Category: Uncategorized

    • 100 Years Later: Which Writers Will We Still Be Reading?

      Since I read this New Yorker essay I’ve wanted to write a post on the subject of posterity. In the literary world fame, of course, is fleeting, and quality is no guarantee of longevity. So many unknown factors manipulate someone’s place in the canon, or even just being in print. For me, a lover of short stories, here are my…

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    • Rejected Blurbs

      A while ago I started fooling around with the blurb form and constructing them in terms of bad blurbs, that is the accosted established writer frolicking in his penned superiority (!). Praise be to the publishing gods that a couple have recently been released on the web: “Rejected Blurb #23” in Atticus Review and “Rejected Blurb #6” in…

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    • The MacGuffin

      Another one of my thesis stories has just been published. This time in the latest issue of The MacGuffin. Here’s an excerpt: Flyer In the months leading up to my ninth birthday I bugged Father for a red wagon. He bought me one, of course—a Radio Flyer with a green bow tied around the handle.…

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    • Monkeybicycle

      Monkeybicycle 9 is released this week and includes the work of A. Anupama, Jeremy Aufrance, A.A. Balaskovits, Nathan Blake, Lisa J. Cihlar, J.P. Dancing Bear, Rory Douglas, James Freed, Jack Garrett, James Tate Hill, Derek Henderson, Dustin Hoffman, Jared Hohl, J.Z. Houlihan, Jane Keyler, Sandra Kolankiewicz, Marshall Lee, Jessica Levine, Christopher Linforth, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky,…

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    • Short Stories and Literary Journals: The Resources

      If you’re starting out and can’t tell your Chekhov from your Gogol, an excellent place to begin is to read a historical and taxonomical evaluation of the modern short story. Luckily for you, it’s dealt with in excellent detail in William Boyd’s article, “A Short History of the Short Story.” Over the years, the books…

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    • AWP Recap: Look Me In The Eyes, Not The Nametag!

      This piece is cross-posted over at The Minnesota Review blog. Near the conference hotel, a lakefront Hilton, in a line for coffee at the Dunkin’ Donuts, a young woman stares at my nametag. For what seems like a minute, her eyes are fixated on my name. She thinks: Is he a writer? Somebody I should know? Or want…

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    • AWP 2012: Random Quotes

      AWP is the biggest writers conference held each year in America. Writers, publishers, professors, MFA students, CW undergrads, literary journals, agents, and editors all converge on one destination. This year was Chicago. Below are some random quotes I heard, or perhaps said, over the four-day period: “I’m Margaret Atwood. Where’s my suckling pig?” “I’m the…

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    • An Interview with Katie Fallon

      I recently completed another writer interview for The Minnesota Review. This time it was with the nonfiction writer, Katie Fallon. Click on the book to visit her publisher:

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    • An Interview with Rachel Ida Buff

      The spring semester I’m the fiction editor for the literary journal, The Minnesota Review. Last year, when I was also an editor, we accepted Rachel Ida Buff’s essay, “Duluth.” Recently, for the journal’s website, I interviewed her. You can find it here.

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    • Best American Short Stories: Part 6

      Pre-1978 The Best American Short Story series had a single editor. For decades, from 1915 to 1941, Edward O’Brien fulfilled this role. After his death, Martha Foley took over. Raymond Carver mentions Foley’s importance for American short fiction during his superb 1983 interview with The Paris Review: INTERVIEWER Is it true—a friend of yours told…

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