PERPETUAL FOLLY

Tips for Writers: Learn Anglo-Saxon

2012-01-27T07:41:00.000-05:00

You may have heard—ormaybe you haven’t—thatgiven a choice, a writer should choose an Anglo-Saxon word over one with Latinroots. Or at least that’s what more than one teacher has told me. English wordsof Anglo-Saxon origin tend to be “closer to the soil”—concrete and precise, shorter, sharper—whereas words of NormanFrench origin (which infiltrated the language following the Norman Conquest)are more elevated—softer,vaguer, and longer.

Using a Latinate word isn’t wrong, obviously, but as thisarticle suggests, word choice definitely plays a role in establishing the voiceof your writing: WordOrigin Influences Your Writing Voice. For example, for both rhythm andsound reasons, I like to end a paragraph with a strong word, something withpunch. But if an educated person is speaking, he or she may tend to useLatinates.

Last week I mentioned Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style. One of that book’spronouncements is “Avoid fancy words.” This is good advice. To that end: “Avoidthe elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by atwenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able.Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words. In this,as in so many matters pertaining to style, one’s ear must be one’s guide: gut is a lustier noun than intestine, but the two words are notinterchangeable, because gut is ofteninappropriate, being too coarse for the context.”

Here is a listof some common words and comparative derivations. And, of course, a gooddictionary will be a help. Look for words that are from Old English rather thanOld French.

Forthcoming Books: Stay Awake by Dan Chaon

2012-01-25T08:07:00.000-05:00

I didn’t know Dan Chaon had a new book coming out until Iread Benjamin Percy’s short preview in the February Esquire. It’s a collectionof stories called Stay Awake, following Chaon’s well-reviewed novels Among the Missing and Await Your Reply.

Percy says this: “If Chaon’s 2001 novel, Among the Missing, which was nominated for a National Book Award,contained some of the best fiction written in the past 20 years, Stay Awake is its darker, moreunsettling cousin. These stories are defined by disturbing unreliability, withjust enough room between the characters’ memories, like the space between treesin a dark forest, to slip through, get lost.” [Note to self: include lines likethis in future book reviews so that other people will quote them.]

Publication date is February 7, 2012, from Ballantine.

Year of the LitMag: Prairie Schooner, Winter 2011: Ireland

2012-01-24T19:50:00.000-05:00

Year of the LitMag: Prairie Schooner, Winter 2011

Vol. 85, No. 4

Ireland

The Winter 2011 issue of Prairie Schooner probably won’t helpme figure out what kind of work the editors like. For one thing, it’s the lastissue before the new editor took over (it was actually put together by aninterim editor). And for another, it’s a special issue focused on Ireland. But,for that, it’s quite an interesting issue, and by the end of it you're probablyspeaking in an Irish brogue.

In fact, one of the distinguishing features of the fiction hereis the voice that comes through loud and clear. In “My First Time” by AndrewFox, for example, two teenagers spend a lot of time talking about sex, and thedialect is thick—not so thick that it isn’t understandable, but there’s nomistaking where they are.

There’s also a lot of drinking in these stories, andseveral of them are set in pubs. “Peach” by Nuala Ní Chonchúir opens in a bar,where a pregnant woman is getting drunk. Thomas Lynch’s one-act play, “LacrimaeRerum,” also opens in a pub. As does “A Drop to Warm My Blood” by Aiden O’Reilly.“My First Time” doesn’t start in a bar, but it gets there soon enough. Apartfrom the voice and the drinking, the stories also have in common what thestories in James Joyce’s Dubliners do—theseare working (or sometimes out-of-work) men and women who don’t get very farfrom their roots. The final story in the issue, “Sitting Ducks” by KathleenMurray, is about two former prisoners who work as orderlies in a hospital andcan’t seem to stay out of trouble, but they count themselves lucky that they’vegot work. (I love the character of Viv in this story, an elderly, dementedwoman who seems to think she’s already dead.)

The issue also has work from a couple dozen poets. What Iread of the poetry I enjoyed, but can’t comment on.

When the new editor’s first issue is out I’ll revisit themagazine.

The New Yorker: "Someone" by Alice McDermott

2012-01-23T19:30:00.001-05:00

January 30, 2012: “Someone”by Alice McDermott

In the Q&Awith Alice McDermott, we learn that this “story” is taken from her novel inprogress, which, presumably, is the one the contributor notes tell us is comingout later this year. Even so, it seemsto work very well as a standalone story. It centers on Marie, a young woman inBrooklyn in the 1930s, who begins dating Walter, a man who walks with a limp.They begin to date—Marie’s clueless and Walter imposes himself on her—butthings don’t work out.

Early in the story we know Marie doesn’t end up with Walterbecause she jumps ahead to the point in time where she tells her daughtersstories about Walter, to the point that they’re sick of hearing about him.Presumably, in the novel, that’s an important element. In this excerpt we alsosee Marie’s older brother who has recently resigned the priesthood and movedhome. He tries to comfort her after Walter breaks up with her, but he doesn’tdo a very good job of it.

The writing is beautiful, as we might expect from McDermott.And for a “short story,” there’s enough plot. I sure hope more is going tohappen in the novel, though, because feels like it might be a bit slow. EvenMcDermott, in the interview, worries about it being a “novel about anunremarkable woman,” and I think she’s right to worry. But she’s been therebefore and won the National Book Award, so maybe we’re both wrong.

Tips for Writers: Invest in Style

2012-01-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

Tips for Writers: Invest in Style

And I’m not talking fashion here (although take a look atthe article in The Atlantic about Joan Didion and her early years at Voguehaving an impact on her writing, particularly on the details about clothes andaccessories). No, I’m talking about style as in: Usage, Grammar, Punctuation.

I have come to expect errors in Freshman Composition classes—kidsdon’t seem to get the kind of education in grammar that they used to—but inpublished writing, or even writing submitted with the hope of publication, Idon’t want to see mistakes. In published work, editors should catch theseproblems. In submitted work, writers should realize that editors have betterthings to do than fix their punctuation. As an editor, I’m likely to reject apiece that has errors. I’m busy. I’ll just move on to the next story to findone that won’t be so much work to get ready for publication.

But of course we’re not all born with innate knowledge ofgrammar, and I confess that my understanding of punctuation changed dramatically when Ibegan teaching Freshman Composition. In order to teach the students, I had tomaster the subject myself, and I discovered a number of things I’d been doingwrong. So now, if I’m in doubt about a question of usage, grammar, orpunctuation, I look it up. And I can look it up because I have acquiredreference books where I can almost always find the answer. I’ve got three torecommend.

The first is Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style. Get it. Read it. Keep it handy. (I have the FourthEdition, which I think is the latest.) It has several parts: Elementary Rulesof Usage; Elementary Principles of Composition; A Few Matters of Form; MisusedWords and Expressions; and An Approach to Style. This is more than just a guideto grammar; it’s also about writing more clearly. And it’s written in a waythat even Freshmen can understand. For example, under “Misused Words andExpressions” is the entry for Lay: “Atransitive verb. Except in slang (‘Let it lay’), do not misuse it for theintransitive verb lie. The hen, orthe play, lays an egg; the llama lies down. The playwright went home and lay down. Lie, lay, lain, lying. Lay,laid, laid, laying.” Under “An Approach to Style” is guidance on the use offigures of speech: “The simile is a common device and a useful one, but similescoming in rapid fire, one right on top of another, are more distracting thanilluminating. Readers need time to catch their breath; they can’t be expectedto compare everything with something else, and no relief in sight. When you usemetaphor, do not mix it up. That is, don’t start by calling something aswordfish and end by calling it an hourglass.”

The second is the ChicagoManual of Style. I suppose there are some who read CMOS like a novel (as my mother used to claim she read cookbooks),but I keep it within reach for reference. It’s so thorough that it has amassive and somewhat confusing index, but it’s worth digging until you findexactly the right entry. (I have the 15^th Edition, which is not thelatest, but it’s an expensive book and so I’m not inclined to replace the one I’vegot. If you don't have an older one, spend the money to get the latest.) Here is the entry on the lie/lay distinction: “Lay is a transitive verb—it demands a direct object. It isinflected lay-laid-laid. Lie is an intransitive verb—it nevertakes a direct object. It is inflected lie-lay-lain.”(Examples are also provided.) That’s the same information as in Strunk &White, although in plainer terms. As for figures of speech, it appears that CMOS doesn’t care about scrambled metaphorsor floods of similes.

