for an annual dinner, but there’s always one guy, that nervous one (the narrator), who wants to start a food fight but then gets bear hugged by a giant fat man whose boner drives into the narrator’s ass and forces our hero to have an out of body experience and float up to the ceiling, looking down at all his bitter, brittle, lascivious colleagues.
book you borrowed and never returned
I was traumatized one night when I was ten and I found a Peanuts book in my little desk drawer. It was nine months overdue. I started crying and thought I’d be thrown in jail. I never told anyone, until now.
guilty pleasure reading
Wikipedia entries about baseball players from my childhood, also movie entries.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I’ve never done this, though I started talking to a lady in a bar once about Salvador Dali . We were drinking some and I hadn’t eaten in about thirteen hours. I was standing while she sat at the bar and I thought I smelled oranges. The next moment I remember I was on the ground looking up at people gathered around me. I was dragged out of the Uptowner in the manner of the deposition from the cross. I never saw her again.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I have to go with O. Henry because they seem to pick the edgier stuff. Evenson, Yannick Murphy, Christine Schutt, and the earlier George Saunders stories.
collected stories of
Alice Munro. There isn’t one yet but there will be. One of my early teachers told me to read her for the simplicity. I had only been gorging myself on men and though it took a few years to sink in she has taught me and inspired me more than any other writer. The changing timelines of her stories make Pulp Fiction’s labyrinths look like The Little Train That Could. They are funny, sad; there are mysteries, chases, people wearing disguises - the whole theatre of human existence. If I had to choose one book, it’s Open Secrets. Read "The Albanian Virgin" for time transitions, "Carried Away" for a novel in fifty pages and "Jack Randa Hotel" to laugh.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
I will have to say NOON. Only once a year and though the overall aesthetic compulsively favors the self-reflexive/Gordon Lish snap and lilt, the stories are bright, vibrant and funny. With Kim Chinquee’s realism, Unferth’s surreal road trips and Lutz’s trusty Beckettian pathos, all is well in NOONland.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Spencer Dew’s "Some Themes of the Second Bush Administration". This two-pager begins innocently enough, but then Mr. Dew takes it to many places and by the time it ends he has captured post-9/11 America in a more honest and engaging way than all the 9/11 novels, Netherland included.
most anticipated upcoming release
I guess Cormac’s new book is tentatively called The Passenger (roll over in your grave Mr. Antonioni). Will the critics try and blow him out of the water after the mostly bulletproof The Road?
recommended reading list:
Wonderful Break-Up Stories
- "Are These Actual Miles?" by Raymond Carver
- "Platinum" by James Salter
- "A Bit on the Side" by William Trevor
- "Liars in Love" by Richard Yates
- "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "The Palmer System" by Laurence C. Peacock
- "A Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro
- "Comfort" by Mary Gaitskill
- "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway
- "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx
what are you reading now
My girlfriend yells at me because I have books everywhere. On the couch, in the bed. I read too many at once. Because I think I should read more classics I have the collected tales of Gogol. (If he was around today would he sue the biggest web company for infringement?) The W.S. Merwin collection that just won the Pulitzer, The Shadow of Sirius. And my old friend Louise Glück’s Meadowlands (google and read "Purple Bathing Suit" to feel good about your current relationship). But I also sparingly dip into The Wavering Knife, and so I don’t over-Evensonize myself I scarf down a William Trevor story from Cheating at Canasta or A Bit on the Side every once and a while to keep me honest. Also the Pushcart Prize XXXIII (2009 edition). For all you writers out there, read Jeremy Thomas’s "Shadow Boxing" which originally appeared in The Georgia Review. It’s an essay about art, composition, running marathons—mostly delving into Sly Stallone’s career and Rocky’s influence on the author.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For the first time since sophomore English, but it just doesn’t happen.
last book to make you laugh out loud
There’s probably another but because I was sick and bedridden and delirious I couldn’t help going crazy over the first fifty pages of The Verificationist by Donald Antrim. Just imagine: psychologists meeting in a pancake house for an annual dinner, but there’s always one guy, that nervous one (the narrator), who wants to start a food fight but then gets bear hugged by a giant fat man whose boner drives into the narrator’s ass and forces our hero to have an out of body experience and float up to the ceiling, looking down at all his bitter, brittle, lascivious colleagues.
book you borrowed and never returned
I was traumatized one night when I was ten and I found a Peanuts book in my little desk drawer. It was nine months overdue. I started crying and thought I’d be thrown in jail. I never told anyone, until now.
guilty pleasure reading
Wikipedia entries about baseball players from my childhood, also movie entries.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I’ve never done this, though I started talking to a lady in a bar once about Salvador Dali . We were drinking some and I hadn’t eaten in about thirteen hours. I was standing while she sat at the bar and I thought I smelled oranges. The next moment I remember I was on the ground looking up at people gathered around me. I was dragged out of the Uptowner in the manner of the deposition from the cross. I never saw her again.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I have to go with O. Henry because they seem to pick the edgier stuff. Evenson, Yannick Murphy, Christine Schutt, and the earlier George Saunders stories.
collected stories of
Alice Munro. There isn’t one yet but there will be. One of my early teachers told me to read her for the simplicity. I had only been gorging myself on men and though it took a few years to sink in she has taught me and inspired me more than any other writer. The changing timelines of her stories make Pulp Fiction’s labyrinths look like The Little Train That Could. They are funny, sad; there are mysteries, chases, people wearing disguises - the whole theatre of human existence. If I had to choose one book, it’s Open Secrets. Read "The Albanian Virgin" for time transitions, "Carried Away" for a novel in fifty pages and "Jack Randa Hotel" to laugh.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
I will have to say NOON. Only once a year and though the overall aesthetic compulsively favors the self-reflexive/Gordon Lish snap and lilt, the stories are bright, vibrant and funny. With Kim Chinquee’s realism, Unferth’s surreal road trips and Lutz’s trusty Beckettian pathos, all is well in NOONland.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Spencer Dew’s "Some Themes of the Second Bush Administration". This two-pager begins innocently enough, but then Mr. Dew takes it to many places and by the time it ends he has captured post-9/11 America in a more honest and engaging way than all the 9/11 novels, Netherland included.
most anticipated upcoming release
I guess Cormac’s new book is tentatively called The Passenger (roll over in your grave Mr. Antonioni). Will the critics try and blow him out of the water after the mostly bulletproof The Road?
recommended reading list:
Wonderful Break-Up Stories
- "Are These Actual Miles?" by Raymond Carver
- "Platinum" by James Salter
- "A Bit on the Side" by William Trevor
- "Liars in Love" by Richard Yates
- "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "The Palmer System" by Laurence C. Peacock
- "A Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro
- "Comfort" by Mary Gaitskill
- "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway
- "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx
20.5.09
Tania Hershman
Tania Hershman's first short story collection, The White Road and Other Stories, published by Salt Modern Fiction, was recently commended by the judges of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers. Her short and very short stories have been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, elimae, Riptide, New Scientist, Dogzplot, PANK Magazine, the Vestal Review, Cafe Irreal and others, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and won various awards, including the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association's 2008 Story Contest (Europe). Tania founded and edits The Short Review, an online review of short story collections. She blogs at TaniaWrites.
what are you reading now
In the past 24 hours (I switch the computer and TV off over the Jewish Sabbath) I read two books straight through: The Hours, by Michael Cunningham, which I didn't enjoy, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which is extraordinary in parts, and utterly compelling, but I did find myself skimming. I am glad I read it. I am half-way through Ali Smith's The First Person and Other Stories, for review for The Short Review, but I am such an Ali Smith fan, and have been taught by her before, that I am wondering if I should pass it on to someone else to review - so they can appreciate the wonders of her short fiction!
