Phoebe Fiction Contest

The announcement has been a long time coming, but Phoebe has finally announced the results of its fiction contest. John Yunker won for his story "The Tourist Trail." I've known for a couple of months that my story, "The Face in the Window," was a finalist in the contest, and learned a couple of weeks ago that I did not win, but none of this was public information until now. Congratulations to John Yunker and the other finalists. And to any editors who might be reading this, my story is still available!

StorySouth: 2007 Notable Stories

StorySouth has announced the Million Writers Award: Notable Stories of 2007 as selected by a panel of judges from reader and editor nominations. I'm pleased that my story "The White Swan" from The Hub is on the list (one of about 165stories, it appears). From this very long list, the editors will select ten and then toward the end of May a public vote will commence.

New Issue: Bound Off #27

The April issue of Bound Off is now live (actually it's been live since April 15, but I forgot). Check out work by Jenny Arnold and Andrew Dugas.

Ron Currie Jr. Wins NYPL Young Lions Award

I've just heard (thanks Jessica!) that Ron Currie Jr. won the NYPL Young Lions Award last night at a ceremony in New York. Congratulations, Ron! The finalists were:

Ron Currie, Jr., God Is Dead
Ellen Litman, The Last Chicken in America
Peter Nathaniel Malae, Teach the Free Man
Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Emily Mitchell, The Last Summer of the World

Update: See this report in Galleycat.

BlogCritics Magazine

I've just become aware of Blogcritics.org, an amazing collection of book, music, movie and other reviews. You could spend days . . .

Happy Birthday, Bhikku!

Bhikku is six today.

ASC: The Taming of the Shrew

The home stand of the American Shakespeare Center's touring company (the "Piercing Eloquence" tour) continues with The Taming of the Shrew. It must be fun for the cast to perform for an enthusiastic full house and that that's what they had last night. The lower level was packed and there were lots of people in General Admission upstairs, as well. Lots of energy.

And the audience was rewarded with an excellent production of this great farce. You know the story: Baptista is besieged by suitors for his beautiful daughter Bianca, but can't marry her off until he finds a husband fro the brash Katherina. Along comes headstrong Petruchio who decides she's just the one for him. He arranges the marriage and sets about taming the shrew. There are complications, of course, but fewer disguises than ususal for Shakespeare, and lots of laughs. And everyone is terrific in this production, especially the key players: Josh Carpenter as Petruchio and Ginna Hoben as Katherina make a great pair and their mercurial, lightning-speed romance was believable; among the rest, Evan Hoffmann is sure to pull the laughter for his surfer-dude approach to the part of the servant Biondello.

This is first-rate production and one of the best I've seen at the Blackfriars Playhouse, out of a lot of outstanding theater over the last six years.

Note: Several of the members of the company have blogs and/or websites and they are fun to explore. This morning I found Ellen Adair's blog, which has links to the others.

Ontario Review Will Cease Publication

It is no surprise to learn that Ontario Review will cease publication. With the death of its founder and editor, Raymond Smith, this announcement was widely expected, but it is still a shock because it is such an outstanding magazine. See Ontario Review Retires After 34 Years. There's still nothing about this on the magazine's website, but I've heard from other writers that they've received responses to their submissions that include this news.

The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter

The Soul Thief
Charles Baxter
Pantheon ($20.00)

by Clifford Garstang

In this new novel from Charles Baxter, Nathaniel Mason is a student in Buffalo who meets Theresa and the derivatively intellectual Jerome Coolberg. Nathaniel becomes involved with Theresa, but she’s aloof. He also is involved with his lesbian friend Jamie, but neither of these relationships particularly compels him, at least not initially. And then for reasons that aren't clear, Coolberg seems to be taking over Nathaniel’s life: his clothes, his biography, Theresa, and, eventually, even Jamie (in a way). Nathaniel has a breakdown as a result and then we see him again in the future. Now he’s married, stable, with two children, and Coolberg comes back into his life. There is a climactic scene when Nathaniel confronts Coolberg and the truth comes out.