The third reference book I keep handy is Bryan Garner’s Modern American Usage. Garner isactually one of the CMOS authors, sothis guide is generally consistent with CMOS,but it’s organization is a little more user friendly and it’s text less sterile.Plus, it goes into more detail on matters of usage such as the lie/laydistinction, which takes up an entire page. It not only discusses thedistinction, it also examines the main ways in which writers incorrectlysubstitute one for the other. The entry begins: “Very simply, lie (= to recline, be situated) isintransitive—it can’t take a direct object. But lay (= to put down, arrange) is always transitive—it needs a directobject . . . To use lay without adirect object, in the sense of lie,is nonstandard. But this error is very common in speech—from the illiterate tothe highly educated. In fact, some commentators believe that people make thismistake more often than any other in the English language. Others claim that it’sno longer a mistake—or even that it never was. But make no mistake: using theseverbs correctly is a mark of refinement.” [The real mark of refinement, in myopinion, is editing. I can’t edit what I’ve said, and so I may make this errorin speaking, but if I also make this mistake in writing, then I’ve made anerror in editing.] I’ve got the Second Edition; a new one came out last year.

I also have a few other reference books, including an MLA styleguide and a compact grammar guide, both of which occasionally come in handy,but I generally check Garner first and then CMOSif I have a question.

A writer should definitely make the investment in style. It's important.

Year of the Dragon!

2012-01-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! Actually, the new year begins January 23, but since President Obama has already released his Lunar New Year Message, I guess I can, too.

Welcome, Year of the Dragon:

Year of the Dragon - 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024, 2036, 2048

The dragon enjoys a very high reputation in Chinese culture. It is the token of authority, dignity, honor, success, luck, and capacity. In ancient China, a dragon was thought to speed across the sky with divine power. Emperors entitled themselves exclusively as 'dragon'; their thrones were called 'dragon thrones', their clothes 'dragon gowns'.

People under the sign of the dragon are lively, energetic and fortunate. They often can be leaders and try to go for perfection. When they meet with difficulties, they are not discouraged. But they are a little arrogant, and impatient, and women are over- confident. If they overcome these defects, they can have a brighter future.

Best match: rat, monkey, rooster; avoid: dog, ox, dragon, rabbit

(Check out all the Chinese Horoscope Signs.)

New Issue of Prime Number Magazine: No. 17

2012-01-19T08:35:00.000-05:00

Issue No. 17 of Prime Number Magazine went live today! (That's the 7th issue, if anyone's counting: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17)

We happen to think it's another terrific issue, with stories by Brandon Patterson, Gleah Powers, Daniel B. Meltzer, and John Carr Walker; poetry by Kat Henry, Brian Simoneau, and Katherine E. Young; creative nonfiction by Kathryn Rhett, Ellen Kirschner, Jessica Erica Hahn-Taylor, and Mary Alice Hostetter; a craft essay by Buzz Mauro; reviews of books by Benjamin Buchholz, Xu Xi, Donna Miscolta, and Bruce Guernsey; and a terrific cover photo by Peg Duthie.

Please spread the word, signup at the site for the mailing list or "LIKE" us on Facebook (or both), and submit work.

Forthcoming Books: The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey will be published later this month. Margot is a terrific writer, and I suspect this will be a very popular book. Described as a modern take on Jane Eyre, it's set in the 1960s, in Scotland.

I really liked her previous book, The House on Fortune Street, which I reviewed here. I noted then that Jane Eyre was referred to often in the novel, and I wondered if there were parallels that I was missing. I guess it's time for me to read that one . . . (That's right. I confess. I've never read Jane Eyre.)

Anyway. Look for the new Margot Livesey. Coming soon to a bookstore near you.

The New Yorker: "Labyrinth" by Roberto Bolaño

2012-01-17T10:52:00.001-05:00

January 23, 2012: “Labyrinth”by Roberto Bolaño

The Q&Awith Barbara Eppler, Bolaño’s first American Publisher, is interesting, butof no help with this story, which I think I love. I say I think I love it because I don’t know that I have the energy tounpack it to see what’s there. If there’s nothing underneath the dazzlinglanguage and the manipulation of time, then I might like it less.

The story is based on a picture, and that picture appears tobe the one in the magazine illustrating the story—take a look at it as you readthe description of the people he names. I’ve reproduced it here, although whenI read the story on my Kindle I hadn’t yet seen it. He’s describing this tableand these people in great detail, whose actual names he uses, and then, Isuppose—although I have no way of knowing—he is fabricating the rest: what theydo with each other outside of the picture, what is happening beyond thepicture’s frame, etc.

What appeals to me here isn’t so much what happens, but theintersection of the real and the imagined, which includes a person who isn’t inthe picture at all, and also the way in which the characters, as time passes,have lives outside of the picture but are also always frozen in the photograph.

After the detailed description of the people in thephotograph, about a third of the way into the story the author begins toimagine: “Let’s imagine J.-J. Goux, for example . . .” He has Goux leave thepicture and walk down the street. Then he imagines that some of the people arelooking at someone out of the frame, and imagines this might be “a youngjournalist from South America, no, from Central America.” He goes on to suggestthat there may be something sinister about this journalist, that he’s bitterand will do some harm. It’s wonderfully imaginative, even if in the end itdoesn’t produce any real action.

What do other people think? Or do you know something aboutthe people the author has named here?

Guest Editor for Smokelong Quarterly

2012-01-16T15:12:00.000-05:00

Starting today, for one week only, I am the Guest Editor at Smokelong Quarterly, one of the very best magazines around that focuses on flash fiction. It's also a beautiful magazine, with great/bold cover art. I was honored to be invited.

My job as a Guest Editor is to read this week's submissions. They've already started to come in . . .

Thanks for the invitation, Smokelong staff. And to the contributors, I look forward to reading your work!

Year of the LitMag: One Story #156

2012-01-14T10:45:00.000-05:00

[Note: this is the 4^th installment in my Year of the LitMag series. If you would like to contribute to the series, leave a comment below or shoot me an email.]

OneStory #156 “The Quiet” by C. Joseph Jordan

By now, everyone knows about One Story, right? It’s a little magazine that comes out every fewweeks and contains just one story. It’s a cool concept and it’s also availableon Kindle. (As soon as my print subscription expires, I’ll switch to the Kindleversion, I think.) Lunch Hour Storiestried the same thing a few years ago, but it didn’t last as long, and is nowgone.

This story by C. Joseph Jordan is a nice read about aVietnam vet who comes home to Oregon after two tours. It’s been a tumultuous fewyears for him—his father died while he was in Vietnam; he fell in love while onR&R in Sydney, Australia; he killed a Vietnamese kid with a knife. And nowhe’s finally home. But as we know from every war story we’ve ever heard orread, it’s not that easy, and Sergeant Adlai Malick has some demons and secretshe has to deal with. So, upon arrival at his mother’s house, where there is abig, noisy welcome home party waiting for him, he goes into the basement insearch of quiet. (Be sure to check out the editor’sinterview with the author.)

Although the story is thoroughly readable, and my sympathiesare with Sergeant Malick throughout, even when I fear he’s going to explode,even when he behaves badly, it had a feeling of familiarity to it. Becausehaven’t we read this story before? Beginning with “A Soldier’s Home” by ErnestHemingway and followed by countless others, we’ve seen the difficulty a soldierhas in coming home from war. Malick is damaged by the war and he is going tohave to find a way to cope, or not, but I don’t feel that the story takes usanywhere new. Am I asking too much? Isn’t it enough that I haven’t seen thisparticular veteran and his particular circumstances before? Maybe. Maybe we’reready for a new take on this subject. I just wish it had been a little moresurprising.

Tips for Writers: Don't Give Up!

2012-01-13T08:33:00.000-05:00

Last week I wrote that it is important to read—books and literarymagazines. We not only learn from reading good work in our chosen genre, but wealso learn which publishers are buying the kind of work we’re writing.

While that’s true, excellent work is likely to be welcomeanywhere, except for the very specialized genre markets. And you’ll see allkinds of stories in the top magazines. At most, they vary in edginess, but that’sabout it. (Read an issue of Ploughshares and then read an issue of TinHouse and you’ll get a sense of what I mean.)