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Moby Dick. A few friends and I were just talking about this the other day, how none of us have read it but how it was the favourite of a friend of ours whose memorial evening we attended. In her memory, I will read it.
last book to bring you to tears
Day, by A.L. Kennedy. It's about World War One and I read it during a visit to Flanders, which made the whole experience much more intense. I took it with me to Ypres, which was bombed during the war, sat in a café as a funfair was being set up in the main square, read the part where the main character was stationed with his regiment just up the road from Ypres and started sobbing. In the café. Apart from that, it's an astonishing book, I read late into the night because I didn't want to stop. It's like a novel-length short story in that no word is superfluous. My highest praise!
book you borrowed and never returned
OK, there I was thinking, I never do that, borrow a book and not return it. I head to the shelves, and to my shame there they are: Space and The Source, both by James Michener, borrowed ten years ago from a friend; they were her late grandfather's. Now I am too embarrassed to mention it to her. The covers are falling off. And I haven't read them. Oh dear.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
Blimey, what a question. I don't think I have wanted to be in a book since childhood when the stories seemed like a wonderful escape. I always wanted to be Nancy Drew, would have loved to write myself in there. So much of what I read these days is excellent but pretty distressing fiction dealing with weighty themes, I am not taken with "happy" stories, so I don't think I'd want to be in any of those books!
favorite book from childhood
So many books, it's impossible to choose. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a huge early favourite, and later on Emil and the Detectives and Pippi Longstocking. Kids with spunk (can you still say that these days?)
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
My own book! Sad and pathetic, eh? Also, my partner bought me a wonderful, hardback and large copy of Einstein's Theory of Relativity (I am a huge Einstein fan) and I have slipped that onto the coffee table every now and then. Not the sort of thing someone would pick up and flip through - it's damn heavy!
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Not read any of 'em. Is it because I'm a Brit?
collected stories of
Lorrie Moore. It just came out, I have a review copy. Heaven.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Conjunctions. Surreal, odd, quirky, wonderful writing.
best thing you’ve read online recently
I regularly do a "source of lit" post on my blog to mention some of the great stuff I've been reading. "The Accident" by Allan Reeder, in Memorious, is a recent favourite. Too many to mention.
most anticipated upcoming release
New A.L. Kennedy short story collection, What Becomes, out in August.
recommended reading list:
Inspired by Science
- Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
The first science-inspired fiction I ever read, beautiful short short stories imagining what Einstein might have been dreaming about as he developed his innovative theory about time.
- The Wave Theory of Angels by Alison McLeod
Fabulous example of science-inspired fiction, weaving the past and the present.
- Tangled Roots by Sue Guiney
A physicist, his mother, life, love and science.
- One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead by Clare Dudman
Fictional glimpse inside the mind of scientist and explorer Alfred Wegener.
- Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
Collection of wonderful, science-infused stories.
- Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory
An imaginative and entertaining anthology. It includes one of my flashes.
- The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby
Anthropologist Narby's personal account of his encounters with Amazonian shamanism and how this leads him to a new view of biology and DNA.
- Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh
An accessible and intriguing tour through mathematical history.
- A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 Poems About Science
What more do I need to say?
- Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
This "illustrated memoir" is a creative inspiration, and the title is tenuously science-linked!
what are you reading now
In the past 24 hours (I switch the computer and TV off over the Jewish Sabbath) I read two books straight through: The Hours, by Michael Cunningham, which I didn't enjoy, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which is extraordinary in parts, and utterly compelling, but I did find myself skimming. I am glad I read it. I am half-way through Ali Smith's The First Person and Other Stories, for review for The Short Review, but I am such an Ali Smith fan, and have been taught by her before, that I am wondering if I should pass it on to someone else to review - so they can appreciate the wonders of her short fiction!
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Moby Dick. A few friends and I were just talking about this the other day, how none of us have read it but how it was the favourite of a friend of ours whose memorial evening we attended. In her memory, I will read it.
last book to bring you to tears
Day, by A.L. Kennedy. It's about World War One and I read it during a visit to Flanders, which made the whole experience much more intense. I took it with me to Ypres, which was bombed during the war, sat in a café as a funfair was being set up in the main square, read the part where the main character was stationed with his regiment just up the road from Ypres and started sobbing. In the café. Apart from that, it's an astonishing book, I read late into the night because I didn't want to stop. It's like a novel-length short story in that no word is superfluous. My highest praise!
book you borrowed and never returned
OK, there I was thinking, I never do that, borrow a book and not return it. I head to the shelves, and to my shame there they are: Space and The Source, both by James Michener, borrowed ten years ago from a friend; they were her late grandfather's. Now I am too embarrassed to mention it to her. The covers are falling off. And I haven't read them. Oh dear.
if you could write yourself into any book or story
Blimey, what a question. I don't think I have wanted to be in a book since childhood when the stories seemed like a wonderful escape. I always wanted to be Nancy Drew, would have loved to write myself in there. So much of what I read these days is excellent but pretty distressing fiction dealing with weighty themes, I am not taken with "happy" stories, so I don't think I'd want to be in any of those books!
favorite book from childhood
So many books, it's impossible to choose. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a huge early favourite, and later on Emil and the Detectives and Pippi Longstocking. Kids with spunk (can you still say that these days?)
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
My own book! Sad and pathetic, eh? Also, my partner bought me a wonderful, hardback and large copy of Einstein's Theory of Relativity (I am a huge Einstein fan) and I have slipped that onto the coffee table every now and then. Not the sort of thing someone would pick up and flip through - it's damn heavy!
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Not read any of 'em. Is it because I'm a Brit?
collected stories of
Lorrie Moore. It just came out, I have a review copy. Heaven.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Conjunctions. Surreal, odd, quirky, wonderful writing.
best thing you’ve read online recently
I regularly do a "source of lit" post on my blog to mention some of the great stuff I've been reading. "The Accident" by Allan Reeder, in Memorious, is a recent favourite. Too many to mention.
most anticipated upcoming release
New A.L. Kennedy short story collection, What Becomes, out in August.
recommended reading list:
Inspired by Science
- Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
The first science-inspired fiction I ever read, beautiful short short stories imagining what Einstein might have been dreaming about as he developed his innovative theory about time.
- The Wave Theory of Angels by Alison McLeod
Fabulous example of science-inspired fiction, weaving the past and the present.
- Tangled Roots by Sue Guiney
A physicist, his mother, life, love and science.
- One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead by Clare Dudman
Fictional glimpse inside the mind of scientist and explorer Alfred Wegener.
- Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
Collection of wonderful, science-infused stories.
- Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory
An imaginative and entertaining anthology. It includes one of my flashes.
- The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby
Anthropologist Narby's personal account of his encounters with Amazonian shamanism and how this leads him to a new view of biology and DNA.
- Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh
An accessible and intriguing tour through mathematical history.
- A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 Poems About Science
What more do I need to say?
- Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
This "illustrated memoir" is a creative inspiration, and the title is tenuously science-linked!
