Short Story Month 2011: Boomtown -- Fred Leebron (#ssm2011)

I've been browsing through Boomtown: Explosive Writing From Ten Years of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program. I've got a story in the anthology ("Justice, Inc.," which first appeared in the Los Angeles Review) and I picked up a copy during the 10th Anniversary Celebration at Queens last weekend.

Because Fred Leebron is such a great teacher and writer, one of the first stories in the anthology I read was his.

"Two Germanys" is a flash piece that first appeared in Digital Americana, a magazine--actually, it's an iPad App--that I hadn't heard of before. (You can read the story and an interview with Leebron here.)

The point of view character is 46 and "his liver hurt." He thinks it's because of the drinking--he's been drinking since the summer after 8th grade, and now his liver throbs. He's looking for something to hold onto--if he could just clutch his baby, everything would be okay. Or he'll be thirteen again--the summer he began drinking--and he'll make a different decision. That was in Germany. But he then thinks of his sister, "carried off in a liver coma," and that, too, was in Germany.

Boomtown: Explosive Writing From Ten Years of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program

This weekend marks the 10th Anniversary of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program. Ten years ago this month, I made my first of many visits to the Charlotte, NC campus--then called Queens College--to develop my writing skills and to join a writing community that has far exceeded my expectations. 


Naturally, there's a party. And more than a party, there are workshops and seminars for alums, because the learning never stops. I'll be workshopping a piece of a new novel, listening to lectures and panels, and did I mention the parties?


One of the highlights of the long weekend will be the launch of Boomtown: Explosive Writing From Ten Years of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program. 


The anthology looks great and includes work by many faculty from the program (Jonathan Dee, Elizabeth Strout, Pinckney Benedict, Fred Leebron, Dan Mueller, Cathy Smith Bowers, Peter Stitt, Robert Polito, Ann Cummins, and others) and students/alums (Clifford Garstang, Susan Meyers, Mary Beth Ray, Linera Lucas, Kevin Jones, Gwynyth Mislin, Annette Gendler and many others).


I'm very pleased to have a story in this anthology, and also glad that the book is available for purchase on Amazon and will soon be available elsewhere.