To support the good work that this non-profit does, you can donate to the organization, of course. But another way that you can get behind Dzanc Books is by, well, buying their books. And this is the time to do it! From now until Friday, July 9th Dzanc is offering half-off their books, as well as free shipping.

Here are some highlights from our reviews of selected Dzanc titles, as well  as excerpts from interviews with several Dzanc authors that we’ve published:

• From her review of Laura van den Berg’s collection What the World will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, contributor Liana Imam writes:

“Laura van den Berg’s collection was one of only two books last year that made me cry (the other being Lorrie Moore’s new novel).The stories here are chasing the tails of the same legends as their characters: Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, contentment. And these stories were saddest because these characters always almost had what they wanted; but for whatever reason, they just couldn’t reach out for it.”

• In response to a question from contributor Michael Hinken about why he is drawn to short short fiction, Michael Czyzniejewski, author of Elephants in Our Bedroom, says the following in his interview:

“I admire the craftsmanship, the sort of concentration and paring-down that goes into writing a short short. To me, it’s a fusion of poetry and fiction, and so you can do things in a short short that you can’t really accomplish in a traditional-length story. The story arc is more simple, and you can pay attention to language and detail in a more focused way. If the story were longer, say twenty pages as opposed to two, nobody could maintain that focus on detail and language for that duration without going crazy.  Imagine a punk rock song being seven and a half minutes instead of two minutes.”

• In her conversation with Allison Amend, author of the collection Things That Pass for Love, Contributing Editor Celeste Ng asks if  Amend knows where her stories are headed when she sits down to write. Here is her reply:

“My stories hook or take odd bounces. I’m not a prolific writer. I think I write the story in my head before I sit down at the computer. That said, my first drafts are very messy. Please don’t publish anything of mine posthumously without serious revision. My similes are appallingly bad. Usually I start the story in the wrong place, include too many scenes, and need to cut the last paragraph, which overexplains.”

• Contributor Brian Short concludes his review of  Yannick Murphy’s collection In a Bear’s Eye with the following:

“Yannick Murphy is a re-creation of the Wright brothers’ Kitty Hawk plane. Picture a simple design: a winged frame, a motor, a crude seat, a finned tail. It was not built with trans-continental flights or structural aesthetics in mind. Its purpose becomes clear once you are in the air, with the wind pushing against your face, the dunes and scrub far beneath you, an ocean of froth-tipped waves in the distance. Suspended high above the ground, you find yourself shocked at how few pieces of machinery conspire to hold you aloft, at how much you suddenly regret having to descend through the air and—finally, eventually—return to earth.”

• And here is the opening of contributor Michael Rudin’s forthcoming review of Hesh Kestin’s novel The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats:

“Prior to writing his novel The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats, Hesh Kestin mastered all things non-fiction, serving as European bureau chief of Forbes and war reporter for Newsday before founding two newspapers himself—the Israeli daily The Nation, as well as the prize-winning expatriate, The American. A career crafting leads and managing word counts has shaped Kestin’s fiction in a distinct way: though written richly, it never wastes a cent.”

We hope you’ll support Dzanc Books and the good work they do. Hell, it might be your work they’re publishing one day. If not between covers, then perhaps in their annual Best of the Web anthology. The 2010 volume just released last week, and we’re thrilled that Christine Hartzler’s essay “Video Games Are Not About Monsters,” which FWR published last year, was selected for the current anthology. If that’s not incentive enough, think of this: where else can you get two books for less than twenty bucks and still have enough left over for a latte? That’s a good deal.

GLIMMER TRAIN SHORT STORY AWARD for NEW WRITERS Deadline: February 28 Prizes: 1st place wins $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 10 copies. 2nd-place: $500 and possible publication. 3rd-place: $300 and possible publication. Results post on April 30. Winning story will be published in Issue 79. Other considerations: Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000. (Entries, of course, must not have appeared in any print publication.) Please, no longer than 12,000 words. Any shorter lengths are welcome. Reading fee is $15 per story.