19.5.09
Thomas Cooper
Thomas Cooper is the author of Phantasmagoria, a chapbook collection of flash fiction (Keyhole Press, 2009). His work has recently appeared in New Orleans Review, Sonora Review, Blackbird, Beloit Fiction Journal, and Quick Fiction. He’s at work on another collection of stories, Hellions, and a novel.
what are you reading now
I’m a dipper. I guess I have a problem committing. I usually keep little stacks of books around the house and work my way through them, a little here, a little there. Right now I’m reading Blake Bailey’s biography Cheever, which seems just as good as his work on Richard Yates. Mary Robison’s One D.O.A., One on the Way. Kelly Link’s Stranger Things Happen. Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World. Nabokov’s The Eye. Deb Olin Unferth’s Vacation. Also, Frederick Barthelme and Denis Johnson’s new novels. All of this probably makes it sound like I’m a far more voracious reader than I am. It’ll take me a long time to finish them all. Say around 2012.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I’ve been meaning to revisit more than anything else. I don’t remember a lot of the Nabokov I read in my early twenties. I would love to revisit some of Saul Bellow’s big novels, the doorstop ones. Flaubert’s Sentimental Education. Shakespeare, I don’t remember nearly as much I should. It’s embarrassing. I always feel like someone’s going to jump out of the bushes and quiz me. You know, “Quick, Hamlet, act III, scene i. Give me a quote. You have five seconds.”
last book to bring you to tears
This is a tough one. The Road by Cormac McCarthy? Yeah, I’m pretty sure. Especially the end.
book you borrowed and never returned
The last time I moved I came across a library book that was due in 1992. A Woody Allen biography. I don’t know how this happened. It’s probably only a matter of time before they find me and break down the door in the middle of the night.
best book title
I came across this one the other month called How to Avoid Huge Ships (Second Edition) by Captain John W. Trimmer. I thought that was great. That led to How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art. Which in turn led to Bombproof Your Horse: Teach Your Horse to Be Confident, Obedient, and Safe, No Matter What You Encounter.
worst book-to-film adaptation
I’m more disappointed with adaptations than not. So much is lost in translation. Maybe it’s best to watch an adaptation with a different set of expectations. I was very impressed with the Coen Brothers’s adaptation of No Country For Old Men. Then again, I think it was the most script-like of McCarthy’s novels.
most difficult book you’ve ever read
I have trouble with a lot of Joyce and Faulkner. Usually it’s difficulty that pays off, though.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I think the people who come over are amazed that I have a coffee table period.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I try to read all of them. If hard-pressed, I would have to say Pushcart, if only for its variety. There is a certain amount of predictability in the O. Henry and Best American Prizes. Good predictability, but predictability nonetheless. For instance, you know you’re going to see something by Alice Munro every year, and three or four things out of The New Yorker. I was disappointed to see the demise of Best New American Voices. Sign of the times, I guess.
collected stories of
Only one? Flannery O’Connor.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
This is hard. I like so many of them. I guess I have to go with Opium. Not only have they been very kind and supportive, but the journal is always weird and fun and eye-pleasing.
I’ll cheat and say I also have a special place in my heart for Quick Fiction, for the same reasons.
best thing you’ve read online recently
This place called Wigleaf publishes an annual list of the best online short-shorts. Since you said “thing,” I’ll choose this, because it allows me to cover a lot of territory.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m looking forward to some stuff coming out in the fall. The new Jonathan Lethem, William Gay, Lorrie Moore.
recommended reading list:
Contemporary Fiction
- David Gates’s Jernigan
- Sam Lipsyte’s Home Land
- Barry Hannah’s Airships
- Thom Jones’s Pugilist at Rest
- Rebecca Curtis’s Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money
- Joy Williams’s Honored Guest
- Mary Robison’s Why Did I Ever
- Robert Olen Butler’s Tabloid Dreams
- Denis Johnsons’s Jesus’s Son
- Edward P. Jones’s All Aunt Hagar’s Children
- Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex
- George Saunders’s CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.
I should stop while I’m ahead.
what are you reading now
I’m a dipper. I guess I have a problem committing. I usually keep little stacks of books around the house and work my way through them, a little here, a little there. Right now I’m reading Blake Bailey’s biography Cheever, which seems just as good as his work on Richard Yates. Mary Robison’s One D.O.A., One on the Way. Kelly Link’s Stranger Things Happen. Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World. Nabokov’s The Eye. Deb Olin Unferth’s Vacation. Also, Frederick Barthelme and Denis Johnson’s new novels. All of this probably makes it sound like I’m a far more voracious reader than I am. It’ll take me a long time to finish them all. Say around 2012.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I’ve been meaning to revisit more than anything else. I don’t remember a lot of the Nabokov I read in my early twenties. I would love to revisit some of Saul Bellow’s big novels, the doorstop ones. Flaubert’s Sentimental Education. Shakespeare, I don’t remember nearly as much I should. It’s embarrassing. I always feel like someone’s going to jump out of the bushes and quiz me. You know, “Quick, Hamlet, act III, scene i. Give me a quote. You have five seconds.”
last book to bring you to tears
This is a tough one. The Road by Cormac McCarthy? Yeah, I’m pretty sure. Especially the end.
book you borrowed and never returned
The last time I moved I came across a library book that was due in 1992. A Woody Allen biography. I don’t know how this happened. It’s probably only a matter of time before they find me and break down the door in the middle of the night.
best book title
I came across this one the other month called How to Avoid Huge Ships (Second Edition) by Captain John W. Trimmer. I thought that was great. That led to How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art. Which in turn led to Bombproof Your Horse: Teach Your Horse to Be Confident, Obedient, and Safe, No Matter What You Encounter.
worst book-to-film adaptation
I’m more disappointed with adaptations than not. So much is lost in translation. Maybe it’s best to watch an adaptation with a different set of expectations. I was very impressed with the Coen Brothers’s adaptation of No Country For Old Men. Then again, I think it was the most script-like of McCarthy’s novels.
most difficult book you’ve ever read
I have trouble with a lot of Joyce and Faulkner. Usually it’s difficulty that pays off, though.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I think the people who come over are amazed that I have a coffee table period.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I try to read all of them. If hard-pressed, I would have to say Pushcart, if only for its variety. There is a certain amount of predictability in the O. Henry and Best American Prizes. Good predictability, but predictability nonetheless. For instance, you know you’re going to see something by Alice Munro every year, and three or four things out of The New Yorker. I was disappointed to see the demise of Best New American Voices. Sign of the times, I guess.
collected stories of
Only one? Flannery O’Connor.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
This is hard. I like so many of them. I guess I have to go with Opium. Not only have they been very kind and supportive, but the journal is always weird and fun and eye-pleasing.
I’ll cheat and say I also have a special place in my heart for Quick Fiction, for the same reasons.
best thing you’ve read online recently
This place called Wigleaf publishes an annual list of the best online short-shorts. Since you said “thing,” I’ll choose this, because it allows me to cover a lot of territory.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m looking forward to some stuff coming out in the fall. The new Jonathan Lethem, William Gay, Lorrie Moore.
recommended reading list:
Contemporary Fiction
- David Gates’s Jernigan
- Sam Lipsyte’s Home Land
- Barry Hannah’s Airships
- Thom Jones’s Pugilist at Rest
- Rebecca Curtis’s Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money
- Joy Williams’s Honored Guest
- Mary Robison’s Why Did I Ever
- Robert Olen Butler’s Tabloid Dreams
- Denis Johnsons’s Jesus’s Son
- Edward P. Jones’s All Aunt Hagar’s Children
- Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex
- George Saunders’s CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.
I should stop while I’m ahead.
18.5.09
Scott Garson
Scott Garson has stories in or coming from American Short Fiction, New York Tyrant, Unsaid, FRiGG, Keyhole and others. He's got a bound thing coming from Willows Wept Press, too. He appreciates flux.
what are you reading now
It's the end of the semester. I'm reading student work.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities.
book you borrowed and never returned
Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout (sorry, bro-in-law….)
guilty pleasure reading
I like the crime fiction of George Pelecanos. I don't really feel guilty about that, though.
worst book-to-film adaptation
J. Mankiewicz's 1958 Quiet American, hands down. I blogged about this a while ago. The badness of that film is really something you have to respect.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I was 18 years old. I'd checked it out from the public library.)
best thing you’ve read online recently
Boy…. I loved that FRiGG microfiction issue. Jennifer Pieroni has been blowing me away…. But there's so much great stuff. I can't answer that question….
most anticipated upcoming release
Does Blake Butler's Scorch Atlas have his NY Tyrant and Ninth Letter stories in it?
recommended reading list:
Desert Island Collections
The rules: each of the last eight decades—including the one in progress—must be represented. No one decade can be represented more than twice. Collections may contain very short fiction but not novellas. Collections may not be retrospective (i.e. no 'Selected' or 'Collected' stories). You have twelve picks.