But there’s something that a writer won’t be able to learnjust from reading a magazine, and that’s taste. A story that one editor rejectsmay be loved by the next editor who sees it. It might even have been loved ifthe first editor had seen it a day earlier and was in a better mood.

For example, I just had a story appear in Blackbird. (See “TheReplacement Wife.”) This is a terrific magazine—one of the best, if not the best online magazines—andI’ve been sending them work for years. And I’ve been sending this story aroundfor a couple of years, too, collecting some rejections. Not as many rejectionsas I’ve had for some other stories, but some other good magazines had a chanceto take this story and they didn’t. I have no idea why, other than to say thatit’s a matter of the editors’ taste.

I’ve got another story coming out in the next issue of Bellevue Literary Review, “A Hole in theWall.” This story is a favorite of mine and was the second one I wrote in thenovel in stories that’s coming out this September from Press 53, What the Zhang Boys Know. It has collected quite a few rejections,and some of those rejections came from some pretty obscure magazines. Forwhatever reason, though, something about the story appealed to the BLR editors,and something about it did NOT appeal to the editors of those other magazines.

You can spend all the time you want analyzing magazines (andI do, asking myself whether they have a particular slant), but in the end doesn’tit all boil down to taste? Editors publish what they like, and we’re not allgoing to like the same things. The lesson here is: Don’t give up. If it seemslike a story has been rejected too many times, it may just be that it hasn’tyet found the right editor.

Pushcart Prize Ranking (Poetry) for 2012

2012-01-12T21:25:00.000-05:00

[Note: If you find the Pushcart Prize Rankings helpful,please consider making a donation to support this blog. Alternatively, considerbuying my book. Donation and Purchase buttons are in the sidebar to the right.]

By now, my ranking of literary magazines is well known among writers. I began the ranking several years ago as I attempted to prioritize my submissions ofshort stories. I analyzed ten years of Pushcart Prize anthologies and rankedthe magazines based on how many prizes and special mentions they had earned usinga simple formula to come up with a score. That was the only factor in myranking, attempting to keep it as objective as possible. I updated the rankingeach year when the new anthology was released, adding the new data whiledropping the data that was more than ten years old.

At the end of 2011, when I updated the Fiction rankings, Idid the analysis for Nonfiction as well, and came up with a separate ranking.Both of these lists, as well as the Fiction rankings from prior years, arelinked in the sidebar at right.

And now, finally, I’ve applied the analysis to Poetry.

Some people don’t like rankings, and I can sympathize withtheir view. But I maintain that the Pushcart Prize is a reasonable proxy forquality, and I think many writers hope to place their work in the best possiblemagazine. If I were a poet, I’d want to see my work in Poetry, the clear “winner”in this ranking. But I also acknowledge that the Pushcart Press has been slowto recognize the work that is appearing in online magazines, and thesemagazines, some of which are excellent, are under-represented on the list.Writers should keep this in mind.

Are there any surprises here? You tell me. Poetry is clearly dominant, and American Poetry Review is a strong second. But many of the remaining top twenty-five also rank highly in the other genres.

For whatever it's worth to you, here it is:

Pushcart PrizeRanking (Poetry) for 2012

2012	Magazine	2012 Score
1	Poetry	108
2	American Poetry Review	74
3	Kenyon Review	65
4	Ploughshares	59
5	Georgia Review	46
6	Southern Review	45
7	New England Review	42
8	Threepenny Review	41
9	Gettysburg Review	40
10	Virginia Quarterly Review	36
11	TriQuarterly	33
12	Field	32
13	Five Points	30
14	Yale Review	25
15	BOA Editions	21
15	Shenandoah	21
15	Tin House	21
18	Alice James Books	20
19	Agni	19
20	American Scholar	17
20	Barrow Street	17
20	Cincinnati Review	17
23	The Journal	16
24	Literary Imagination	15
24	New Ohio Review	15
24	Notre Dame Review	15
27	Image	14
28	Colorado Review	13
28	Copper Canyon Press	13
28	Crazyhorse	13
28	Iowa Review	13
28	Michigan Quarterly Review	13
33	jubilat	12
33	North American Review	12
33	Rattle	12
33	Runes ©	12
37	Blackbird	11
37	Canary	11
37	Chelsea ©	11
37	Epoch	11
37	Lake Effect	11
37	Missouri Review	11
37	New American Writing	11
37	New Criterion	11
37	New Letters	11
37	Rivendell ©	11
37	Southern Poetry Review	11
37	West Branch	11
49	Alaska Quarterly Review	10
49	Cue Editions	10
49	Eastern Wash. Univ. Press ©	10
49	Great River Review	10
49	Green Mountains Review	10
49	Lyric (?)	10
49	New Orleans Review	10
49	Orion	10
49	Spillway	10
49	Turnrow	10
49	Water-Stone Review	10
49	Western Humanities Review	10
61	Massachusetts Review	8
61	Paris Review	8
61	Pleiades	8
64	5 a.m.	7
64	Connecticut Review	7
64	Hotel Amerika	7
64	Ninth Letter	7
64	Paper Street © (?)	7
64	Salamander	7
64	Sarabande Books	7
64	Seneca Review	7
72	Atlanta Review	6
72	Bloom	6
72	Cimarron Review	6
72	Crowd © (?)	6
72	Gulf Coast	6
72	Margie ©	6
72	Mid American Review	6
72	New Issues Poetry and Prose	6
72	Perugia Press	6
72	Poems & Plays	6
72	Poetry Review	6
72	Salmagundi	6
72	Smartish Pace	6
72	Sun	6
72	Tupelo Press	6
72	Wave Books	6
88	Anhinga Press	5
88	Arroyo Literary Review	5
88	Bellingham Review	5
88	Blueline	5
88	Chattahoochee Review	5
88	Chautauqua	5
88	Cleveland State Univ. Poetry Ctr.	5
88	Court Green	5
88	Curbstone Press	5
88	Cypher Books	5
88	Denver Quarterly	5
88	Dogwood	5
88	Ecotone	5
88	Eleven Eleven	5
88	Epiphany	5
88	Fence	5
88	Five Fingers Review	5
88	Grand Street ©	5
88	Graywolf Press	5
88	Hollyridge Press	5
88	Idaho Review	5
88	Laurel Poetry Collective	5
88	Little Patuxent Review	5
88	Manoa	5
88	Meridian	5
88	MIZNA	5
88	National Poetry Review	5
88	New South Books	5
88	OCHO	5
88	Painted Bride Quarterly	5
88	Parnassus: Poetry in Review	5
88	Partisan Review ©	5
88	Pebble Lake Review	5
88	Pleasure Boat Studio	5
88	Poetry Atlanta Press	5
88	Poetry Northwest	5
88	Post Road	5
88	Provincetown Arts	5
88	Quiddity	5
88	River Styx	5
88	Sixth Finch	5
88	Snake Nation Review	5
88	Sugar House Review	5
88	Think Journal	5
88	Third Coast	5
88	Tikkun	5
88	Toadlily Press	5
88	Triplopia (?)	5
88	Utah State University Press	5
88	Vallum: Contemporary Poetry	5
88	Verse Wisconsin	5
88	World Literature Today	5
88	Zone 3	5
88	Verse Press ©	5
88	Northeastern Univ. Press	5
88	Chicago Review	5
144	Beloit Poetry Journal	4
144	Raritan	4
144	Southwest Review	4
147	Black Warrior Review	3
147	Boulevard	3
147	Hudson Review	3
147	Prairie Schooner	3
147	University of Pittsburgh Press	3
152	Four Way Books	2
152	Greensboro Review	2
152	Healing Muse	2
152	Nimrod	2
152	PMS	2
152	Quarterly West	2
158	"88"	1
158	Arsenic Lobster	1
158	Autumn House	1
158	Barefoot Muse	1
158	Bat City	1
158	Bellevue Literary Review	1
158	Blue Earth Review	1
158	Bomb	1
158	Boston Review	1
158	Brilliant Corners	1
158	Brooklyn Review	1
158	Callaloo	1
158	Cape Cod Voice (?)	1
158	Columbia Poetry Review	1
158	Crab Creek Review	1
158	Daedalus	1
158	Drunken Boat	1
158	Eleventh Muse	1
158	First Intensity	1
158	Formalist ©	1
158	Fort Hemlock Press	1
158	Free Lunch ©	1
158	Frostproof Review ©	1
158	Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review	1
158	Hanging Loose	1
158	Harpur Palate	1
158	Harvard Review	1
158	Haven Chronicles (?)	1
158	Hayden's Ferry	1
158	Hollins Critic	1
158	Hopkins Review	1
158	Hunger Mountain	1
158	Indiana Review	1
158	InDigest	1
158	Iris	1
158	Kentuckians for the Commonwealth	1
158	Leaping Dog Press	1
158	Live Mag!	1
158	Long Island Quarterly	1
158	Lost Hills Books	1
158	Lynx House Press (?)	1
158	Main Street Rag	1
158	McSweeney's	1
158	MS.	1
158	Natural Bridge	1
158	New Delta Review	1
158	New Haven Review	1
158	November 3rd Club	1
158	Omnidawn Publishing	1
158	Pearl	1
158	Phoebe	1
158	Poetry 180	1
158	Poetry Flash	1
158	Pool	1
158	Rhino	1
158	River City (?)	1
158	Seattle Review	1
158	Sentence	1
158	Sewanee Review	1
158	Speakeasy ©	1
158	Specs	1
158	Spoon River Review	1
158	Thunder's Mouth Press ©	1
158	TriQuarterly Books	1
158	University of Akron Press	1
158	Upstreet	1
158	Valparaiso Poetry Review	1
158	War, Literature and The Arts	1
158	Willow Springs	1
158	Wordcraft of Oregon	1
158	Xantippe (?)	1
158	ZYZZYVA	1
158	The MacGuffin	1
158	Poetry International	1
158	St. Ann's Review	1
158	Yale University Press	1
158	Southern Humanities Review	1
158	Portland Review	1
158	Sixteen Rivers	1
158	Rattapallax	1
158	Bucknell University Press	1
158	Roundhouse Press (?)	1
158	Michigan State Univ. Press	1