The moment of truth, for me, succeeds and turns this novel into something memorable. Up until that point it was engaging. The reader sympathizes with Nathaniel and distrusts Coolberg. We wonder what happened to Jamie and Theresa. We’re curious about Nathaniel’s sister Catherine who, in order to rescue Nathaniel has something of a miraculous recovery from her own trauma. We want to know what Coolberg was up to back in their college days.

But there’s clearly been more going on here. The word “soul” is used over and over in the book in various contexts and with various meanings. Thievery is a recurring subject also. And in the end we are left with the question of what is stolen, and by whom? And that question raises meta-fictional issues that will be of interest to readers who are also writers. Ultimately it’s a book about fiction, and that’s why it’s some that I may need to re-read.

I studied with Baxter at Bread Loaf in 2005. One of the most memorable bits of learning I took from that workshop is “make a scene.” By that he meant don’t let your characters avoid the fiction’s central crisis. And he’s true to this principle here: Nathaniel must go to L.A. and he must confront Coolberg, just as Coolberg must reveal himself to Nathaniel.

I think I may have learned one other thing from Baxter, or possibly I learned it elsewhere, but I have an intense distrust of dreams in fiction. And so I was delighted by this passage from The Soul Thief:

I hate dreams. I hate them when they appear in literature, and I hate them when I myself have them. I distrust the truth-value that Freud assigned to them. Dreams lie as often as they tell the truth. Their imaginary castles, kingdoms, and dungeons are a cast-off collection of broken and obvious metaphors. When you hold them in your hand, you do not hold the key to anything. No door will open. You can live an honorable life without them. (178)

Exactly.

Robert Olen Butler at Redivider

This is something of coup for Redivider. They've just published online an excerpt from Robert Olen Butler's new collection of short-shorts, Intercourse. I heard him read from this collection as well as his earlier collection, Severance, earlier this year at AWP in New York. Check out the sample at Redivider.

The New Yorker: "Bullfighting" by Roddy Doyle

It’s a pleasant story. Good, even. Not great, though. Probably not memorable. Donal and his Dublin Pals Seán, Gerry and Ken get together every Thursday night for several pints at their pub. They all have wives and kids and they’re all settled, although everyone seems to have or have had a rocky marriage. The story is Donal’s, though, and so mostly we learn about his love—a love that is at once intense and exhausted—for his sons. He feels that his life is about to be over because his sons are almost grown and on their own (although his Peter seems fairly young). And oddly, his wife Elaine rarely enters his thoughts. One thing that’s interesting about the story is that everyone seems gainfully employed, well-off in fact, and able to afford trips abroad. Donal and his pals go on an adventure without the families, although they all seem to stay in touch by phone. Gerry’s brother has a place in Spain, so they go there. They drink, they talk. Some of them conduct business by phone and Blackberry. They swim, they drink. There is a bullring in the village but they don’t visit there until the last night of their stay when Donal gets really, really drunk. And then, without realizing what he’s doing, he comes face to face with the bull. For a brief moment he feels alive. And then he pukes in the pool. Hah!

Except that this story is set in Dublin and Spain, American readers will recognize Donal. He’s the standard-issue bored husband who needs to confront his life’s stasis. New York men of this type usually don’t get to stare down a bull, so maybe this story stands apart. Still, it feels a bit too familiar.

April 28, 2008: “Bullfighting” by Roddy Doyle

Interview with Katrina Denza at Storyglossia Blog

Editor Steven McDermott interviews Katrina Denza on the Storyglossia Blog. And Steven also draws our attention to Kat's flash fiction, Soap at Wig-leaf. Good stuff, Kat and Steven!

A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean by Gary Buslik

A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean
Gary Buslik
Travelers’ Tales ($14.95)

by Clifford Garstang

With the arrogance of Paul Theroux and the comic abrasiveness of David Sedaris, this collection of “travelers’ tales” is both crude and offensive. On the other hand, except where there are dips into near-racism, these are mostly very funny extended jokes (sometimes at the expense of the author's wife, but more often the locals) about an American’s adventures in the Caribbean.