(I list mine in chronological order.)
1. Death in the Woods (1933), Sherwood Anderson
2. The Garden of Forking Paths (1941), Jorge Luis Borges
3. A Curtain of Green (1941), Eudora Welty
4. I Racconti (1958), Italo Calvino
5. Plain Pleasures (1966), Jane Bowles
6. City Life (1970), Donald Barthelme
7. Black Tickets (1979), Jayne Anne Phillips
8. Cathedral (1984), Raymond Carver
9. The Progress of Love (1986), Alice Munro
10. Escapes (1990), Joy Williams
11. Jesus' Son (1992), Denis Johnson
12. Assorted Fire Events (2000), David Means
what are you reading now
It's the end of the semester. I'm reading student work.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities.
book you borrowed and never returned
Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout (sorry, bro-in-law….)
guilty pleasure reading
I like the crime fiction of George Pelecanos. I don't really feel guilty about that, though.
worst book-to-film adaptation
J. Mankiewicz's 1958 Quiet American, hands down. I blogged about this a while ago. The badness of that film is really something you have to respect.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I was 18 years old. I'd checked it out from the public library.)
best thing you’ve read online recently
Boy…. I loved that FRiGG microfiction issue. Jennifer Pieroni has been blowing me away…. But there's so much great stuff. I can't answer that question….
most anticipated upcoming release
Does Blake Butler's Scorch Atlas have his NY Tyrant and Ninth Letter stories in it?
recommended reading list:
Desert Island Collections
The rules: each of the last eight decades—including the one in progress—must be represented. No one decade can be represented more than twice. Collections may contain very short fiction but not novellas. Collections may not be retrospective (i.e. no 'Selected' or 'Collected' stories). You have twelve picks.
(I list mine in chronological order.)
1. Death in the Woods (1933), Sherwood Anderson
2. The Garden of Forking Paths (1941), Jorge Luis Borges
3. A Curtain of Green (1941), Eudora Welty
4. I Racconti (1958), Italo Calvino
5. Plain Pleasures (1966), Jane Bowles
6. City Life (1970), Donald Barthelme
7. Black Tickets (1979), Jayne Anne Phillips
8. Cathedral (1984), Raymond Carver
9. The Progress of Love (1986), Alice Munro
10. Escapes (1990), Joy Williams
11. Jesus' Son (1992), Denis Johnson
12. Assorted Fire Events (2000), David Means
17.5.09
Benjamin Percy
Benjamin Percy is the author of a novel, The Wilding (forthcoming from Graywolf Press), and two books of stories, Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf, 2007) and The Language of Elk (Carnegie Mellon, 2006). His fiction and nonfiction have been read on National Public Radio and have been published by Esquire, Men's Journal, the Paris Review, the Chicago Tribune, Glimmer Train, and many others. His honors include a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Plimpton Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories. The graphic novel of Refresh, Refresh (illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff and published by First, Second Books) is now available for pre-order on Amazon. He teaches in the MFA program in creative writing and environment at Iowa State University.
what are you reading now
Columbine by Dave Cullen. Exhaustively researched, hauntingly executed.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Le Morte d'Arthur
last book to bring you to tears
I've got a stone-cold heart. And I'm so intensely mathematical in my reading -- as I calculate how an author uses em dashes, how many metaphors are employed on a given page, what page the subplot was introduced and what page it concluded -- that I often become emotionally detached from the storyline. Which isn't why I got into this business. So sometimes I'll put away the pen and make a concerted effort NOT to pay attention to the carpentry, to allow the story to sweep me away. Anyway. The last book (and maybe the only book) that made me cry: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. And that was sixth grade.
book you borrowed and never returned
Dreams of Distant Lives by Lee K. Abbott. This was in grad school and one night Mike Magnuson (author of The Right Man for the Job and Lummox, among others) picked me up in his truck. We were on our way to the bar and he had the book resting on the console. I said I had been meaning to pick up Abbott's work, and he said, "Here. You got to read this shit. You'll love it." I promised to return it once finished and never did. It was just too damn good.
guilty pleasure reading
I don't feel guilty about anything I read. But when other people spot me with a book by Stephen King or Larry McMurtry they'll often make snobbish remarks, like: oh, junk food.
worst book-to-film adaptation
Maybe Simon Birch (the cloying Hallmark-y adaptation of John Irving's brilliant A Prayer for Owen Meany). Or The Lawnmower Man based on the short story (kind of...there's little that connects the two besides the title) by Stephen King.
favorite neglected book by a celebrated writer
Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. Wonderfully dark and tortured. One of my favorite openers: "I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased."
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Not to impress but to create conversation and give friends the creeps: Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Definitely Pushcart. Bill Henderson is an unsung hero of literature.
collected stories of
Tobias Wolff
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
The Paris Review or The Missouri Review
best thing you’ve read online recently
"The Gray" by Aaron Gwyn.
most anticipated upcoming release
After so many brilliant (and neglected) novels, Daniel Woodrell is finally hammering out short stories. They've so far appeared in places like Surreal South, New Letters, and Esquire, and holy shit are they good. I don't know if a publisher has signed on yet, but I'll be first in line for this collection. And though it's already been mentioned on this website, I'll give a second shout-out to Josh Weil's forthcoming book of novellas, The New Valley.
recommended reading list:
(Re)Writing the West
- The Virginian by Owen Wister
- True Grit by Charles Portis
- Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
- Ceremony by Leslie Silko
- Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
- The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
- Close Range by Annie Proulx
- The Hermit's Story by Rick Bass
what are you reading now
Columbine by Dave Cullen. Exhaustively researched, hauntingly executed.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Le Morte d'Arthur
last book to bring you to tears
I've got a stone-cold heart. And I'm so intensely mathematical in my reading -- as I calculate how an author uses em dashes, how many metaphors are employed on a given page, what page the subplot was introduced and what page it concluded -- that I often become emotionally detached from the storyline. Which isn't why I got into this business. So sometimes I'll put away the pen and make a concerted effort NOT to pay attention to the carpentry, to allow the story to sweep me away. Anyway. The last book (and maybe the only book) that made me cry: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. And that was sixth grade.
book you borrowed and never returned
Dreams of Distant Lives by Lee K. Abbott. This was in grad school and one night Mike Magnuson (author of The Right Man for the Job and Lummox, among others) picked me up in his truck. We were on our way to the bar and he had the book resting on the console. I said I had been meaning to pick up Abbott's work, and he said, "Here. You got to read this shit. You'll love it." I promised to return it once finished and never did. It was just too damn good.
guilty pleasure reading
I don't feel guilty about anything I read. But when other people spot me with a book by Stephen King or Larry McMurtry they'll often make snobbish remarks, like: oh, junk food.
worst book-to-film adaptation
Maybe Simon Birch (the cloying Hallmark-y adaptation of John Irving's brilliant A Prayer for Owen Meany). Or The Lawnmower Man based on the short story (kind of...there's little that connects the two besides the title) by Stephen King.
favorite neglected book by a celebrated writer
Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. Wonderfully dark and tortured. One of my favorite openers: "I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased."