SWAG Writers Update

2012-01-12T08:29:00.000-05:00

Last night was a little overwhelming. We started SWAG Writers (The Staunton-Waynesboro-Augusta Group of Writers, a subgroup of the Blue Ridge Writers Club) about a year and a half ago. Originally I wanted to sponsor readings by visiting writers, and we've been doing that once each quarter or so. Then, borrowing an idea from James River Writers in Richmond, we began a monthly happy hour for writers. That was meant as just a chance to get together to talk about the writing business. And then last year we added an open mic component to our monthly WriterDay gatherings. They've been fun and have attracted quite a few readers. (We meet on the Second Wednesday of each month at The Darjeeling Café in Downtown Staunton, VA.)

At our December WriterDay, we got some press coverage. There was an article in the local newspaper and photographs of several of us reading. Partly because of that article, and partly because word is spreading, last nights WriterDay was the best yet. We kept adding tables to our group as more people arrived. Then readers filled some other tables, and we realized that there were quite a few people who had come just to listen. Meanwhile, our signup sheet for the open mic filled up--12 writers signing up for 5 minute slots, including several newcomers.

The readings were wonderful--a mix of fiction and poetry, some serious, some funny. It was a terrific night. Thanks to all who came to read and to those who just listened.

Year of the LitMag: Five Points, Vol. 14 No. 2

2012-01-12T07:43:00.000-05:00

[Note: this is the latest entry in my Year of the LitMag series. If you would like to contribute to the series, leave a comment below or shoot me an email.]

Volume 14 No. 2 of FivePoints just arrived, and it’s filled with work by an impressive array ofwriters, including poets Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Mary Jo Salter, DavidKirby, Dan Albergotti, and others. Plus there’s a very interesting interviewwith Kirby by Tom Hunley. I also liked the art portfolio—it seems fewer journalsare doing that these days, and it must be expensive—consisting a series ofphotographs by Chris Verene. They tell quite a story all by themselves.

As usual, I'll concentrate on the fiction. There are four short stories, which for the most part Ienjoyed. They also show a fair amount of variety.

The first story, “The Boat on the Lake,” by Lynn Stegner, isquite long, 26 printed pages. It’s a traditional story—nothing experimentalabout its form or language—about a husband and wife and their two sons. Thehusband is sick and his brother has come to help the family out, but there's some attraction between the wife and the brother. There’s also a neighbor—ahandyman—who plays an important role: “Emory was a broth of a fellow,impossibly shy, his hands always stealing into his pockets, his head slingingsideways whenever it was time to name a fee for his various services, his thickcurly hair long to his shoulder not for any reason other than that he hadn’thad time to get it cut.” Great description—“a broth of a fellow.” Although I enjoyed the story, it feels rather long for what it achieves.

Mark Winegardner’s “Agent Halvorsen Addresses the SpaceCoast Optimists” suggests that the editors don’t mind a little formalexperimentation. The story takes the form of a speech, which itself is said to bean artifact left to a college library found among the speakers effects. In the speech, Agent Halvorsen gives thestory of his career, which had its ups and downs, to say the least. It's an innovative piece.

“Giveaway” by Lauren Watel seems, at first, like a familiarpost-partum depression story. But Joan, the point of view character, is apsychologist, and so her struggle after giving birth is perhaps a little moreself-examined than it might be otherwise, and since she’s married to apsychiatrist, she gets it from him, too. Not to mention the well-meaning andhelpful older sister.

Finally, the editors seem to like a bit of humor, in amelancholy sort of way, judging by “Light & Luminous” by Tania James, abouta Chicago Indian dance instructor whose relevance to her students is fadingeven as a rival teacher is gaining fame. I like the fresh setting here.

Alas, I submit to Five Points and get nowhere. Goodmagazine, tied for 16^th in the PerpetualFolly Pushcart Prize Ranking (Fiction).

[I liked the issue very much, but is it petty of me to pointout that the verb “to lay” is misused at least twice, including two times onone page? Writers should get this right; editors should catch it when they don’t.I understand when this is done in dialogue, or in the voice of somecharacters, but in this case I don’t see any justification for it. This is thekind of error that drives me a little nuts. I suspect most people don’t care, but I wish everyone did.]

Writing the Short Story on Writers.com--Sign Up Now!

2012-01-11T16:10:00.000-05:00

A new section of my online creative writing class begins on Monday, January 16, so there are only a couple of days left to sign up. This has been a popular class in the past and is always a lot of fun. It lasts 10 weeks and includes a lecture component with discussion, readings, and writing exercises, PLUS a full-blown workshop in which your story will be critiqued by all members of the class.

To see the course outline and to register, go to: Writing the Short Story: Make Your Story Great!

Forthcoming Books: The Mindful Writer by Dinty Moore

2012-01-11T09:12:00.000-05:00

[Note: I'm beginning this new feature, Forthcoming Books, to draw attention to titles I'm looking forward to that haven't yet been released. If you've got a book coming out in the near future, leave a comment or send me an email and I'll look into it.]

The Mindful Writer by Dinty Moore is scheduled for release in May 2012. I'm looking forward to it because Dinty Moore is the editor of the excellent publication, Brevity, but also because I just read his book The Accidental Buddhist, about his exploration of the various branches of Buddhism in America. And this new book about the creative process with, apparently, a Buddhist slant, looks like it's right up my alley.

Here's a recent Interview with Dinty Moore.

The New Yorker: "A Brief Encounter with the Enemy" by Said Sayrafiezadeh

2012-01-09T18:55:00.000-05:00

January 16, 2012: “ABrief Encounter with the Enemy” by Said Sayrafiezadeh

I found this story depressing as hell. It is apparently partof a collection coming out this year from this author, and I’ll guess that thelast couple of stories he’s had in the New Yorker will be in the book. Noteparticularly the story “Paranoia”which ran last year and also mentions this distant war on the peninsula againstan unnamed enemy.

In this story, Luke, who is apparently in a National Guardunit, is called up to serve in this war. It’s supposed to be over soon, exceptthat it isn’t. Luke, 27, with an Associate’s Degree, doesn’t mind leaving hismeaningless job for this adventure, which is how he and the girl he thinks he’sinterested in, Becky, view it. But his role in the war is also boring. He’sbuilding a bridge to nowhere, or maybe it’s to a spot where there are said tobe 880 of the enemy. In any case, he spends his time watching movies, eating,and it’s not very stressful except for the sergeant who occasionally gives themgrief. Until, one day just before their year is up and they are about to gohome, Luke encounters the enemy.

And that’s all I’m going to say, as the encounter is the story, and makes the story, for me.

I read the piece as an indictment of war. A very effectiveindictment, it seems to me.