What are we meant to make of these tales? Are we supposed to believe that the author encountered Idi Amin in a Mustique nightclub restroom (spraying piss on his sandals) and that the old despot danced with and then stalked his wife? That the author was arrested for parking illegally in an empty mall parking lot while making an emergency cat food run? That he bought a miracle (volcanic eruption) from a late-night TV evangelist in order to avoid a trip with his wife that conflicted with the Super Bowl? No, probably not. At least, I don’t think so. In fact, much of the book belongs to a genre that I might call “exaggerated semi-non-fiction”—literature that doesn’t have any of the characteristics of fiction (like plot) but obviously isn’t exactly true either. At least it’s so clearly not true that the author isn’t going to be accused, like James Frey, of faking bits of his memoir in order to represent a greater "truth." This whole thing is mostly fake, and the reader who believes otherwise wouldn’t make a very reliable witness in a lawsuit, so what’s the harm?

The saving grace is that this stuff is funny. Even when it’s somewhat offensive, it’s still pretty funny. The reader may be put off by racial and national stereotypes, by Spanish rendered as unintelligible baby-talk, by the general tone of condescension toward locals and Europeans, or by turning cultural differences into comedy. (The author does claim to be a Republican and Bush supporter, which might explain his ugly-Americanness.) Or perhaps none of these things will bother the reader in the least, because Americans really do tend to behave badly overseas (never mind here at home) and it’s pretty amusing to read about someone who is even more arrogant, insensitive, and grumpy than they are. I’m not so bad after all, they might flatter themselves; look at this guy!

And “this guy” is full of complaints about the locals, the transportation, the accommodations, the bugs, the service, the food, his wife, his work. All of which is at least partly the point. The title, after all, is “A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean.” We aren’t being led to believe the book is about a nice guy who has tips for intrepid travelers. Furthermore, the cover of the book includes what is either a warning or a subtitle: “A grump in paradise discovers that anyplace it’s legal to carry a machete is comedy just waiting to happen.” So there’s no false advertising here. I wonder if the author is familiar with John Krich’s Around the World in a Bad Mood, a book with which it shares a grouchy outlook: travel-griping for fun and profit.

Probably my favorite essay in the book is its least humorous: “Papa’s Ghost.” On a trip to Cuba, the author seeks out some of Ernest Hemingway’s haunts, which is a favorite activity of American writers visiting Havana. He learns that Hemingway’s masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea is believed by Cubans to be the story of Gregorio Fuentes, now quite an old man, and he pays the ancient mariner a visit. It is a respectful piece, either out of reverence for Hemingway or Fuentes, and one that suggests the author isn’t quite the grump he pretends to be. I enjoyed re-reading that one.

One of the sources of humor in the collection is from its endless digressions. Sometimes the digressions have digressions. These are mostly pointless detours from the main thrust of the essay, but are generally funny, in part because of the pointlessness. In “My Military-Industrial Complex,” for example, the author is in Cuba standing in line at the airport behind a Canadian, which prompts a three-page diversion into his fondness for Canadians as a result of a fishing trip and a hockey player, at the end of which the reader has surely forgotten what the essay was about in the first place. But never mind. It’s funny to digress, apparently.

Travel writing, I’ve always felt, is enjoyable because it informs. It may also transport the reader to distant places, familiar or unfamiliar. I’m not sure I want to visit Gary Buslik’s Caribbean, though, and I can’t say that anything I learned in the book equips me to do so. But then this isn’t your ordinary travel writing. This is just for yucks. Lots and lots of yucks.

Update: See A Rotten Person, the website for the book.

Titlepage.tv: Inside Out

The latest episode of Titlepage.tv is posted, featuring Elizabeth Strout (Yay, Liz!), Meg Wolitzer, Mark Sarvas and Ed Hirsch. Another great program!