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Not to impress but to create conversation and give friends the creeps: Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Definitely Pushcart. Bill Henderson is an unsung hero of literature.
collected stories of
Tobias Wolff
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
The Paris Review or The Missouri Review
best thing you’ve read online recently
"The Gray" by Aaron Gwyn.
most anticipated upcoming release
After so many brilliant (and neglected) novels, Daniel Woodrell is finally hammering out short stories. They've so far appeared in places like Surreal South, New Letters, and Esquire, and holy shit are they good. I don't know if a publisher has signed on yet, but I'll be first in line for this collection. And though it's already been mentioned on this website, I'll give a second shout-out to Josh Weil's forthcoming book of novellas, The New Valley.
recommended reading list:
(Re)Writing the West
- The Virginian by Owen Wister
- True Grit by Charles Portis
- Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
- Ceremony by Leslie Silko
- Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
- The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
- Close Range by Annie Proulx
- The Hermit's Story by Rick Bass
16.5.09
Clancy Martin
Clancy Martin is the author of the just-released How to Sell (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux). A Canadian, he is an associate professor and chair of philosophy at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He edited The Philosophy of Deception, which will be out from Oxford University Press this summer. He publishes in Harper’s, The London Review of Books, NOON, Ethics, McSweeney’s, and many other places. Please watch for Love, Lies, and Marriage, out from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux next year.
what are you reading now
Anna Karenina. For about the twentieth time. And Stendhal’s On Love.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Tristam Shandy. Read it years ago, but need to reread it soon. Presently rereading Inferno, but only ten pages in. Also, Paradise Lost, another reread from fifteen years or so ago. Bleak House, another old must-reread.
last book to make you laugh out loud
Deb Olin Unferth’s Vacation
book you borrowed and never returned
I’m pretty good about returning them. Can’t think of one, honestly. Some dumb book of philosophy, no doubt. (Those are the ones you forget to return, the dumb ones.)
most devastating novel
Hunger or Journey to the End of the Night. Two of the best books ever written, hands down.
best book you’ve read so far this year
2666
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
Beyond Good and Evil
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Matthew Barney’s Decalogue
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Pushcart
collected stories of
Kafka or Chekhov
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
NOON
best thing you’ve read online recently
Anything by Olivia Judson or Deb Olin Unferth
most anticipated upcoming release
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
recommended reading list:
Contemporary Avant-Garde Writers
- Deb Olin Unferth
- Diane Williams
- Christine Schutt
- Tao Lin
- Wells Tower
- Rebecca Curtis
- Barry Hannah
- Lydia Davis
what are you reading now
Anna Karenina. For about the twentieth time. And Stendhal’s On Love.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Tristam Shandy. Read it years ago, but need to reread it soon. Presently rereading Inferno, but only ten pages in. Also, Paradise Lost, another reread from fifteen years or so ago. Bleak House, another old must-reread.
last book to make you laugh out loud
Deb Olin Unferth’s Vacation
book you borrowed and never returned
I’m pretty good about returning them. Can’t think of one, honestly. Some dumb book of philosophy, no doubt. (Those are the ones you forget to return, the dumb ones.)
most devastating novel
Hunger or Journey to the End of the Night. Two of the best books ever written, hands down.
best book you’ve read so far this year
2666
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
Beyond Good and Evil
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Matthew Barney’s Decalogue
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Pushcart
collected stories of
Kafka or Chekhov
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
NOON
best thing you’ve read online recently
Anything by Olivia Judson or Deb Olin Unferth
most anticipated upcoming release
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
recommended reading list:
Contemporary Avant-Garde Writers
- Deb Olin Unferth
- Diane Williams
- Christine Schutt
- Tao Lin
- Wells Tower
- Rebecca Curtis
- Barry Hannah
- Lydia Davis
15.5.09
Matt Bell
Matt Bell is the author of two chapbooks, The Collectors and How the Broken Lead the Blind, and has fiction published or upcoming in Conjunctions, Gulf Coast, Meridian, Monkeybicycle, and Keyhole. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI, and can be found online at www.mdbell.com.
what are you reading now
I’m reading David Ohle’s The Age of Sinatra, a sequel to his brilliant novel Motorman. It took me a little while to settle into it, and while I’m not sure it’s quite as good, I do like it better now than I did initially. It’s in a very different style than Motorman, which is surprising for a sequel. That said, there’s a lot of funny, bizarre stuff here, and I’ll hold off final judgment until I’ve finished it.
I’m also reading Barry Hannah’s collection Airships, which I’ve only just begun. The first couple stories are fantastic, and there are lines of Hannah’s that get stuck in my brain and refuse to dislodge, which are perhaps the best kinds of sentences. There’s a particular one from the last story I read that I’ve been carrying around all week: “It’s just arms and legs. It’s not worth a damn.” It looks so plain by itself, but I remember getting walloped by it when it appeared in the midst of the story. That seems to be the secret to his stories—I keep hearing people talk about his language, and while it is great, it’s so simple too.
I’ve also been reading a number of individual stories from recent collections and magazines, since it’s Short Story Month. There’s so much good stuff happening with the short story right now, and it’s exciting to read as much of it as I can.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Every summer, I tell myself I’m going to read this, and every summer I can’t bring myself to give up the ten books I could read instead. Maybe this year!
last book to bring you to tears
I feel like it’s been a while, for whatever reason. I will say this: Michael Kimball’s Dear Everybody broke my heart more than any other book I read last year, and I can remember being powerfully touched by it the first time I read it, on a train home from Chicago. I read it cover-to-cover, and then my wife read it cover-to-cover, and by the time we ate dinner that night we were discussing the poor doomed Jonathon Bender like he was a close friend who’s funeral we’d just came from. It was one of the most interesting shared reading experiences I’d ever had, and a great conversation with my wife.
book you borrowed and never returned
While I have at least half of the Stephen King books that once resided in the small town public library near where I grew up, I feel like you probably meant a book I loved so much I never gave it back, instead of ones I just stole because I’m lazy. Unfortunately, I hardly ever borrow books from people, for reasons like the above. Plus, I’m a bit of a hoarder, and like having my own copies of things.
I do have a small pile of Aaron Burch’s graphic novels. I should probably give those back soon, before they become part of my permanent collection.
guilty pleasure reading
Is there such a thing as a guilty pleasure? I don’t know—I read what I like, and always have, so I’ve read a lot of books that aren’t very literary, I guess, but I don’t care for that term a lot. I’m not very interested in genre lines, especially as they’re used to exclude writers from some sort of “good writing” sphere. People should read what they like. I’ve read a Dungeons and Dragons novel that nearly moved me to tears, but have never read an Alice Munro story that did the same.
worst book-to-film adaptation
It don’t know if I have a “worst” adaptation, except to bring up really obvious ones that are out there, but I will say I was pretty disappointed with the recent adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke, which is one of my favorite novels of his, and I think a pretty wonderfully subversive book. The movie, by contrast, was so safe and tame and spectacularly mediocre—I mean, there’s a rape role-play scene in it that’s really, really boring. That shouldn’t really even be possible.