[Edited to add: After I posted the above, The New Yorker posted a Q&A with Sayrafiezadeh, which is worth reading. Note, also that some of the comments below may contain spoilers.]

Creative Writing course at Blue Ridge Community College

2012-01-08T19:47:00.002-05:00

Writing Fiction: From Idea to Story

Many of us dream of writing fiction—novels, novellas, short stories—but most of us never get around to it. Under the guidance of published author Clifford Garstang, you'll learn the fundamentals of fiction writing (structure, plot, character, setting, point of view, and theme) and how to move from idea to story. You will also read and discuss examples of great stories by master fiction writers. Use writing exercises to apply what you learn to new work or work-in-progress that will be shared with the class. Writers of all levels will benefit.

56729; $69; Four Tuesdays, Feb 7-28, 6:30-8:30 pm; BRCC Plecker Center

For details and registration information, go here.

Year of the LitMag: Mid-American Review Vol. XXI No. 2

2012-01-07T10:13:00.002-05:00

[Note: this post is part of my Year of the LitMag series. If you would like to contribute to the series, please leave a comment below or send me an email. CG]

I’ve read other issues of the Mid-AmericanReview out of Bowling Green State University, but with the new issue,Volume XXI No. 2, I am reminded that the editors seem to like quirky, off-beatstories. There are lots of examples here.

Matthew Eck’s “The Many Inventions of Walt Whitman, Jr.” isa love story, sort of, about a guy who goes out on a date with a wrong number,but he wears a sheet because she tells him it’s a philosophy party (and he’sthinking “toga”). The dialogue is witty and fast-paced, and reveals thedelightfully twisted character of the narrator. Shannon Cain’s “I Love Bob” isabout Hillary, whose mother, a drunk, has told her that Bob Barker is herfather. So Hillary goes to Hollywood and meets Bob Barker. Lydia Fitzpatrick’s “FloodLines,” which won the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award, is told in the thirdperson plural from the point of view of Catholic school girls who weredisplaced by Katrina but are now back, all but one. Kate Finlinson’s “Transliteration,”a fragmented piece, is about a widow who is carrying on a conversation with herlate husband—inRussian. Matt Mullins’s “The Braid” is without quirks, but it does have quite ashock built into it. Mark Mayer’s “The Evasive Magnolio” is about dealing withthe corpse of an elephant. (It’s about way more than that, actually.) There arealso a number of excellent flash fictions in this issue, including Ravi Mangla’s“Better Halves,” and one that I resisted (but ultimately liked) because it’s insecond person, “Divination” by James Tadd Adcox.

On top of the fiction, there are three essays and a lot ofpoetry, including an interesting translation chapbook called “Beneath anAvalanche of Waking” by Mira Kus, translated by Karen Kovacik.

And then, at the back of the issue, I was reminded thatMid-American Review runs reviews. Lots of reviews. In a section called “What We’reReading” there are 22 book reviews, including reviews of books from a lot ofsmall presses: Ryan Call’s WeatherStations (Caketrain Press); Heather Fowler’s Suspended Heart (Aqueous Books); Seth Fried’s The Great Frustration (Soft Skull Press); Michael Hemmington’s Pictures of Houses with Water Damage(Black Lawrence Press); and lots more.

I wanted to mention, too, that MAR design is great. For this issue, the beautiful cover art is by Nikkita Cohoon.

Prime Number Magazine: Editors' Selections Vol. 1

2012-01-06T15:36:00.002-05:00

I am very excited to announce that Volume 1 of the Prime Number Magazine Editors' Selections is available for order.

Prime Number Magazine debuted in July 2010 with Issue 2 (we use prime numbers for our online issues, and the next issue our 8th, is No. 17 and will go live in 2 weeks). We published a lot of terrific work over the course of the first year, and this print annual volume includes only a small portion of it.

The book includes nonfiction by Maris Venia, Stephen J. West, and Faye Rapoport DesPres; fiction by Kevin Wilson, Scott Loring Sanders, Susan Tepper, Anne Leigh Parrish, Jon Trobaugh, Richard Wiley, Meagan Ciesla, Dennis Ginoza, Virginia Pye, John Flynn, Dan Moreau, Daniel Meltzer, Linda Stewart-Oaten, Paul Hetzler, and David Meischen; and poetry by James Harms, Sarah Lindsay, Jake Adam York, Susan Laughter Meyers, Mark Smith-Soto, Lola Haskins, Timothy Black, Robert Hill Long, Theodore Worozbyt, Rachel Hadas, Erica Dawson, Barry Spacks, Ruth Foley, Emilie Lindeman, Catherine Staples, M.A. Schaffner, and William Reichard.

Sign up now for "Writing the Short Story: Make Your Story Great!"

2012-01-06T14:08:00.003-05:00

There are a few spaces left in my online class "Writing the Short Story: Make Your Story Great!," which begins on January 16 on Writers.com.

This class is a hybrid lecture/workshop class. Each week we will discuss (in an online forum) various aspects of writing the short story. We'll also read famous examples that illustrate the topic under discussion, and we'll do writing exercises that we'll share with the group. But also, every student in the class will have a short story critiqued by the whole class in much the same way that we'd do it in a face-to-face workshop.

The class is always fun and we have excellent discussions. To get more information on what we'll cover in the class and how to sign up, go here.

Tips for Writers: Read

2012-01-06T13:21:00.000-05:00

You are what you read. When I started my MFA program,someone offered this bit of advice: “Read good stuff.” If you want to be agreat writer, read great writers. The expectation is that experiencing goodwork on the page will help as you try to generate your own work. You’ll see howsentences are formed, how language can be used, what craft techniques areeffective, etc. And if you’re reading modern greats, you’ll also see whatcritics and readers are responding to these days, what publishers are buying,and what’s already been done.

A corollary to this advice is “Don’t read bad stuff,” and Ithink it’s equally valuable. I think the problem with bad writing, for abeginning or emerging writer, is that it gives you the wrong impression. DanBrown isn’t successful because he writes great sentences, for example, andanyone who tries to imitate his writing is doomed. Read Brown for plot, maybe.Likewise for Grisham and some others. But try to ignore the writing while you’redoing it.

But I suppose there’s another corollary: “Read what you wantto write.” Not that anyone intentionally wants to write bad stuff, but if youwant to write fantasy, you should read fantasy. If you want to write thrillers,read thrillers. The reason I write mostly literary fiction is because I readmostly literary fiction. I sometimes worry that taking my reading across genreswill be bad for my writing. And it might be, if I’m not careful.

More than ever, lately everything I read feels likesomething I can learn from. I just finished Alice Hoffman’s The Probable Future (an audiobook,listening in the car), and while her style is definitely not something I’llimitate (a bit flowery for me), and I rarely use an omniscient voice, I didfeel that she drilled pretty deep into her character’s feelings, and that’ssomething I could do better. I also recently read Ellen Meister’s The Other Life, and I was payingattention to point of view there, as well.

But there’s another aspect of learning, and that’sunderstanding the market. I’m reading the latest issue of Mid-American Review. I know the editors there and I’ve submitted afew times, but I’ve never had anything accepted. I’ve read the magazine before,I think this time I finally understand why my stuff hasn’t worked there. But itreinforces the notion for me that if you’re going to submit to a magazine, readthat magazine first to get a sense of what they’re looking for. It’s key.

By the way, you can order a copy of the blank journal onEtsy, which is where I found the picture: YouAre What You Read Journal.

The New Yorker: "Expectations" by John Lanchester

2012-01-02T19:14:00.004-05:00

January 9, 2012: “Expectations”by John Lanchester

This appears to be an excerpt from Lanchester’s forthcomingnovel called Capital, which the excerpt is all about. It’s an amusing readbecause the main characters are comically obnoxious, but that’s about all ithas going for it.

Roger is an investment banker in London, and he’santicipating a year-end bonus of a million pounds. Maybe more! After all, thedepartment he manages, foreign exchange, made a bundle for the bank during theyear. And although other parts of the bank didn’t do so well, Roger has earnedhis bonus! And he needs that bonus, too, because he and his wife are a bit overextended on the posh house that they did an extensive remodel on and thecountry place (and the cars and servants, etc., etc.). And then there’s thewife, who, despite the cars and the servants, thinks Roger doesn’t understandhow hard she works to raise their boys (there are nannies), and so she plots tosend him a very strong message.

