Fictionaut Blog

Terese Svoboda reports on her visit with writers in a Somalian refugee camp at The Rumpus:

When it was clear that we didn’t want five-point essays, the students instantly composed poems about female genital mutilation, politics, love, and—over and over again—the importance of education.

Quartet Press, the new digital publisher founded by Kassia Krozser, Kat Meyer, and Kirk Bilione, is now accepting submissions.

The first issue of kill author is out, named for Roland Barthes, with work by Barry Graham, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Ethel Rohan, J.A. Tyler, Mel Bosworth, and Nicole Elizabeth.

Twitter 666, edited by Martin Wall and Sam Pink, is a new journal of twitter feeds by “a big sandwich,” “a gravedigger,” “a creepy old man (at the park, not wearing a shirt),” “a shopping cart,” etc: “carrying three melons, a baby, a handbag, a coffee, two bottles of water and a beef heart.”

Dzanc Books offers a collection of Short Story Month Essays – over 160! — for a donation of $10 or more.

if:book announces the first Fictional Stimulus, “an introduction to the future of reading in the 21st Century and beyond.” You can sign up at the Bookfutures blog.

• Terese Svoboda’s story “Read the Snow” appeared in The Brooklyn Rail.
• At Monkeybicycle, Daniel Nester’s “Illiad Gag Reel.”
• Darryl Price,  Randall Brown, Mel Bosworth, Alan Rossi, Cynthia Reeser, and J.A. Tyler have stories, poetry, and reviews in Prick of the Spindle Vol. 3.2.
• Erin Fitzgerald and Meg Pokrass are in the July issue of decomp.
• The Rome Review #1 features a story by Blake Butler.
• Ethel Rohan also has stories in Everyday Genius, Houston Literary Review, Keyhole Magazine, Oddville Press, and Writers’ Bloc.
• Cliff Garstang’s story “Counterpoint” and Robert Detman’s “The Edmonton Farrell” appeared in Wisconsin Review.
• J.A. Tyler, Matt Bell, Josh Maday, and Nicole Elizabeth contributed to the July issue of Chapbook Review.

• Willow Springs 64 contains fiction by  Kim Chinquee and lists by Blake Butler.
• Matthew Simmons, Blake Butler, and Sam Pink have stories in Bust Down the Doors and Eat All the Chickens, a journal of absurd and surreal fiction.
• At ArtVoice, flash fiction by Scott Garson and Nicole Elizabeth.
• Smokelong Quarterly 25 includes work by Tara Laskowski, Amanda Nazario, and Darlin’ Neal.
• Issue #2 of Pear Noir! includes stories by Barry Graham, Charles Lennox, Brandon Scott Gorrell, J.A. Tyler, Lauren Becker, and Ravi Mangla.
• Chris Killen’s “Paul Simon Gives Chevy Chase the Finger” appears in Loops.

The L Magazine interviews Blake Butler, and Brandon Scott Gorrell talks to BOMBlog. The Iowa Source has an interview with Laurel Snyder.

Josh Maday is editing an anthology of fiction about post-industrial work life and invites you to contribute.

Jessica West (What Would Keith Richards Do?) does a playlist for Largehearted Boy.

At Three Guys One Book, Jonathan Evison and Jason Rice have a terrific chat about finding an agent and making a living as a writer:

First, I’m compelled to remind all the spurned and frustrated writers of the world that the work itself is the real blessing and reward, and that any writer worth his salt would do well to remind himself of this fact daily.

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