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
I don’t write in my books, but not because of any fetish for clean books or because of the sacredness of the text or anything like that. I just don’t like reading the book again two years from now and realizing how juvenile my thoughts are about nearly every book I’ve ever written. I’m trying to live under the illusion that I’m a sensitive, intelligent person. Writing my thoughts down does not help.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I don’t know if I’ve ever tried to impress someone with a book—that seems ridiculously unlikely—but even if I did it would be doomed to failure. I used to try to have the “right music on” when people came over, but I always tried to impress them by playing bands they had never heard of, so that my brilliant and hip (and obviously self-delusional) taste might show through. That does not, as a rule, work—People just wonder why you’re playing music they’ve never heard of at an unacceptable volume. Books would be even worse.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Are these the only choices? I’d generally pick Best American Nonrequired Reading, but if pushed to pick one of the above, I’d pick BASS, but only on certain years, when someone more open to new writers and new kinds of stories edits it. Michael Chabon’s year is (to me) the best out of the last ten years or so, and his introduction (which is reprinted in his excellent Maps and Legends) is one of the most inspiring and reassuring essays a writer like myself could ask for.
collected stories of
J.G. Ballard? That might be the only “collected stories” I’ve read cover to cover. I’d take Flannery O’Connor too, although I haven’t read all of hers yet.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Hobart, although I’m probably biased. The only literary magazine I own every issue of is Keyhole—I’ll probably try to keep that streak up as well.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Matthew Derby’s “January in December” in Guernica was fantastic (and part of a great issue guest-edited by Ben Marcus). More recently, I really enjoyed Scott Garson's story "Premises for an Action Plan," published online at American Short Fiction.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m picking three! Fugue State by Brian Evenson, Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler, and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg all look great, or are great (some of these I’ve read at least partially in galleys).
recommended reading:
Ten Books Everyone Already Knows About, But I Didn’t
I grew up out in the country and went to a series of small public schools and then small universities, and I didn’t know anyone who was a serious reader or writer, and so I was always “discovering” writers I didn’t think anyone else knew about. Some of them were very well-known, and some not quite so much, but all of them were certainly books that had gotten some level of press and attention that would have reached me if I was even the slightest bit aware of what was happening in publishing. Perhaps it’s a testimony to the fact that I don’t put a lot of stocks in reviews or in blurbs, or perhaps it’s a reminder of how much I used to want to be the first person to know about something, and so tricked myself into believing I was, despite what now seems like overwhelming evidence that I was not. (I mean, the back cover of most of these books—which I overwhelmingly read in paperback—would have been enough to prove me wrong.)
In any case, here are a few of the books I thought I was the only person who knew about, for a period that lasted at least between 1999 and 2003 (to make a rough guess):
- David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
- Dennis Cooper, Guide
- Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son
- Sam Lipsyte, Venus Drive
- Craig Clevenger, The Contortionist’s Handbook
- JT Leroy, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
- James Tate, Return to the City of White Donkeys
- Etgar Keret, The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God
- George Saunders, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
- Amanda Davis, Circling the Drain
These are just ten of the many, many writers I found while browsing bookshelves and such when I was in my late teens and early twenties. It really is amazing how long I stayed completely ignorant of the world of literature, and of what other people with similar aspirations as me were reading. The good news is two-fold though: First, I read all of these book’s independent of other people’s criticism or the writer’s biographical information, and so was able to form my own opinions. Second, by the time I realized that my reading tastes were not really that eclectic, I was able to find people who liked the same books as me and use my taste to connect with theirs and then just mine the lists of books they liked, leading me toward more and more great writers and great books. Now when I review books or write about them on my blog, I’m just hoping to do the same thing for others, by saying that these are the books I love now, and that they might love too: The review as a way to start a conversation, to form a bridge from this book to the next, and from myself to another.
what are you reading now
I’m reading David Ohle’s The Age of Sinatra, a sequel to his brilliant novel Motorman. It took me a little while to settle into it, and while I’m not sure it’s quite as good, I do like it better now than I did initially. It’s in a very different style than Motorman, which is surprising for a sequel. That said, there’s a lot of funny, bizarre stuff here, and I’ll hold off final judgment until I’ve finished it.
I’m also reading Barry Hannah’s collection Airships, which I’ve only just begun. The first couple stories are fantastic, and there are lines of Hannah’s that get stuck in my brain and refuse to dislodge, which are perhaps the best kinds of sentences. There’s a particular one from the last story I read that I’ve been carrying around all week: “It’s just arms and legs. It’s not worth a damn.” It looks so plain by itself, but I remember getting walloped by it when it appeared in the midst of the story. That seems to be the secret to his stories—I keep hearing people talk about his language, and while it is great, it’s so simple too.
I’ve also been reading a number of individual stories from recent collections and magazines, since it’s Short Story Month. There’s so much good stuff happening with the short story right now, and it’s exciting to read as much of it as I can.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Every summer, I tell myself I’m going to read this, and every summer I can’t bring myself to give up the ten books I could read instead. Maybe this year!
last book to bring you to tears
I feel like it’s been a while, for whatever reason. I will say this: Michael Kimball’s Dear Everybody broke my heart more than any other book I read last year, and I can remember being powerfully touched by it the first time I read it, on a train home from Chicago. I read it cover-to-cover, and then my wife read it cover-to-cover, and by the time we ate dinner that night we were discussing the poor doomed Jonathon Bender like he was a close friend who’s funeral we’d just came from. It was one of the most interesting shared reading experiences I’d ever had, and a great conversation with my wife.
book you borrowed and never returned
While I have at least half of the Stephen King books that once resided in the small town public library near where I grew up, I feel like you probably meant a book I loved so much I never gave it back, instead of ones I just stole because I’m lazy. Unfortunately, I hardly ever borrow books from people, for reasons like the above. Plus, I’m a bit of a hoarder, and like having my own copies of things.
I do have a small pile of Aaron Burch’s graphic novels. I should probably give those back soon, before they become part of my permanent collection.
guilty pleasure reading
Is there such a thing as a guilty pleasure? I don’t know—I read what I like, and always have, so I’ve read a lot of books that aren’t very literary, I guess, but I don’t care for that term a lot. I’m not very interested in genre lines, especially as they’re used to exclude writers from some sort of “good writing” sphere. People should read what they like. I’ve read a Dungeons and Dragons novel that nearly moved me to tears, but have never read an Alice Munro story that did the same.
worst book-to-film adaptation
It don’t know if I have a “worst” adaptation, except to bring up really obvious ones that are out there, but I will say I was pretty disappointed with the recent adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke, which is one of my favorite novels of his, and I think a pretty wonderfully subversive book. The movie, by contrast, was so safe and tame and spectacularly mediocre—I mean, there’s a rape role-play scene in it that’s really, really boring. That shouldn’t really even be possible.
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
I don’t write in my books, but not because of any fetish for clean books or because of the sacredness of the text or anything like that. I just don’t like reading the book again two years from now and realizing how juvenile my thoughts are about nearly every book I’ve ever written. I’m trying to live under the illusion that I’m a sensitive, intelligent person. Writing my thoughts down does not help.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I don’t know if I’ve ever tried to impress someone with a book—that seems ridiculously unlikely—but even if I did it would be doomed to failure. I used to try to have the “right music on” when people came over, but I always tried to impress them by playing bands they had never heard of, so that my brilliant and hip (and obviously self-delusional) taste might show through. That does not, as a rule, work—People just wonder why you’re playing music they’ve never heard of at an unacceptable volume. Books would be even worse.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
Are these the only choices? I’d generally pick Best American Nonrequired Reading, but if pushed to pick one of the above, I’d pick BASS, but only on certain years, when someone more open to new writers and new kinds of stories edits it. Michael Chabon’s year is (to me) the best out of the last ten years or so, and his introduction (which is reprinted in his excellent Maps and Legends) is one of the most inspiring and reassuring essays a writer like myself could ask for.
collected stories of
J.G. Ballard? That might be the only “collected stories” I’ve read cover to cover. I’d take Flannery O’Connor too, although I haven’t read all of hers yet.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Hobart, although I’m probably biased. The only literary magazine I own every issue of is Keyhole—I’ll probably try to keep that streak up as well.
best thing you’ve read online recently
Matthew Derby’s “January in December” in Guernica was fantastic (and part of a great issue guest-edited by Ben Marcus). More recently, I really enjoyed Scott Garson's story "Premises for an Action Plan," published online at American Short Fiction.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m picking three! Fugue State by Brian Evenson, Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler, and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg all look great, or are great (some of these I’ve read at least partially in galleys).
recommended reading:
Ten Books Everyone Already Knows About, But I Didn’t
I grew up out in the country and went to a series of small public schools and then small universities, and I didn’t know anyone who was a serious reader or writer, and so I was always “discovering” writers I didn’t think anyone else knew about. Some of them were very well-known, and some not quite so much, but all of them were certainly books that had gotten some level of press and attention that would have reached me if I was even the slightest bit aware of what was happening in publishing. Perhaps it’s a testimony to the fact that I don’t put a lot of stocks in reviews or in blurbs, or perhaps it’s a reminder of how much I used to want to be the first person to know about something, and so tricked myself into believing I was, despite what now seems like overwhelming evidence that I was not. (I mean, the back cover of most of these books—which I overwhelmingly read in paperback—would have been enough to prove me wrong.)