New Issue: Hot Metal Bridge

Hot Metal Bridge is a new-to-me magazine and its third issue, "American Light" is up now. Looking through the archives it seems that they've been able to attract some very good work!

The New Yorker: "The Repatriates" by Sana Krasikov

Lera and Grisha have moved to the U.S. for his work, first for HP and then for Morgan Stanley. But Grisha wants more; he wants to cash in on the boom in Russia and so he develops an idea for his own business--a sort of Russian Fannie Mae. To get it off the ground, they sell their house and move back to Moscow to the flat that they kept, for reasons that are never clear. And then the story, such as it is, begins.

Because the author’s name was not known to me, I wanted to like this story. I really did. I’m tired of Boyle and Ford and Munro and all the rest. And some things about the story appealed to me. I liked the jump from New York to an exotic setting, although all we really saw of that setting was the flat in Moscow and some glimpses of street life (I love the scene with the egg lady). I like the character Lera’s discovery of fraud and corruption, as if she had not seen that in Moscow before she and her husband moved to the U.S., and as if she had not seen anything like it in New York. Her naiveté is not terribly credible, but it is slightly endearing. But there is not much else to like. Her husband’s distance is plain, his own deception obvious, even if his motivation is not, and even if the narrative voice had not told us in the first paragraph that Grisha and Lera’s marriage was ending the reader wouldn’t have to be particularly astute to see that coming. The only surprise is that Lera, apparently, doesn’t end up in the dire straits that her friend Lidochka is in. Somehow Lera has the presence of mind of freeze Grisha’s bank accounts and get herself set up back home (in the U.S., that is). She may be saddened by the experience, and wiser, but so what? She wants to hate Grisha, but she can’t. She forgives him. So what?

While the stakes for this woman are clear from the outset, the trouble she gets into isn’t of her making. And she gets out of it pretty painlessly, it seems to me. Which isn’t very interesting to watch.

April 21, 2008: “The Repatriates” by Sana Krasikov

Words? Or Hours?

Assuming you are committed to your writing, how do you measure progress? Or, put another way, what minimum output do you set for yourself? Some people force themselves to write at least four hours a day. Some give themselves a minimum number of words to produce: 1,000 say. Others who aren't so fortunate to have a lot of time to devote to writing may have to settle for one hour, or one page. Is there a difference between setting a minimum time at the desk and setting a minimum word count? What do you do?

I have no problem sitting at my desk for most of the day. Getting anything done is another matter. I'm wondering if I reorient myself to think in terms of minimum word output whether that might help my discipline. Thoughts?

And at the moment I'm working on revision to stories in draft. I sometimes tell myself that I'll revise at least five pages today, or ten or whatever. Do you have any tricks when you're revising?

A Writer's Use of History

This weekend I attended the "Tom Wolfe Lecture/Seminar" at Washington and Lee University: A Writer's Use of History, featuring Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horwitz.

Although I was looking forward to meeting Brooks and Horwitz (who are married to each other) I didn't know what to expect from the program, which is aimed primarily at W&L Alums, of which I am not one. But now I know: it was terrific. The facilities were great, the food quite good, the participants engaged and interesting, and the speakers outstanding. No complaints from me.

After introductions on Friday afternoon, the program began with a talk by Geraldine Brooks, author of March, People of the Book and several other books. Her subject was "Inventions, Conventions, and People of the Book," and she spoke about her own progression from journalist to novelist and some advice she received along the way. She also spoke about where her ideas came from for her three novels, and then went into some depth in talking about how People of the Book came to be, including a slide show of the illustrations from the book that is the "star" of the novel.

Later we convened in one of W&L's guest houses for a reception and then a lovely dinner where we got to talk with the program faculty and get to know each other better.

On Saturday morning we reconvened and this time it was Tony Horwitz's turn. His subject was "Taking Latitutde with Attitude" and it was fascinating to contrast his work, which is non-fiction, with the fiction that Brooks writes. He talked about the genre of "participatory history" and about his experience in writing a couple of his earlier books, but then spent most of his time talking about his new book, A Voyage Long and Strange, that will be released next week.

