GRANTA: Fathers issue (note: not the same as “father issues”)
So a month or so ago I was at a holiday party at Melville House, and ran into John Freeman, who up until recently was President of the National Book Critics Circle. (Read this nifty profile of John, “Book Review Crusader,” by the poet Craig Morgan Teicher, at PW.) John’s new gig is serving as the American editor for GRANTA, and he was kind enough to hook me up with a copy of their newest issue, #104: Fathers.
If I’ve been slow to post on this, it’s because I’ve actually been spending time with the issue. GRANTAs, as you might or might not know, are hefty novel-size paperbacks, stuffed with a wide variety of takes on the given issue’s theme. Since I’m an unapologetic fiction partisan, it has been especially interesting to me how strongly and positively I’ve reacted to the non-fiction in the issue. Here are four of the essays I especially liked:
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January 15th, 2009 / 11:36 am
January 15th, 2009 / 11:36 am
Mary Miller
As a subscriber to Hobart, I recieved a litte gift package, which included matches (thanks, I have yet to open up that box of nicotine patches I bought in September), a cute little coaster, and a “special sneak-peek chap for subscribers” of Big World by Mary Miller. Big World will be out this year by Hobart’s Book Division, Short Flight/Long Drive Books. The mini-chapbook has two stories in it: “Fast Trains” and “Even The Interstate Is Pretty“. The stories are very good. Very, very good. They also happen to be very much to my taste, as well as what I often try to do as a writer. After reading them, I went online and read most everything I could find of hers there. I loved her flash works on Storyglossia, which you can read here, or here.
Ben Greenman’s Holocaust Memoir
Dear Ms. Winfrey:
I am a great admirer of your show, and, while I do not watch every day, when I do watch I am always touched in or near my heart. Recently, I was watching “Best Life Week,” in which your guests discussed the challenges that they have overcome, and it occurred to me that the events of my early life, which are the subject of an upcoming book I have just completed, might be perfect for a future episode. I do not expect you to read the entire book, but I wanted to take a moment to review some of the highlights—though “highlights” is a crass, commercial word for such a wrenching memoir.
I was born in Chicago in 1969. Shortly afterward, in 1941, my entire family was rounded up by the authorities and sent to the Theresienstadt camp, along with tens of thousands of other Jews, who hailed principally from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany. [Keep reading]
Hobart back issue special
what aaron burch's office would look like if it were the womens 1500m at the 2005 prefontaine classic
Aaron Burch has announced a back issue special over at the Hobart blog. Here’s what he has to say:
We have way too many back issues in our “office” — piling up, getting in the way, making it hard to move much less find anything. That said, we aren’t very good at knowing what incentives would make these back issues more enticing. So, until we figure something better out, here are two options:
1) Subscribe and we will send you any back issues you want.
2) Send us as much money as you think is fair and tell us which back issues you might want.
Available are issues:
3 (no link with more info!), 5 (travel), 6, 7 (art), and 8.
So yeah, that sounds like an excellent deal to me, one I would have taken advantage of if I hadn’t already had sitting on my shelf issues 3-9.
(thanks to Matt Bell for the tip)
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January 14th, 2009 / 1:29 am
January 14th, 2009 / 1:29 am
flatmanCrooked announces announcement, and other announcements INCLUDING SPECIAL RECESSION SALE
Okay, for those of you short on time and eager to spend some cash, first the bad news: You can only spend half as much cash as you’d hoped to, unless you buy two copies of fmC #1, because dudes are having a RECESSION SALE and slashed the price of copies of their 1,500 copy-limited, first edition run by 50%. They also said there would be a new fmC website up and running sometime in the next few days. So why don’t you go over to the site, buy a couple copies of the issue–which features new work by Ha Jin, as well as a Jorge Luis Borges story that is otherwise unavailable in English—and take a look at the old site before it is replaced by something several orders higher on the awesome scale.
Also, stay tuned for our long overdue and only maybe still forthcoming review of their first issue. They sent it to us and we loved it, then totally fucking flaked on telling you about it, because we were all too busy either blogging about Tao, picking fights with people who blogged about Tao, or checking out pr’s goods. So we’re still trying to get to that, but what I’m saying is that the world moves on, and you really shouldn’t wait on us. In fact, if you buy the magazine and have trenchant analysis to offer, email your remarks to me and I’ll post them here.
Full text of Editor Kaelan’s press release/facebook post after the jump.
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January 13th, 2009 / 8:51 pm
January 13th, 2009 / 8:51 pm
Sidebrow Anthology: 2nd post/help
I posted about Sidebrow‘s Anthology before, but I thought I’d help them w/ some details. Here, culled from my inbox:
[…] Does anyone have a reviewer they would recommend as a good fit for reviewing the anthology […] Also, any thoughts on potential outlets for reviews would also be appreciated […]
[…] If anyone is interested or knows of anyone who might be interested in including the anthology in MFA coursework, let us know and we can make an examination copy available to them […]
[…] The anthology is now available on Amazon (http://tinyurl.com/93ur6t) and Powell’s […]
[…] If there are bookstores in your area [Domestic/US] that you feel would be a good fit for Sidebrow, we would appreciate your sending those along […]
I received a copy and was thrilled by their ‘creative editing’ — not on the pieces themselves, but the way particular content in the pieces were indexed to create a ‘streaming’ collaborative narrative. It’s hard to explain, just trust me when I say it was very original, impressive, and conceptually comprehensive.
Just leave your ‘answers’ as comments, and they will be checking in. Thanks.
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January 13th, 2009 / 6:38 pm
January 13th, 2009 / 6:38 pm
ALLEVIATE CHRIS KILLEN’S ANXIETY
here is the man who, according to amazon reviewers, wrote a "dismal effort" that "an eight year old" could have "done better and more interesting"
chris killen is giving away copies of THE BIRD ROOM. visit this post to see the details for the giveaway. i have read THE BIRD ROOM. it is worth paying for so getting it for free, inferentially, is better. i used to really like THE BIRD ROOM but then i read some reviews of it on amazon about how it is maybe not that good. now i am confused.
Abjective: A Review
I had to look up the definition of Abjective, which means — yes all you smartypants I know you already know — (adj.) tending to degrade, humiliate, or demoralize (sounds like my first hernia). Editor Darby Larson, who is not a stranger to getting work published, has started Abjective, which posts a new piece every Saturday.
I write about Abjective, and not another journal, because Larson seems intent on doing something ‘new,’ two particular cases in point being Drifter by Jeff Crouch and ……and This Is About All I Knew Do Say…..by Zachary Bush.
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January 13th, 2009 / 2:35 pm
January 13th, 2009 / 2:35 pm
Deb Olin Unferth has a Daytrotter Session!!!!!
Okay, so this news is almost a month old, but I only just discovered it ten minutes ago. (Now overnight plus ten minutes, since I’m going to post this tomorrow.) ANYWAY. The point is that Deb Olin Unferth is badass, and so is Daytrotter.com, so the fact that they got together (apparently on 12/14/08) is just super exciting.
Reading Resolutions at TQC
first google images return for 'argh'
Hi everyone. Scott Esposito is doing a series of Reading Resolutions for 2009 over at The Quarterly Conversation, and my post is now up.
I’ve deviated a little from my list: I reread Notes from the Underground right after Christmas and am now into part four of The Idiot. I cannot believe I read that in high school.
Anyone have any reading lists they want to share?
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January 13th, 2009 / 10:28 am
January 13th, 2009 / 10:28 am