Each year I do my best to read the two short story collections that the University of Georgia Press publish as winners of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. This year, one of the two books, “The Bigness of the World” by Lori Ostlund, has deservedly been seeing some attention. So, I’m going to […]
What the World Will Look Like When the Water Leaves Us Laura van den Berg Dzanc Books, 2009 Every six months or so I interview a short story writer I like for Luna Park, a writer who has a new collection of stories coming out and whose stuff I had seen awhile in literary magazines […]
During the next week, I’m going to be posting some recommendations for the best short story collections of 2009, as recommended by various experts (and I do mean experts — got some knowledgeable peeps ready to hold forth). Until that point, however, I refer you to some of the best-of lists cropping up about town. […]
Tod Goldberg writes short stories (Simplify) and novels (Living Dead Girl), in addition to just being a hilarious guy (see: blog). He’s also the Director of the MFA program at UC Riverside Palm Desert. BookFox had the opportunity to interview him by email for the release of his latest collection, “Other Resort Cities.” BookFox: So […]
The Morning News has a great memoir piece, a very new journalism/memoir style called "Joan Didion Crosses the Street." Out of a simple chance encounter with Joan Didion on a public street V.L. Hartmann reconstructs the significance of Joan Didion to her own childhood and her parents generation: When I was a teenager my mother […]
Cormac McCarthy gives one of his once-in-a-blue-moon interviews to WSJ (to promote the new movie “The Road.”). So I guess there is someone other than Oprah that can coax him out of hiding. His caustic humor is sure in full form, though: WSJ: When you first went to the film set, how did it compare with […]
The Wall Street Journal takes a lukewarm tone regarding Herta Muller (via The Literary Saloon): “I am happy to have made Ms. Müller’s acquaintance without being eager to revisit her.” The final sentence of the WSJ article, written by Richard Woodward, indicates that Muller’s books are likely to stay on the shelves — not exactly a […]
A lot of people have been complaining about the lack of women on the Publishers Weekly top ten list. For commentary, check out the NY Times, The Rumpus, and The Arts Blog. I have a problem not with this particular attempt to encourage diversification (and it is pretty strange that not a single woman appeared on […]
Emily Pullen at Skylight Books blog: What kind of soulless person would think that cheaper isn’t better? According to Merriam Webster, the verb to cheapen also means “to lower in general esteem; to make tawdry, vulgar, or inferior in some moral sense.” And frankly, that’s something that I’d rather not do to our concept of […]
Poets and Writers offers the Top 50 MFA Programs in the nation, as compiled by Seth Abramson. Most of the article explains what criteria were excluded from the rankings. I don’t think it’s a bad idea that he completely avoids such subjective criteria as professor status — after all, as he notes, excellent writers are […]