After a book signing session we met again to hear from W&L faculty member Suzanne Keen who gave a lively "critical response" to the uses of history we'd been discussing, in which she identified various "productive tensions" at work. She contrasted history with heritage, and then we considered how the distinctions sometimes blur and the culture loses track of which is which. The questions following her talk merged with the concluding panel discussion that dealt with a range of topics including the writing life.

Then there was a nice lunch and we said our goodbyes. A thoroughly enjoyable couple of days, in which I think I learned a good deal.

Getting Real: Solicitations

Kelly Spitzer is at it again. This time her Get Real series asks editors about soliciting work from writers. I've always wondered about this . . .

The Bat Segundo Shows #189-203

Check out the latest editions of The Bat Segundo Show, where you'll discover:

This most recent batch includes a special 75-minute conversation with Nicholson Baker (#200) on a wide range of topics, an interview with independent animator Bill Plympton (#190), a raucous talk with Jeffrey Ford about genre and the great American novel (#191), and inquiries into the sports-industrial complex with Will Leitch (#189). We learn about intimacy with Meryl Streep with director Chen Shi-Zheng and actor Liu Ye (#203) and how to cover the Kentucky Derby with filmmakers Brad & John Hennegan (#202).

We also discover why Richard Price wrote Michael Jackson's "Bad" (#199), find out what it takes to be a nonagenarian actress with Mimi Weddell (#192), investigate Chinese restaurants with Jennifer 8. Lee (#196), look into whether phasers, invisibility, and the Death Star are theoretically possible with noted physicist Michio Kaku (#197), and conduct a live podcast with writer Marshall Klimasewiski (#193). Returning to our show for second appearances are closet geek Jennifer Weiner (#198), giddy short story writer Elizabeth Crane (#195), and anti-earnest crusader Lydia Millet (#194). And, last but not least, litblogger and debut novelist Mark Sarvas talks with us about Harry, Revised, John Banville, James Wood, and elegant variations (#201).

LitMag Swap #3

It's time for another LitMag Swap offer. This time I've got a brand new copy of the Fall 2007 issue of The Florida Review featuring work by Joseph Levens, Urban Waite and others, and a coversation with Elizabeth Stuckey-French.

If you want to swap for this issue, leave a comment with the magazine and issue you'd like to trade. If it's one I don't have, I'll let you know.

Also still available is a shiny new copy of Mid-American Review, Volume XXVII, No. 1 (Fall 2006). The issue includes fiction from Rebecca Rasmussen, Todd James Pierce, and others, and lots of fine poetry and nonfiction. Note: this is NOT the latest issue - that would be Fall 2007.

New Issue: Internet Review of Books

The April 2008 issue of this new-to-me publication is up. Check out The Internet Review of Books.

WEbook

Interesting article in The Washington Post about a new publishing venture, WEbook:

WEbook, which launched last week, invites writers, editors, topic experts and anyone else who has something to say to put their virtual pens together to work on literary projects. If the finished works get high marks from the site's members, WEbook publishes hard copies and sells them through online booksellers such as Amazon.com and retail stores including Barnes & Noble. Some books can also be read via mobile phones or in e-book format.

I'm not convinced this is serious or sustainable. It sounds gimmicky and maybe even fun, but I wonder just exactly who will be attracted to the collaborative process it offers?

How I Wrote 200,000 Books . . .

Did you see the story in The New York Times about the guy who wrote 200,000 books? I don't care how he did it. That's a lot of books.

"But these are not conventional books, and it is perhaps more accurate to call Mr. Parker a compiler than an author. Mr. Parker, who is also the chaired professor of management science at Insead (a business school with campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore), has developed computer algorithms that collect publicly available information on a subject — broad or obscure — and, aided by his 60 to 70 computers and six or seven programmers, he turns the results into books in a range of genres, many of them in the range of 150 pages and printed only when a customer buys one."