John is surprised by his bonus, but not terribly surprisedby the message his wife sends . . .

It’spretty hard to care about these people in the context of this excerpt, butmaybe they’d be more likeable in the novel.

[Edited to add: When I wrote the above, the Q&A with John Lanchester had not yet appeared on the magazine's website. Among other things, the author confirms that the "story" is excerpted from the forthcoming novel.]

It was a very good year.

2012-01-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

All in all, 2011 turned out to be a pretty good year. It didn't begin with much promise. My agent had still not managed to sell my novel in stories, and I was struggling with the manuscript of a new novel, unsure of what would become of it. I was studying French (that was fun, at least), but was turned down for a residency in France. I was working hard, but nothing seemed to be going right.

But then . . .

The AWP conference was in March in DC. I was on two panels, saw a lot of friends, and spent a lot of time in the bookfair. I was energized, as I usually am, and full of ideas.

In May I attended the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program, and also participated in the alumni workshop in which the beginning of my novel was critiqued by peers and by an editor from a major publisher. That experience was encouraging--the feedback was quite positive--and I pushed ahead with the book.

In June I attended the Tinker Mountain Writers Workshop at Hollins College. I did it in part because several friends had plans to go to various workshops around the country and I suddenly felt left out, but also because Fred Leebron was teaching an advanced novel writing class and I felt that was what I needed. It was great. I got more good feedback and encouragement about the novel.

In July I went to Korea. This had been planned for some time. The government of South Korea has been sponsoring re-visits for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served there, organized by the RPCV group Friends of Korea. I hadn't managed to get one of the earlier trips, so this was my time. Plus, the novel I was working on was partly set in Korea, and it seemed a good opportunity to refresh my sense memory. It was a fun trip. I didn't get any writing done while I was there, but had a great time.

Around this time, I got some good publishing news. Although my agent had not been able to sell my novel in stories, I had submitted it to a few small presses on my own (with my agent's blessing), and finally got an offer to publish it. Since I knew the publisher--Press 53 also published my first book, In an Uncharted Country--I felt very good about that. In addition, a number of the stories from the novel in stories were accepted by good magazines, which made me very happy, too. The book, WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, will be published in September 2012.

And then I found out that I got the residency in France after all. So, in mid-August, I went to the South of France for three weeks, the first of which was being a tourist in Toulouse. During the last two weeks, spent at VCCA France in Auvillar, I completed the revisions on my novel. (I posted a lot of pictures from that trip, as well as the earlier Korea trip, here on Perpetual Folly.) Just before I began that trip, my agent and I parted ways, so I knew that I would be looking for a new agent when I got home in September.

In September, then, with a completed novel in hand, I began the search. Having done that three times before--without success for my MFA Thesis novel and also for my story collection, and then for my novel in stories--I knew what a hard and frustrating process that could be. But something was different this time. Lower expectations? Timing? A better query letter? A better novel? Whatever was different, by the end of the month I had signed with a new agent.

In October I worked at placing more of the stories from the WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW (there are only 3 left at this point) and also did research and outlining for a new novel.

In November I participated in Nanowrimo, simply as a way to get a lot of words for the new novel on paper, to see if the structure worked. But I also had a 2-week residency at VCCA in Amherst, Virginia, and so was able to get most of a first, very rough, pre-draft of the novel done.

And in December I continued work on that novel and some other projects, as well as finalizing Issue No. 17 of Prime Number Magzine (our 7th issue), which comes out in January. Also in December, a couple of stories appeared in some fine online magazines, and another story acceptance came in.

Which brings us to now, the New Year. I realize that 2011 was actually a very good year, and I'm grateful, but also looking forward to more good things in 2012.

YLM: The Greensboro Review (Fall 2011)

2012-01-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

[Note: 2012 is the Year of the Lit Mag (YLM), and I've resolved to read and comment upon as many issues of literary magazines as I can this year, in part to deal with the piles of the things that have accumulated in my office, but also to get a better feel for the many magazines that are out there. I invite readers to participate by posting about Lit Mags on their own blogs or guest blogging here at Perpetual Folly. Leave a comment with contact information, or send me an email, if you're interested.]

First up is The Greensboro Review, chosen because it was the most recent magazine to arrive when I decided to do this. Before digging into the Fall 2011 issue, I'll note that the website doesn't seem to have been updated recently (the Spring 2009 issue is highlighted). Note also that the magazine now accepts online submissions (via Submishmash). The magazine does not feature on the Perpetual Folly Pushcart Prize Ranking for Fiction (which means that in the last 10 years it has received no prizes or special mentions for fiction). However, when the ranking for poetry debuts in a week or so, TGR will be on the list.

The Greensboro Reviewis a slim volume out of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Thecurrent issue, Fall 2011, has six short stories (by Sean Padraic McCarthy, KirkNesset, Jesse Goolsby, Dan Pope, Reid Wegner, and Patrick Dacey) and poems by18 poets. [I hesitate to mention this, but I will because much has been made of the supposed difficulty women have in getting work published in magazines: all six of the stories in this issue are by men. I can’t guess why that is the case, but my own magazine tends to see fewer fiction submissions by women, and, as a result, we generally publish more male fiction writers than female. I have no idea what the deal is at TGR. Anyway, I noticed.]

I won’t discuss the poetry in the issue (since I’m primarilya reader and writer of fiction), except to say that I enjoyed “The Great Hunger”by Chelsea Rathburn, but I have to say that I really liked the stories.

Although all the stories are good, my favorite is probably“Sing for Me” by Patrick Dacey, about Henry, who is sent from Buffalo, NY, tospend three months on a project at a factory near Qingdao, China. Henry, whohas recently been dumped by his girlfriend (a singer), does the things thatlonely guys do on long overseas assignments: drinks too much, seems bored, hasa run-in with some locals, gets sick, visits prostitutes. Also, eventually,Henry becomes enamored of Lulu, a cleaning-woman with a sweet voice whom hefirst sees in a Karaoke club. What I like about the story is its freshness—the setting is unusualand the pairing of Henry and Lulu is also new. There’s also the element ofHenry’s assistant/translator, “Kid,” who livens things up considerably. Onereason this story appealed to me is the setting. People seem to like storiesset in foreign countries, and I’m interested in China, so I was immediatelydrawn in. But the structure is classic—puta character in an unfamiliar environment and you’ve got instant tension. Iwould add that if the environment is also unfamiliar to the reader that thetension is further enhanced. Unusually, the story gives us a lot of background beforewe get to his first glimpse of Lulu and the beginning of his quest to find her.

Then there’s Kirk Nesset’s “Miami,” a long story about apig. Nesset recently had a flash fiction piece in Prime Number Magazine, which you can read here.But the story about the pig is really about a couple of college roommates andtheir trials and tribulations, including conflicts with parents, boyfriends,and the pig (“. . . a house with a pig is a curious thing.”).

“Safety” by Jesse Goolsby is a compelling story about a guywith a deep, dark secret who marries a woman whose brother, Dub, is an endlesssource of trouble. I love titles with multiple meanings and in this story a gun—an item in which one ofthe meanings of “safety” is important—playsa crucial role.

I should also mention “Testudo” by Reid Wegner if onlybecause I’ve never before seen a story from the point of view of a tortoise—a Russian tortoise born inAfghanistan, no less.

The New Yorker Story of the Year!

2012-01-01T07:41:00.001-05:00

The New Yorker Story of the Year for 2011 is . . .

"Stone Mattress" by Margaret Atwood.

This definitely wasn't my favorite of the year, and I almost didn't include it in the Top Ten (to see the complete list, with links to the commentary and the stories themselves, go here), but it took the top spot by a margin of 3 votes over "Home" by George Saunders. Third place goes to my favorite, "Going for a Beer" by Robert Coover.

Although I don't keep records, I think more votes were cast this year than ever before.

Congratulations to Margaret Atwood!

Last Chance: Vote for the New Yorker Story of the Year

2011-12-31T15:53:00.003-05:00

My last post for 2011 is a reminder to vote, if you haven't already, for the New Yorker Story of the Year. Polls close at midnight tonight, Blogger Time. The poll is in the right sidebar. For a full rundown of the Top Ten stories, go here:

Vote for the New Yorker Story of the Year -- The Top Ten

The Year in Books — the Best of 2011

2011-12-31T15:04:00.000-05:00

Although I read a lot of books in 2011, I certainly didn’tread all that were published in 2011, and I didn’t read exclusively books thatwere published in 2011. So a “Best Of” list is a strange thing to produce.Necessarily, it is a list of the best books I read, not the best books thatwere published. I read pretty widely, too, so I need to break this down intocategories. And to hedge my bets, most categories have runners-up!

