Archive for January, 2009
Listing the Fictionaut favorites of 2008 was so much fun that we couldn’t wait a whole year to do it again. Here, then, are ten stories posted in January that stirred up the most interest in the community, as determined by a combination of views, comments, and favorites.
The New York Times Book Review called Maud Casey “a stand-up philosopher posing vexing questions about human existence” and praised her “dazzling narrative dare.” She is the author of two novels, The Shape of Things to Come and Genealogy, and the short story collection Drastic.
Maud has a story forthcoming in the next issue of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety and was kind enough to tell us about a favorite story on Fictionaut:
I’d like to recommend Curtis Smith’s “In the Jukebox Light.”There’s an ease to the voice, a collective, inquisitive “we” that is often lyrical (”blissful astronaut lovers float in a sky of flashbulb stars”). A dense, palpable world is conveyed swiftly. It’s a world in which this couple’s loss is not extraordinary but is still worthy of attention. I particularly like the “or not” at the end—that uncertainty is lovely.
Esquire points to five great online literary magazines, several of which happen to be published by or feature contributions from Fictionauts: Narrative, Flatmancrooked, Guernica, Anderbo, and The Adirondeck Review.
On February 11, Blake Butler and Barry Graham will join a group of writers for an Orange Alert reading during the AWP in Chicago. Blake will also be reading at “no point in not being friends” in Manchester on January 27.
KORA is a new journal of “avant-garde poetry, prose, & ‘experimental’ literary hybrids.” The inaugural issue features work by J.A. Tyler and Sean Lovelace. Sean will also guest judge the Dogzplot 2009 AWP Flash Fiction Contest, and he has a story in Diagram 8.6: “My Grief Upon the Death of Regis Philbin.” Terese Svoboda is in the same issue, with a piece called “Noble Savage.”
Available now from Willows Wept Press, Matt Bell’s chapbook How the Broken Lead the Blind “delivers ten inventive stories rich in language, ideas and catharsis that will leave you hungering for his next collection” (Steven McDermott.) The title story and “Her Ennead” are up on Fictionaut. To celebrate, we asked Matt to recommend a story he digs:
“Let x” by Chad Simpson is short enough to fit on a bar napkin but creates a world big enough to allow for some fiercely playful language and an impressive amount of emotional depth. There aren’t enough stories that also function as true and honest apologies to the people we’ve wronged, and this is one of the best.
“Let x” originally appeared on the Esquire Books Blog.
“Barry Graham’s stories are little cries for help from way in the corners and deep in the cracks of contemporary fiction,” says Jeff Parker, author of Ovenman. Who among those who’ve read “DICKEY DEW,” “BLACKHORSE,” or any of Barry’s other stories on Fictionaut would disagree?
Another Sky Press just released Barry’s debut collection The National Virginity Pledge: Short Stories and Other Lies, which you can order from Amazon or directly from the publisher. Barry is a four-time National Tic Tac Toe Association champion and fiction editor of Dogzplot.
Daniel Nester surveys literary journals, including Caketrain, The Lumberyard, Atlas, Bateau, and Chautauqua, for Library Journal.
Janice Erlbaum’s essay “Girl Meets Toy” was voted one of Nerve.com’s ten best of 2008, and she just joined the board of Girls Write Now, the New York creative writing and mentoring organization that is having its annual winter reading this Saturday, January 17.
No one should be surprised that a diverse crowd of web-savvy writers would enjoy blogging. And yet: the percentage of Fictionaut members who also run a weblog is truly outrageous.
We thought it might be fun to collect all of our members’ latest posts on a single page — kind of like Elvis’s Graceland basement, but with blogs for TVs and minus the porcelain monkey. Just kick back and watch the posts roll by.
If we’re reading that cocktail napkin right, Blake Butler, Matt Bell, Kim Chinquee, Kathy Fish, Rosanne Griffeth, Claudia Smith, and Kelly Spitzer contributed stories to the handwritten issue of Keyhole Magazine.
Kelly Spitzer also recently interviewed Mary Miller, author of Less Shiny and the forthcoming Big World, on her site Writers in Profile.
Blake Butler’s novella Ever is getting released by Calamari Press on his birthday, January 14. Watch the official and unofficial trailer.
Sarah Weinman read 462 books last year, and Carolyn Kellogg asked her: “So how do you do it?”
Noria Jablonski, author of Human Oddities and recently included in Owen King and John McNally’s superhero anthology Who Can Save Us Now?, has posted stories about busloads of kidnapped children, bad perms, and sideshow mummies on Fictionaut. What does she like to read on the site?
“I’d like to recommend the weird, witchy ‘Animals, Animals, Animals‘ by Jessica Breheny,” writes Noria. “Cats speak prophecy, abandoned stuffed animals are rescued, birds lurk. Eventually the FBI gets involved. I’ve read this one a few times, and every time the language knocks my socks off all over again.”
Welcome to the Fictionaut Blog
Fictionaut brings the social web to literary fiction, connecting readers and writers through a community network that doubles as selfselecting magazine highlighting the most exciting short stories, poetry, flash fiction, and novel excerpts.
Fictionaut is in the invite-only phase. Request an invite to join or log in if you have an account.
Fictionaut on Twitter
Search the Blog
Recent Posts
Categories
- Check-In with Fictionaut Groups
- Editor's Eye
- Editorial
- Fictionaut Faves
- Fictionaut Five
- Fictionaut Selects
- Fictionauts at Large
- Fictionauts Recommend
- Found in Translation
- Front Page
- Interviews
- Line Breaks
- Luna Digest
- Monday Chat
- Rediscovered Reading
- Site News
- Stories
- Tweetable
- Uncategorized
- Writing Spaces