Okay, so we're not talking novels or short story collections here. But still.

photo from NYT

New Issue: Eclectica Magazine

The April/May issue of Eclectica Magazine just went live. Check it out, especially my interview with Mary Akers.

BookBalloon

On one of my favorite blogs, Charlottesville Words, I learned about a new online book discussion forum. It sounds good to me, although it's just "getting off the ground," so to speak: Book Balloon. See you there.

Interview With David Leavitt

Check out this Interview with David Leavitt, who is, among other things, editor of Subtropics. He has some great things to say about Roy Kesey.

Radical Gratitude by Andrew Bienkowski & Mary Akers

Unlike many “self-help” books, this one has an engaging narrative behind it, so not only are the bits of advice (“life-lessons”) extremely useful and insightful, but also the story of Andrew Bienkowski’s life will fascinate and move any compassionate reader. And, it should be pointed out, the authors don’t really consider the book to be “self-help.” Rather, it is a “help-others” book. It is a blueprint for living a life that is less self-centered and is more about being involved in the lives of others than helping yourself.

Radical Gratitude, co-written by Mary Akers and Andrew Bienkowski, is divided into fourteen Life Lessons derived from Bienkowski’s life as a child when he and his family were exiled from Poland to Siberia. They endured incredible suffering that the book can only really hint at. But through the suffering and the sacrifices of others, Bienkowski learned. And so the reader learns about the concept of “Radical Gratitude”—taking nothing for granted and remembering all the things in our lives with which we are blessed. We also learn about Listening, Hope, Perseverence, Letting Go, and Love. But these are not abstract lessons at all. They are concrete suggestions for living a more fulfilled life skillfully crafted by Bienkowski, a therapist, and Akers, a talented writer. The total package is one that will be hard to put down and even harder to forget.

I have hesitated to post a review of this fine book because it is published only in Australia and New Zealand (by Allen & Unwin) at the moment, although editions are scheduled next year in Europe and Canada. In the meantime, you can purchase a signed copy directly from the authors. It’s well worth it.

For more information about the book, see my interview with Mary Akers which appears in the April issue of Eclectica Magazine.

ASC: The Merchant of Venice

It hasn't been too long since the American Shakespeare Center's last production of The Merchant of Venice. But here it is again, and they do a terrific job with it.

The first thing that stands out is the staging. Because the company that has taken up residence at the Blackfriars Playhouse for a couple of months has been on the road with this show for some time, the production is designed to be performed in any space. The actors spend the entire play on-stage, entering and exiting the action from benches placed around the edge of the scene. Considering that at the Blackfriars there are generally 12 audience stools on-stage as well, this makes for a crowded set. But this works, and it speeds up the play.

The next thing I noticed was Christopher Seiler as Shylock. I remember him as being very funny in other shows over the years he's been involved in the ASC, but Shylock is the most unfunny character in Shakespeare. And Seiler does a great job. Scot Carson as Antonio and Josh Carpenter as Bassanio also stand out, but really there are no weak spots in the whole play.

And a last note: The ASC is known for its music. They cast actors who can sing and play instruments not only during the show but in pre-show and interlude entertainment. Some actors are better than others when it comes to the music but in this troup there are some great ones. Chris Johnston, whom I remember well from last year, is a fantastic singer and guitar player. New to the company is Alisa Ledyard, who has a very special voice. She's trained in musical theater, and that shows.

This is an excellent production. If you haven't seen "Merchant" lately, or even if you have, check this one out.

The New Yorker: "The Lie" by T. Coraghessan Boyle

I love a story about a liar, and Lonnie is a big one. He and his wife Clover wake up after a night of drinking with friends and Lonnie just can’t bear the thought of going into work at his minor production-company job. He has no sick days or personal days left, so after he drops baby Xana off at the sitter (Lonnie and Clover are on the edge of counterculture, although Clover is studying to be a lawyer and thinks she might change her name to Cloris in order to gain some sort of respectability), he calls his boss and says it’s the baby who’s sick. Lonnie then enjoys his day off, cooks a nice meal for Clover, and feels good about himself. But the next day comes and he dreads work again, so the lie gets ratcheted up. There are complications, at work, in a bar, at home. This is all good stuff and the reader wonders how Lonnie is going to get out of the mess he’s made for himself. Coming clean is really the only way, but there is a sense that he’s let it go too far for that. And then there is a final scene, that should be the big climax, and . . . fzzzt. We end with a whimper instead of a bang. A very enjoyable story is spoiled by a wimpy ending.