Best Novel(published in 2011): Lost Memory of Skinby Russell Banks, reviewed here.

Honorable mention: FamilyFang by Kevin Wilson; and To Be SungUnder Water, by Tom McNeal, reviewed here.

Other 2011 novels I enjoyed: Blood Clay by Valerie Nieman; TheSense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes; OneHundred and One Nights, by Benjamin Buchholz; and Whale Man, by Alan Michael Parker, which I reviewed here.

Best Novel (published prior to 2011): The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver

Honorable mention: ShanghaiDancing by Brian Castro, reviewed here.

Best Short StoryCollection: Accidental Birds of theCarolinas by Marjorie Hudson

Honorable mention: BurningMan by Ed Falco.

Best Young People’sLiterature: Eddie’s War by CarolFisher Saller, reviewed here.

Honorable mention: Catcher,Caught by Sarah Collins Honenberger.

Best Memoir: Witness by Curtis Smith.

Honorable mention: Cagedby Cameron Conaway, reviewed here.

Best Buddhist Book: Confession of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor

Honorable Mention: Buddha Standard Time by Lama Surya Das

Best Liberal Book: Aftershock by Robert Reich

Honorable Mention: Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann

I'm looking forward to more good reading in 2012!

2012: The Year of the Lit Mag

2011-12-30T16:00:00.002-05:00

What if we declared 2012 to be the year of the Lit Mag? For years I have been subscribing to a lot of literary magazines. Currently I have many piles of them on the floor in my office, most of them unread. In the last week alone, 5 more have have arrived, so there's a new stack growing on the corner of my desk.

This won't necessarily solve the problem of where to put all these magazines, but one of my resolutions for 2012 is to do a better job of reading the magazines that come in. I know the publishers appreciate my subscription, but I think they'd also like me to read the darn things.

So here's what I plan to do. In 2012, you'll be seeing a lot more discussions of literary magazines on this blog. I probably won't be able to do daily posts, but I'll try to do Lit Mag posts a couple of times a week. If you are the editor of a magazine and want me to feature yours, leave a comment or send me an email. If you're an online magazine, I'll try to do the same. Or, if you're a reader of Lit Mags and would like to do a guest blog on a magazine you like, let me know.

Stay tuned for 2012: The Year of the Lit Mag!

Tips for Writers: Get Back to Work!

2011-12-30T12:55:00.000-05:00

’Tis the Season for New Years’ Resolutions, and, like a lotof writers, my resolutions touch on my writing goals, although mostly theycircle around writing: reading more/better literature will help refine my own style;reading more literary magazines will help me understand better what thejournals are looking for; staying off the Internet will free up time foreverything else. (I could probably tie in the eating better/exercising moreresolutions, too.)

It all boils down to discipline. And the search fordiscipline explains my attempts at meditation and my reading on that subject—still waiting for thatto work. But part of my effort to improve discipline involves goal-setting.

I know writers who set daily word-count goals, and I do thatsometimes, such as during a NaNoWrimo push. (My goal for this November was 2500words per day, and I stuck to that for most of the month, easily surpassing theoverall goal of 50,000 words.) When I’m in revision mode, I may set a page-countgoal rather than focusing on the number of words. I did that in August when Iwas at a writing retreat in France, working on the revision to my novelmanuscript: the number of pages I had to get through divided by the number daysavailable. That worked well.

Most of the time, though, I’m floundering. I hate to admitthat, but some days I sit at my desk and I don’t know what to write. It’s notwriter’s block, exactly. It’s more fundamental than that. It’s not knowing.It’s not being ready to move on in the given project. And so on days like that—days like today, forexample—I writesomething else: a blog post, like this one; a book review (I did thatyesterday); ideas for something I might want to write in the future. If I’mreally struggling, I might read something relevant to writing—I just started The Writer’s Journey by ChristopherVogler.

But what I don’t do is leave my desk, at least not duringthe hours I set aside only for writing. I don’t go run errands when I should bewriting. I don’t do housework. I don’t read magazines or books unless they’rerelated to the work. Or, if I do let my attention wander into other realms, I remind myself, like a student of meditation, to begin again. In other words, even if a word-count goal or a page-countgoal isn’t feasible, then my objective is simple: get back to work. And that,basically, is my New Year’s Resolution for 2012.

The New Yorker: "Creative Writing" by Etgar Keret

2011-12-29T08:30:00.002-05:00

January 2, 2012: “CreativeWriting” by Etgar Keret

This is a very short little story that writers, especially,will appreciate. It’s about Maya and Aviad, a couple coping with Maya’smiscarriage. Maya takes a creative writing class to give her something to do,and her work is well received by her instructor. She writes three stories, eachof which is possibly a commentary on her own life and relationship with herhusband. Aviad seems to be somewhat jealous of Maya’s success with her stories,so he secretly signs up for a beginning course (taught by someone else). In hisfirst class, in a free-writing exercise, he writes a story about a fish. Andthis story also seems to reveal something about Aviad.

Based on the Q&Awith Etgar Keret, we suppose that the stories mostly reveal that both Mayaand Aviad are exploring their feelings toward one another in these stories, butdon’t know exactly how they feel. It does seem that Aviad is more certain thanMaya, but then he’s only written one story so far.

Is that what we do as writers? Explore our own feelingsthrough our characters? Keret says he is all of the characters:

When I write a story, I am all the characters in it. I can’twrite a character I don’t feel some emotional identification with, even if itis the hired killer who murders the protagonist’s pregnant wife. Since allthose characters exist in my head, they have to be me, in some sense, to have a“real” body in the story world.

I don’t think that’s true for me. Some of my characters certainly mustbe the “other” even if I do try to imagine how they would feel and to empathizewith them.

What about you?

eBook Prices Are Too High

2011-12-27T12:52:00.000-05:00

When Amazon launched the Kindle, we were told that eBookswould be $9.99 for most new releases, with many other books available for less.That was true, for a while. Amazon had set the price and everyone else—publishers,authors, and readers—had to live with it. Considering that new hardcovers sellfor $30 or more in the bookstore (although considerably less on Amazon, ofcourse), the eBook price seemed like a pretty good deal. Pricing has changednow, however, and the publishers, for the most part, set the prices.

eBooks have lots of advantages, of course, all welldocumented: portable, space-saving, searchable. But there are alsodisadvantages. While some books can be lent (to other Kindle owners), manycannot; and of course lending to a non-Kindle or Kindle-app user is out of thequestion. Some of us still like reading actual books, turning actual pages,feeling the paper in our hands. And I happen to like more information aboutwhat’s coming—I like to know how far from the end of a chapter I am, or howmany pages there are in the book. I also like being able to go back and readsections over if I’m confused about something. While that’s not impossible witha Kindle, it’s not as easy as merely flipping pages. And sometimes, when I’mdone with a book, I like to sell it or give it away. Can’t do that with aneBook.

But today I’m thinking about prices. I recently had a giftcard to spend on Amazon. There were a couple of new release hardcovers I wasinterested in, so I bought them. The first was Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending. It retails for$23.95 (although it’s only 175 pages) in hardcover. (Terrific book, by theway.) Amazon sells it for $14.37. The Kindle price is $11.99, a difference of$2.38. I also got The Marriage Plotby Jeffrey Eugenides. Amazon’s price is $15.28, with a list price of $28.00. TheKindle price is $12.99, a difference of $2.29. Weighing the costs and benefitsof the eBook, it seems worth it to me to pay a little extra to have thehardcover—especially if there’s the theoretical possibility of selling the bookonce I’ve read it, or giving it away. In fact, I’ve found many instances wherethe Kindle price for a book is actually higherthan the discounted price of a paperback. (Shipping must be taken intoconsideration, of course, but my purchases usually total over $25, in whichcase shipping is free.)

So, as a reader, I’m not at all happy about eBook prices.

On the other hand, there are many books available for muchless (and I’m not even talking about self-published books, many of which arefree or sell for $.99). For example, my publisher, Press 53, sells most of itseBooks, including mine, for $3.99 on Kindle and Nook. The paperback list pricefor my book is $14.00 and the Amazon/B&N discounted price is $12.62. So,the eBook savings over the discounted price is $8.63. That’s significant.

