Shellie Zacharia

Shellie Zacharia lives in Gainesville, Florida. Her debut story collection, Now Playing, was recently published by Keyhole Press.


what are you reading now

Argh! I’m always reading several books at once. Too many. I’m reading a few short story anthologies slowly, a story or two here and there: The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction and My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro and the O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 volume. I’m also reading The Party Train, a Collection of North American Prose Poetry. And Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban.


classic you’ve been meaning to read

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.


last book to make you laugh out loud

Not sure, but maybe Elizabeth Crane. I read her When the Messenger is Hot and then I went and got You Must Be This Happy to Enter because I thought, yeah, these are fun stories.


strangest book you've ever read

Joyce’s Ulysses. I read it in grad school and I remember thinking, what?! I remember loving the Molly Bloom yes and yes and yes soliloquy, and I remember the professor saying, “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan” a bunch of times and not making much sense. But I know I was blown away that writing could be so wild.


book you borrowed and never returned

I’m embarrassed to say, but a vegetarian cookbook. It’s got good easy recipes, simple ones where I don’t have to run to the store for extra ingredients. But now I’m thinking I better return it and get my own copy.


collected stories of

Lydia Davis. Her collection just came out. I think I’ll buy it. Today. Okay.


book you've planted on a coffee table to impress someone

Ha! I don’t think I’ve planted books, but I’ve hidden books. Don’t need people knowing I’m reading that!


if you could subscribe to only one literary journal

Oxford American. And they include the Southern Music CD. Very cool. Literature and music – two of my favorite things.


most anticipated upcoming release

Well, I love the Sudden Fiction anthologies edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas – I have them all (and the Flash Fiction ones) and go back to them again and again. I don’t know when they’ll put another one out, but I’m waiting . . .


recommended reading list:


Some Books That Made Me Say “Wow”


- The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender

- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

- The Family Orchard by Nomi Eve

- Big Fish by Daniel Wallace

- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

- Peace Like a River by Leif Enger