After Boyle’s last story appeared in The New Yorker—I liked it less than I liked this one—I got some grief from Boyle fans. I’ll be curious to see what they think of this one.

April 14, 2008: “The Lie” by T. C. Boyle

Fun With Google

1. Cliff is the only act in the UK to score a #1 single in each of the first five decades since the inception of the UK Singles chart in 1952.
2. Cliff is a fucking idiot, period!
3. Cliff is a pure craftsman with the lens and exhibits an amazing eye to capture the perfect moment.
4. Cliff is only the way he is because he's stuck in a rut with his go-nowhere job.
5. I think Cliff is one of the most nicest and decent men there ever was. And he is one of the most handsome men before Botox or whether he uses it or not.
6. Cliff is a 2005 graduate of Tulane University where he studied Sociology and Philosophy.
7. CLIFF is in your extended network.
8. Cliff is excited about his blog and new photo album
9. Wow, I Met Cliff! Cliff Hates You All • Cliff is Furious • Cliff Does NOT Have a Drinking Problem
10. Cliff is who we want making decisions that impact on our military veterans of wars past and today’s young Americans now serving in our Armed Forces.


For your own list, type "[your name] is" in the search box of Google (or your favorite search engine) and list the first 10 sentences that make sense. Feel free to post yours here in the comments . . .

Conversation with John Casey

When I worked with John Casey at the Sewanee Writers Conference in 2006, he mentioned that he was nearly done with a sequel to Spartina; he read from the new book during the conference. I was wondering this morning when the book might be coming out and I came across this recent Conversation with John Casey. I didn't get my question answered except that he says that the book is done.

A New Record for Smallest Rejection Slip!

At least it's semi-timely. I submitted a story to this particular magazine at the end of December and it's now early April, so it only took about three and a half months to send me this rejection. And rejection is fine; I can live with it. But what I cannot tolerate and will not forget is the disrespect this magazine shows by rejecting a story with a form that measures only about 4 inches square. I've seen postage stamps bigger than this rejection slip. And they have the nerve to include the following: "We regret the form letter; we receive too many manuscripts to make private responses to each submission." Letter? These people have a very odd notion of that concept.

Do you think, by sending this absurd scrap of paper, the size of a post-it note, that they're saying, "Look, please don't send us another submission because we're not sure we could fit all these rejection words on an even smaller form." I believe I'll save them the trouble and scratch this magazine off my list.

New Issue: Ginosko Literary Journal

A new issue of Ginosko Literary Journal is available for downloading.

Dave Eggers talks about 826 Valencia

For some reason I'm not able to embed this video, but go to TED and watch Dave Eggers. Definitely worth watching.

Pulitzer Prizes Awarded

The 2008 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded today. The winners in Letters, Drama, and Music are:

FICTION
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)

DRAMA
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts

HISTORY
What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press)

BIOGRAPHY
Eden's Outcasts by John Matteson (W.W. Norton)

POETRY
Time and Materials by Robert Hass (Ecco/HarperCollins)

POETRY
Failure by Philip Schultz (Harcourt)

The Hanging Woods by Scott Loring Sanders

On the one hand, The Hanging Woods, the debut novel from Scott Loring Sanders, seems unmistakably to be in the “young-adult” genre. It is about early teen boys, and its language and situations are clearly geared for young people. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine a darker story, or a protagonist as flawed as young Walter Sithol. And that leads me to wonder what young readers think of this boy, which also leads me to doubt my initial certainty that this book is solely for teenagers. While I believe they can handle it and learn from it, I also think that the adult reader will appreciate the complexities that emerge in the three central characters and enjoy the awful story that unfolds.