We look forward to reading your work! Editors Glimmer Train Stories, represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize, O. Henry, New Stories from the South, New Stories from the Midwest, and Best American Short Stories anthologies.

from The Gopher Illustrated website

Folio: Winter 2010

Folio, a nationally recognized literary journal published out of Washington, D.C., is looking for well-crafted poetry and prose for its Spring 2010 issue. Past issues of Folio have included work by Michael Reid Busk, Billy Collins, William Stafford, and Bruce Weigl, and interviews with Michael Cunningham, Charles Baxter, Amy Bloom, Ann Beattie, and, most recently, Walter Kirn. Submit three to five poems or prose pieces up to 5,000 words. Submissions must be mailed with a brief bio and SASE by March 5. For more information, please visit Folio.

The deadline is fast approaching for The Pinch Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry, sponsored by the MFA Program and the Hohenberg Foundation at The University of Memphis.  Fiction Prize $1,500, Poetry Prize $1,000, plus publication in The Pinch.  Entries must be postmarked by March 15th.  The $20 entry fee includes a one-year subscription.  For more information visit our website at www.thepinchjournal.com.  (For more information on the MFA program at The University of Memphis, visit www.mfainmemphis.com.)

This from the Dzanc press release: “Keyhole has an impressive list of writers including William Walsh, Stephanie Johnson, Shellie Zacharia, and has forthcoming work scheduled from Aaron Burch and Matt Bell, and also publishes the wonderful Keyhole Magazine, a fantastic literary journal.  Furthermore, Keyhole is developing a strong presence in the Nashville literary scene.  Dzanc is excited to formalize our relationship with Keyhole and looks forward to doing many wonderful things with Keyhole in the future.”

Last month, Dzanc also brought the literary journal Absinthe: New European Writing into the fold. Absinthe is a twice-yearly print journal that features contemporary European fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, book reviews, and art. And with the addition of these two new publications, Dzanc has renewed its commitment to finding and furthering the work of new, unique writers, particularly those authors who don’t always find a home in mainstream publishing.

Yet despite their interest in writing that sometimes gets overlooked, their authors have certainly been getting noticed recently. Michael Czyzniejewski and Roy Kesey were both recipients of NEA Awards this year, and Laura van den Berg’s collection What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us was selected as part of Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program last fall.

Here at FWR, we’re big fans of Dzanc authors. Last year we featured an interview with Allison Amend, and we’ve also published reviews of Matt Bell’s The Collectors, Daniel Chacon’s Unending Rooms, Yannick Murphy’s In a Bear’s Eye, and The Best of the Web 2009.

But what many people don’t know about Dzanc is that they are a non-profit organization. In addition to publishing, they also develop educational curriculum in schools and organize outreach program in local communities. And, like most non-profits, the extent of the work they can do is determined in large part by charitable gift giving. So if you would like to help support the work that this great organization does on behalf of writing and literacy, please visit their support page.

In addition, all tax-deductible donations made between now and January 31st, 2010, will go twice as far for Dzanc and their educational programming because a recent donor has pledged to match each contribution, up to $10,000.  And if that weren’t incentive enough, you can receive a copy of Dzanc’s Short Story Month Essays collection for any donation greater than $10.

Benjamin Percy, author of The Language of Elk and Refresh, Refresh. Photo Credit: Jennifer May

New York readers, ring in the New Year with a month of Monday readings to celebrate The Paris Review’s iconic interview series. Starting this Monday, January 4th, the Barnes and Noble flagship store at 86th and Lexington, in New York City, will host a month-long series of interviews showcasing authors, artists, and editors discussing writers, writing, and the writing life. The first event will feature Benjamin Percy–one of our favorite authors here at FWR–who will be interviewing Carol Sklenicka about her recent biography of Raymond Carver.

Here is the schedule of the events:

Monday, January 4th at 7:00pm:
Benjamin Percy, 2007 recipient of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize and author of Refresh, Refresh will interview Carol Sklenicka, author of the recent Raymond Carver biography, A Writer’s Life.

Monday, January 11th at 7:00pm:
Philip Gourevitch, Editor of The Paris Review and author of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib will interview Richard Price, author of Lush Life and Clockers, among other classics of American urban fiction.

Monday, January 18th at 7:00pm:
Frank Rich, Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times will interview America’s premiere composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim.

Monday, January 25th at 7:00pm:
Nathaniel Rich, Senior Editor of The Paris Review and author of The Mayor’s Tongue, will interview Paul Auster, author of, most recently, Invisible.