In any case, here are a few of the books I thought I was the only person who knew about, for a period that lasted at least between 1999 and 2003 (to make a rough guess):
- David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
- Dennis Cooper, Guide
- Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son
- Sam Lipsyte, Venus Drive
- Craig Clevenger, The Contortionist’s Handbook
- JT Leroy, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
- James Tate, Return to the City of White Donkeys
- Etgar Keret, The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God
- George Saunders, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
- Amanda Davis, Circling the Drain
These are just ten of the many, many writers I found while browsing bookshelves and such when I was in my late teens and early twenties. It really is amazing how long I stayed completely ignorant of the world of literature, and of what other people with similar aspirations as me were reading. The good news is two-fold though: First, I read all of these book’s independent of other people’s criticism or the writer’s biographical information, and so was able to form my own opinions. Second, by the time I realized that my reading tastes were not really that eclectic, I was able to find people who liked the same books as me and use my taste to connect with theirs and then just mine the lists of books they liked, leading me toward more and more great writers and great books. Now when I review books or write about them on my blog, I’m just hoping to do the same thing for others, by saying that these are the books I love now, and that they might love too: The review as a way to start a conversation, to form a bridge from this book to the next, and from myself to another.
Laura van den Berg
Laura van den Berg was raised in Florida and earned her MFA at Emerson College. She is the recipient of scholarships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences, the 2009 Julia Peterkin Award, and the 2009-2010 Emerging Writer Lectureship at Gettysburg College. Her fiction has or will soon appear in One Story, Boston Review, Epoch, American Short Fiction, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008, Best New American Voices 2010, and The Pushcart Prize XXIV: Best of the Small Presses. The winner of the Dzanc Prize, Laura’s first collection of stories, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, will be published by Dzanc Books in October.
what are you reading now
I’m reading Fiona Maazel’s Last Last Chance, which is a very interesting and exciting novel.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I read War and Peace in college, but I wasn’t paying much attention, so I suppose that might be something to revisit. One classic I’ve been dying to read is Middlemarch. And this next book might not be a classic in the canonical sense, but so many people—even the kind of people who never recommended anything!—have been informing me that I will be living an impoverished life until I read Stoner by John Williams, so that’s very high on my list.
last book to bring you to tears
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s a beautiful and brilliant novel and I wept like a baby while reading the final scene. It just wrecked me, in the best sort of way.
book you borrowed and never returned
Oh dear god, there have been so many, I’m afraid. I’m pretty sure my copy of Project X—a fantastic novel by Jim Shepard—isn’t mine.
guilty pleasure reading
Every Wednesday afternoon on Gawker they post something called “Midweek Madness,” a weekly distillation of whatever the tabloids have to say about various celebs. I read it and then feel guilty for feeding some horrible cultural beast that is probably sucking away all our brainpower, just like in those Hulu commercials.
worst book-to-film adaptation
I’m not sure this is the very worst, but I admired Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted and thought the movie went off the rails, especially toward the end. Too melodramatic and Hollywood-ized.
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
Hard call! Margin notes, crinkled pages, and battered covers are all signs of a well-loved book, in my opinion. I’ve never quite understood readers who preserve their books like museum artifacts. Anyway, To The Lighthouse is probably one of my most annotated.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I didn’t hang out with very many people who read until I went to graduate school, so I can’t think of anything to cop to at the moment. But if I can move into the realm of the hypothetical, a really long book—2666? Infinite Jest? Something by Proust?—seems like a good coffee table plant. If nothing else, it would demonstrate that you’re capable of committing to something for a sustained period of time.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I typically get all those anthologies and enjoy reading through them, but I’m especially partial to Best American Short Stories 2006, edited by Ann Patchett, which is just a fantastically strong collection and contains two stories that are very close to my heart: "Once the Shore" by Paul Yoon and "Refresh, Refresh" by Benjamin Percy.
collected stories of
Amy Hempel!
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
One Story!
best thing you’ve read online recently
I’m an editor at Memorious and I’m wild about a story we published by Blake Butler called “Landlord,” which has just been re-printed in Best of the Web 2009. I also love James Scott’s “What Happens When You’re Not There,” recently published in Flatmancrooked.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m super excited about a novella collection titled The New Valley by Josh Weil. The book will be published in early June and it is going to absolutely rock.
recommended reading list:
Debut Story Collections
- Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson
- The Language of Elk by Benjamin Percy
- Once the Shore by Paul Yoon
- Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth
- Big World by Mary Miller
- In the Devil’s Territory by Kyle Minor
- Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti
- Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel
- Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
- Famous Fathers and Other Stories by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
- The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender
- The Point by Charles D'Ambrosio
- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Yellow by Don Lee
- Drown by Junot Díaz
I could go on and on. I’m surely omitting some debut story collections that I love, but for now, the ones mentioned above are well worth seeking out.
what are you reading now
I’m reading Fiona Maazel’s Last Last Chance, which is a very interesting and exciting novel.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
I read War and Peace in college, but I wasn’t paying much attention, so I suppose that might be something to revisit. One classic I’ve been dying to read is Middlemarch. And this next book might not be a classic in the canonical sense, but so many people—even the kind of people who never recommended anything!—have been informing me that I will be living an impoverished life until I read Stoner by John Williams, so that’s very high on my list.
last book to bring you to tears
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s a beautiful and brilliant novel and I wept like a baby while reading the final scene. It just wrecked me, in the best sort of way.
book you borrowed and never returned
Oh dear god, there have been so many, I’m afraid. I’m pretty sure my copy of Project X—a fantastic novel by Jim Shepard—isn’t mine.
guilty pleasure reading
Every Wednesday afternoon on Gawker they post something called “Midweek Madness,” a weekly distillation of whatever the tabloids have to say about various celebs. I read it and then feel guilty for feeding some horrible cultural beast that is probably sucking away all our brainpower, just like in those Hulu commercials.
worst book-to-film adaptation
I’m not sure this is the very worst, but I admired Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted and thought the movie went off the rails, especially toward the end. Too melodramatic and Hollywood-ized.
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
Hard call! Margin notes, crinkled pages, and battered covers are all signs of a well-loved book, in my opinion. I’ve never quite understood readers who preserve their books like museum artifacts. Anyway, To The Lighthouse is probably one of my most annotated.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
I didn’t hang out with very many people who read until I went to graduate school, so I can’t think of anything to cop to at the moment. But if I can move into the realm of the hypothetical, a really long book—2666? Infinite Jest? Something by Proust?—seems like a good coffee table plant. If nothing else, it would demonstrate that you’re capable of committing to something for a sustained period of time.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I typically get all those anthologies and enjoy reading through them, but I’m especially partial to Best American Short Stories 2006, edited by Ann Patchett, which is just a fantastically strong collection and contains two stories that are very close to my heart: "Once the Shore" by Paul Yoon and "Refresh, Refresh" by Benjamin Percy.
collected stories of
Amy Hempel!