All of which is considered solely from the reader’s point ofview. As an author, I’m not sure what to think. I want to make more money frombook sales, but at some point the price is too high and inhibits demand, and ina competitive environment that’s the last thing I need!

Prime Number Magazine: the latest update

2011-12-27T07:50:00.002-05:00

Prime Decimals 13.7 is live! This update includes work by Rachel Unkefer, Craig Fishbane, Bryan Shawn Wang, Carolyn Moore, and Penelope Scambly Schott.

And we are actively reading submissions for Issue 17 and beyond. We need full-length stories and essays up to 4,000 words, flash fiction and nonfiction below 1,000 words, poetry, short drama, craft essays, book reviews, interviews, and cover art (reflecting the prime number of a particular issue). Please check out the submission guidelines for more information.

New Yorker Story of the Year: 5 Days Left to Vote

2011-12-26T14:54:00.002-05:00

Read all about the Top Ten New Yorker Stories of 2011, and then vote in our poll in the sidebar at right. Voting will close at midnight Saturday, December 31, and the winner will be announced on Sunday, January 1.

Guest blogger: Okla Elliott

2011-12-26T08:09:00.000-05:00

Editor's Note: Okla Elliott's book, From the Crooked Timber, a novella and stories, was recently published by Press 53. I asked him to tell us a little something about the book.

Okla Elliott:

I have beenasked to offer a brief and informal discussion of “The Names of DistantGalaxies,” the novella in my short fiction collection From the Crooked Timber. First off, let me thank Clifford Garstangfor that generous offer. Mr. Garstang is a first-rate practitioner of the shortfiction form and a champion of literature, so I was honored when he asked me todo this little piece.

“The Names ofDistant Galaxies” started as a novel with chapters alternating between thenarrator as a boy and his stepmother when she was his age, which was when herneurological disorder, dystonia, set in. The chapters which were focused on thenarrator were in first-person and those on his stepmother were in third-, withthe idea being that as an adult he was looking back on it all, remembering hisown childhood and imagining hers. This got a bit too programmatic, and thestyle came to feel too much like a lot of southern/rural novels I’d read. Then,some friends pointed out to me how there was this strain in the novel that soundedlike an outside commentator’s voice, but still somehow the voice of thenarrator, just very distant and unnatural. I started writing randomly in thisvoice and realized it was the voice of the narrator trying to figure out how totell his story.

So then I made the not very large leap over to having him do exactlythat—struggle with writing this story he had no idea how to tell. So then therewere these meta-sections, where he would talk about his current life and theprocess of writing (and all the troubles he was having with that process).Those sections are as close to my natural talking voice as I could get withoutlosing artistry, so that the reader feels like this is a conversation, but thenthe sections he writes as part of his novel/memoir are much more “literary”—mypoint being, in a way, that we stylize our stories pretty radically, and eventhe intermediary sections that are meant to be in a raw voice are stylized,just differently, in a way meant to mimic my own natural speech (which is itselfstylized), and so on. In effect, I wanted to have a few kinds of cake and eatthem all. I wanted to write a more traditional literary narrative, and I wantedto mess with the form a bit as well. I have been trying to find a proverbial “thirdway” between so-called traditional and so-called experimental writing for along time, and so I have my narrator write an incomplete novel in thetraditional psychological-realist style, while I wrote a novella that makes useof various meta-techniques. My issue with a lot of “traditional” writing isthat it seems to want to pretend that the 20^th century neverhappened in terms of literary innovations, and my issue with “experimental”writing is that it too often misses what I think the point of literature tobe—namely, to understand better what it means to be human. So, as I say, Itried to find a third way and eat all the cake I could get my hands on, as itwere.

This process was less than efficient, in a way. To get what turned out to beabout 80 pages in manuscript form, I wrote over 230 pages and re-envisioned itseveral times. I’ve loved the novella form for a long time and think it’s theperfect genre in many ways—long enough to engage with big stories yet shortenough to read in one day—so I am happy to have dedicated so much energy tothat piece. I plan on writing more novellas and hope to see a kind renaissancein the form, now that so many small presses are getting more interested in themand with the advent of the Kindle/Nook reading technologies.

Okla Elliot is currently the Illinois Distinguished Fellow at the University of Illinois, where he works in the fields of comparative literature and trauma studies. He also holds an MFA from Ohio State University. For the academic year 2008-09, he was a visiting assistant professor at Ohio Wesleyan University. His drama, non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and translations have appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Indiana Review, The Literary Review, Natural Bridge, New Letters, A Public Space, and The Southeast Review, among others. He is the author of three poetry chapbooks--The Mutable Wheel; Lucid Bodies and Other Poems; and A Vulgar Geography--and he co-edited (with Kyle Minor) The Other Chekhov.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T08:16:00.001-05:00

I don't celebrate Christmas, so I don't put up Christmas decorations. I like Christmas trees, though, and I especially like trees like the one pictured--still alive and in the ground. I have a tree like this, but without the ornaments . . .

In fact, one of the fun things about my home is the pine forest out back that is on the march. It's an army of little Christmas trees. When I bought the land 11 years ago, it included two pastures--one at the top of a hill and one at creek-level at the bottom. Since I don't have grazing animals and didn't want to rent the pastures out, I've let them go wild. In the upper pasture, the pine trees have gone crazy, spreading throughout, despite the thick grass. (There's an opposing army of wild cherry trees, especially pretty in spring and fall, and the two armies have recently crossed into the other's territory.) Anyway, there are hundreds of little pine trees (and other varieties of conifers, including juniper), which is exciting to watch transform the property.

While everyone else will start thinking about un-decorating tomorrow, my house will already be back to normal.

But for today, Merry Christmas to you! And Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, too.

"The Replacement Wife" in Blackbird

2011-12-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite literary magazines is Blackbird, and so I am especially thrilled to have a story in the Fall 2011 issue. Read "The Replacement Wife" here. The story is the latest from my forthcoming novel in stories to appear. The book, What the Zhang Boys Know, will be published by Press 53 in September 2012.

My story is in great company in this issue: fiction by Belle Boggs, Bryn Chancellor, and others; lots of poetry, including work by Erica Dawson and Nick Lantz; plus reviews, essays, readings, and more. There's even a suggested reading order, which I find amusing because it puts my story last, right before the reviews. But it's a great idea, because there's so much wonderful material here that the list will help you manage it without missing anything!

Thanks for reading!

Tips for Writers: Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T09:21:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays!

No, that’s not a secular festive greeting,that’s the tip for this Friday, December 23, 2011, Christmas Eve Eve. Althoughthe “happy” part isn’t crucial. Miserable Holidays might be even better. Stressful Holidays. Conflicted Holidays.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of short stories focus on aholiday? It’s a natural, when you think about it. The holiday is a short periodof time, just right for short fiction. It’s an organic reason for people to come together--nothing contrived necessary. They are oftenemotional and stressful. People come into them with high expectations andgenerally a great deal of baggage, and when those expectations are frustrated--look out! People often do some crazy things onholidays. It’s a great setup for conflict, and that, after all, is the heart ofthe short story.

So, if you’re looking to do a little writing during thislast week of December, try this exercise: Pick a holiday, any holiday. Imaginea family gathering in celebration of the holiday. But one member of the familybrings a guest—an unwelcome guest. Instant conflict! I can imagine countlesspossibilities here. I may even write a story myself.

Have a great holiday!

Winter Solstice

2011-12-21T07:33:00.003-05:00

Technically, the winter solstice comes shortly after midnight tonight (U.S. East Coast), but we usually think of the 21st as the shortest day of the year, so . . . Happy Solstice!

Did you know that the Romans designated December 25th as the Solstice? (Hmm, what else is celebrated on that date?) The date moved in the 16th Century when the Gregorian calendar was adopted. More fun facts about the solstice here and here and here.

Vote for New Yorker Story of the Year

2011-12-20T07:44:00.001-05:00

Only 11 days left to vote for your favorite New Yorker story of 2011. Choose from among Atwood, Munro, Coover, Englander, Marcus, Hadley, Saunders, Erdrich, Barnes, and Groff. The winner will be announced on New Year's Day.

For links to descriptions of all ten stories, go to The New Yorker Story of the Year: The Top Ten.