Order Your Copy of Volume IV of The Paris Review Interviews

I just wanted you all know that as of spring 2010 after forty-five years TriQuarterly magazine will cease to exist. Susan Hahn and myself were notified of this fact yesterday just hours before the press release announcing the decision was sent out.

After terminating TriQuarterly’s print operation and our editorial positions next April, Northwestern University will be giving the name TriQuarterly to an online “open source” student-run journal in the university’s department of continuing studies. While this decision was made without our prior knowledge and without our input, we had been approached at one point about turning the journal into an online entity, and we suggested at the time that we did not believe that TriQuarterly as we have known it would survive, much less thrive, in that format.

TriQuarterly is one of the most acclaimed literary journals out there–it printed early work by many now-famous writers, including Amy Hempel’s first published short story, the masterpiece “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried”–so this is heartbreaking. And on a personal note, TriQuarterly was the first journal to accept a story of mine–I still remember the disbelief and delight I felt when its editor, Susan Hahn called me to deliver the news. So I’m shocked that it’s ending, and that it’s ending this way. I understand that times are tough, and that universities everywhere are cutting back. And I’m all for student-run publications, but to change the format and content so drastically and still give the journal the name “TriQuarterly” seems downright disingenuous. It sounds like this decision wasn’t handled gracefully or considerately, and it’s a shame that Associate Editor Ian Morris, Editor Susan Hahn, and such an excellent journal were treated in this way.

Via The Practicing Writer. Thanks, Erika, for letting us know about this.

Now the Huffington Post is starting–drumroll please!–a book section. Last Tuesday the New York Observer announced that HuffPo’s new book section would launch October 5th under the editorship of Amy Hertz, an editor-at-large for Penguin’s Dutton division. Even more intriguing, Arianna Huffington is also starting a book club, Oprah-style, selecting the titles herself.

The fact that HuffPo–a highly respected and heavily trafficked site–is devoting time, space, and attention to BOOKS is simply phenomenal! In the current economic climate, we’ve seen more and more independent bookstores close and newspapers slash book sections–or cut them entirely. Readers, do you think the Huffington Post’s new book section will help get people jazzed about books again? We’ll continue to cover updates on this exciting new bookspace, an opportunity for convergence of media new and old. Check it out for yourself on October 5th.

The PEN/Faulkner finalists were: Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, A Person of Interest by Susan Choi, Lush Life by Richard Price (see FWR’s discussion review), and Serena by Ron Rash.

All around the country, thousands of young fiction writers are scribbling furiously, focusing their creative and psychological energies on producing and publishing short stories, not necessarily because the short story is their favorite form. But, rather, because it’s the form best suited to the workshop, because they think it’s the easiest way to get published, because it’s what everyone else is doing. All the while, the literary magazines these young fiction writers hope to publish their stories in are supported largely by their own tuition, subscription, and contest entry dollars. It doesn’t take John Maynard Keynes to see that this is not a sustainable market. As long as MFA programs continue to grow, as long as short story writers are willing to pay $25 to submit to a contest, this closed feedback loop will continue growing. But, as a lover of the short story, I fear for the day when the bubble bursts. The global economy may not collapse, but I won’t be surprised if a few literary magazines do.

From the Guardian:

This intimate detail is contained in a long profile of McEwan published in next week’s issue of the New Yorker. Written by an editor at the magazine, Daniel Zalewski, it explores McEwan’s growing commitment to science and rationality as a factor, alongside the Rushdie affair, behind the controversy over Islamic fundamentalism in which he later became embroiled.

The Cotswold encounter came days after the fatwa was issued, when Rushdie was at the start of many years of internal exile. “I’ll never forget – the next morning we got up early,” McEwan tells the New Yorker. “He had to move on. Terrible time for him. We stood at the kitchen counter making toast and coffee, listening to the eight o’clock BBC news. He was standing right by my side and he was the lead item on the news. Hezbollah had put its sagacity and weight behind the project to kill him.”

It’s chilling how many writers’ lives have been–and still are–threatened by religious or political extremists. Xu Lai, a notable novelist, reporter, and blogger known for his “satirical Internet postings” was stabbed on Saturday at a reading in Beijing. Doctors say he’ll survive, but Bullog, the liberal website that sponsored his blog (ProState in Flames), was shut down by the government last month.