Walter is a typical boy in a small Alabama town in the mid-70s. His father is tough on him and his mother is over-protective. He hangs out with Jimmy and Raymond, known as Mothball, and they swim and fish and hang out together and occasionally get on each others’ nerves. Walter carries a secret, though, and it may mildly annoy the reader that he refers to having seen his mother’s diary without disclosing to the reader what he has read there. In any case, for various reasons tension builds between Walter and the other boys. Sanders renders these three boys with care, so that they are utterly distinct: Jimmy, the ringleader and troublemaker; Mothball, the chubby one, afraid of everything; and Walter, the smart one, the one who seems to have a firmer sense of right and wrong.

Then there is “the Troll,” a Vietnam veteran who lives under a bridge and becomes both a legend and a mystery to the boys, a town oddity for them to taunt and an easy scapegoat when things go wrong. The more the Troll is revealed in this story, the more the whole book seems to be following the model of To Kill a Mockingbird. The three kids in some ways even resemble Scout, Jem, and Dill; the Troll seems very much like Boo Radley; and eventually there is even a trial scene that echoes the one in the Harper Lee classic. There’s nothing wrong with imitating a masterpiece, but what’s ingenious here is that just at the point where the reader is convinced that Mockingbird is the template, Sanders has young Walter read that novel and learn from it. And it is from that point on that The Hanging Woods diverges and becomes its own terrifying story.

It is, I think, risky to place a boy such as Walter at the center of a novel, particularly one aimed at young people. And yet, the author trusts the reader of any age to see Walter’s flaws, and to keep reading despite them. It’s a gamble that pays off.

This is a very good read. Highly recommended.

Levis Prize Reading: Joshua Weiner

Blackbird has posted the Levis Prize Reading by Joshua Weiner.

Book Festival Podcasts

Check out the audio programs available from the just-completed Virginia Festival of the Book. (The list of podcasts is in the right sidebar on the website.)

The New Yorker: "The House Behind a Weeping Cherry" by Ha Jin

Until its monumentally weak ending, this is a terrific story. But the sappy, let’s-run-away-together ending completely undermines what makes the rest of the story outstanding. Wanren is a Chinese immigrant who is working as a presser in a New York garment sweatshop. He is miserable and lonely. He lives in the house behind a weeping cherry (which is the image that gives the story so much promise) and in order to save money on rent allows himself to be pressed into service driving the young women who live in the house to occasional appointments. They are prostitutes, but they are the “good” kind – they’re clean, don’t seem to be involved in drugs or alcohol. In other words, not quite believable. Wanren becomes attached to one of the girls, and she seems willing to leave the sex business for him (he is a nice guy and a hard worker, although what he has to offer is so paltry it is hard to see why she’s interested). The complication is, she needs $18,000 to pay back the gangster who smuggled her into the country. Aha, I thought, this is interesting. Wanren is going to come up with the money and she’s going to swindle him and he’s going to learn a hard lesson about trusting people in America. But no. The two of them go to the gangster and ask to have the payments reduced. Aha, I thought, one of them is going to be roughed up by the gangster and the other one is going to run out on him/her. But no. In the end, Wanren and the girl decide to skip town. They pull their money out of the bank (one last hope for that swindle!), pack a bag (she can still change her mind!), and off they go, “arm in arm, without looking back.” Without looking back? Give me a break. Could you be any more trite? Ha Jin – you’re way better than this. The only justification I can think of for this story is that the editors were desperate for a story about a hooker in light of the Spitzer scandal and this the best they could do on short notice. Not a good enough reason.

April 7, 2008: “The House Behind a Weeping Cherry” by Ha Jin

New Issue: The Short Review

The April issue of The Short Review is up. Read all about recent short story collections . . .

Play Ball?

The only thing more boring than baseball, in my opinion, is literature about baseball. I'm sure not everyone shares that opinion, however, so for those folks here is Hobart's Annual Baseball Issue.