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
One Story!
best thing you’ve read online recently
I’m an editor at Memorious and I’m wild about a story we published by Blake Butler called “Landlord,” which has just been re-printed in Best of the Web 2009. I also love James Scott’s “What Happens When You’re Not There,” recently published in Flatmancrooked.
most anticipated upcoming release
I’m super excited about a novella collection titled The New Valley by Josh Weil. The book will be published in early June and it is going to absolutely rock.
recommended reading list:
Debut Story Collections
- Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson
- The Language of Elk by Benjamin Percy
- Once the Shore by Paul Yoon
- Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth
- Big World by Mary Miller
- In the Devil’s Territory by Kyle Minor
- Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti
- Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel
- Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
- Famous Fathers and Other Stories by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
- The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender
- The Point by Charles D'Ambrosio
- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Yellow by Don Lee
- Drown by Junot Díaz
I could go on and on. I’m surely omitting some debut story collections that I love, but for now, the ones mentioned above are well worth seeking out.
14.5.09
Kevin Wilson
Kevin Wilson is the author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial, 2009). His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, One Story, and elsewhere. He lives in Sewanee, TN.
what are you reading now
Blackmailer by George Axelrod
A pulp novel from 1952 about a New York publisher “on the trail of the literary find of the century…and the killer who will stop at nothing to keep it from being found.” Axelrod wrote the screenplays for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Manchurian Candidate.
&
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
An incredible book that I’ve been reading off and on since August of 2008. I read a section and then put it away for a month. I have no idea why I’m doing this.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
I’ve started this book three times, really like it, and then stop reading it for no discernible reason.
last book to bring you to tears
A Better Angel by Chris Adrian
Adrian’s books are some of the most emotionally affecting works I’ve ever read. Children in hospitals, the constant threat of a painful death, people struggling to find happiness under the worst circumstances. It’s beautiful.
book you borrowed and never returned
The Nimrod Flipout by Etgar Keret
My friend, Cecily Parks, loaned me this book back in June of last year and I never returned it, partly because I couldn’t figure out if she was giving it to me or loaning it to me. I have resisted the urge to ask her to clarify because I don’t want to give it back.
guilty pleasure reading
I have no guilt about reading. I read comic books, pulp novels, Pat Conroy novels. It’s all good.
worst book-to-film adaptation
The Scarlet Letter and The Human Stain
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
I have never written in a book. It’s some kind of comic book mania that prevents me from messing up the condition of a book, which lowers the value.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
EC Archives Crime Suspenstories Vol. 1
It impressed no one.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I think it would be the first BASS I ever bought, 1993, which has “The Girl on the Plane” by Mary Gaitskill, “Charlotte” by Tony Earley, “I Want to Live!” by Thom Jones, “Concerning Mold Upon the Skin” by Joanna Scott, and “Terrific Mother” by Lorrie Moore.
I’d also like to mention BASS 1982, which has “Cathedrals” by Raymond Carver as the opening story and then follows with an amazing story by a guy I’ve never seen again, James Ferry. The story is called “Dancing Ducks and Talking Anus” and begins, “I suppose you’ve heard that Renee douched herself with sulfuric acid.”
collected stories of
Flannery O’Connor
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Hobart or One Story
best thing you’ve read online recently
“An Index of How Our Family Was Killed” by Matt Bell
most anticipated upcoming release
Love and Obstacles by Aleksandar Hemon
&
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg
recommended reading list:
Ten Guys: Historical Figures in Short Fiction
- Walt Whitman: “Every Night for a Thousand Years” by Chris Adrian in Gob’s Grief
- Lyndon Baines Johnson: “Lyndon” by David Foster Wallace in Girl With Curious Hair
- Christopher Columbus: “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore” by Harlan Ellison in Slippage
- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek: “Concerning Mold Upon the Skin” by Joanna Scott in Various Antidotes
- J.E.B. Stuart: “Knowing He Was Not My Kind Yet I Followed” by Barry Hannah in Airships
- Robert Kennedy: “Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowing” by Donald Barthelme in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts
- John McEnroe: “John McEnroe Visits Seven Months” by Sean Lovelace in Crazyhorse No. 68
- Benjamin Franklin: “Mrs. Franklin Ascends” by Fred Chappell in Moments of Light
- Anton Chekhov: “Errand” by Raymond Carver in Elephant
- Carl Linnaeus: “The English Pupil” by Andrea Barrett in Ship Fever
what are you reading now
Blackmailer by George Axelrod
A pulp novel from 1952 about a New York publisher “on the trail of the literary find of the century…and the killer who will stop at nothing to keep it from being found.” Axelrod wrote the screenplays for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Manchurian Candidate.
&
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
An incredible book that I’ve been reading off and on since August of 2008. I read a section and then put it away for a month. I have no idea why I’m doing this.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
I’ve started this book three times, really like it, and then stop reading it for no discernible reason.
last book to bring you to tears
A Better Angel by Chris Adrian
Adrian’s books are some of the most emotionally affecting works I’ve ever read. Children in hospitals, the constant threat of a painful death, people struggling to find happiness under the worst circumstances. It’s beautiful.
book you borrowed and never returned
The Nimrod Flipout by Etgar Keret
My friend, Cecily Parks, loaned me this book back in June of last year and I never returned it, partly because I couldn’t figure out if she was giving it to me or loaning it to me. I have resisted the urge to ask her to clarify because I don’t want to give it back.
guilty pleasure reading
I have no guilt about reading. I read comic books, pulp novels, Pat Conroy novels. It’s all good.
worst book-to-film adaptation
The Scarlet Letter and The Human Stain
most scribble-ridden book in your collection
I have never written in a book. It’s some kind of comic book mania that prevents me from messing up the condition of a book, which lowers the value.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
EC Archives Crime Suspenstories Vol. 1
It impressed no one.
best american short stories, pen/o. henry prizes, or the pushcart prize anthology
I think it would be the first BASS I ever bought, 1993, which has “The Girl on the Plane” by Mary Gaitskill, “Charlotte” by Tony Earley, “I Want to Live!” by Thom Jones, “Concerning Mold Upon the Skin” by Joanna Scott, and “Terrific Mother” by Lorrie Moore.
I’d also like to mention BASS 1982, which has “Cathedrals” by Raymond Carver as the opening story and then follows with an amazing story by a guy I’ve never seen again, James Ferry. The story is called “Dancing Ducks and Talking Anus” and begins, “I suppose you’ve heard that Renee douched herself with sulfuric acid.”
collected stories of
Flannery O’Connor
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Hobart or One Story
best thing you’ve read online recently
“An Index of How Our Family Was Killed” by Matt Bell
most anticipated upcoming release
Love and Obstacles by Aleksandar Hemon
&
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg
recommended reading list:
Ten Guys: Historical Figures in Short Fiction
- Walt Whitman: “Every Night for a Thousand Years” by Chris Adrian in Gob’s Grief
- Lyndon Baines Johnson: “Lyndon” by David Foster Wallace in Girl With Curious Hair
- Christopher Columbus: “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore” by Harlan Ellison in Slippage
- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek: “Concerning Mold Upon the Skin” by Joanna Scott in Various Antidotes
- J.E.B. Stuart: “Knowing He Was Not My Kind Yet I Followed” by Barry Hannah in Airships
- Robert Kennedy: “Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowing” by Donald Barthelme in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts
- John McEnroe: “John McEnroe Visits Seven Months” by Sean Lovelace in Crazyhorse No. 68
- Benjamin Franklin: “Mrs. Franklin Ascends” by Fred Chappell in Moments of Light
- Anton Chekhov: “Errand” by Raymond Carver in Elephant
- Carl Linnaeus: “The English Pupil” by Andrea Barrett in Ship Fever
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