Stories We Love: "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver
by Douglas Trevor
“‘A Small, Good Thing’ is much bigger than it should be”: Douglas Trevor examines the expansiveness of short fiction in this Shop Talk essay.
“‘A Small, Good Thing’ is much bigger than it should be”: Douglas Trevor examines the expansiveness of short fiction in this Shop Talk essay.
Acclaimed fiction writer Rick Moody speaks with debut author Jonathan Callahan, author of The Consummation of Dirk, which won the 8th Starcherone Prize for Innovative Fiction, about “conventional” writing, accomplishing something that makes one “feel worthy to be alive,” and influences, among other things. They have never met.
Slice magazine co-founders and co-publishers Maria Gagliano and Celia Blue Johnson discuss the highs of running their literary magazine, the origin of its name, what’s new at the magazine, and what’s to come.
“Raised on Southern manners, I thrill at the way Gilchrist foxtrots through tea-sipping customs while exposing all manner of prejudice through her narrator, ten-year-old Rhoda, who absorbs the language of the adults around her and then spits it back at them indiscriminately”: Rebecca Scherm explores the power of child narrators through Ellen Gilchrist’s story “Revenge.”
On a recent trip out of New York, headed home to Seattle, where my wife and I share a house and also where much of my writing is done, I found myself on the jet-way leading from the terminal to the airplane. The passengers were backed up single-file along the tunnel, not in any uniform way, but in that impatient, lean to the right then lean to the left then look down the row toward where they should have been five minutes before kind of way. It’s intimate in a way only elevators are intimate. Everyone so close you can […]
Nick Ostdick talks with Katey Schultz about her debut collection, Flashes of War, the choice of flash fiction as a form, and what makes a story worth telling.
“Somewhere by the second page, I realized my early questions hardly mattered. Something marvelous and magical had begun to unspool across the page and hang-ups about structure or how much autobiography a reader could assume were wholly irrelevant”: Lee Thomas on the rules Steven Millhauser’s “A Voice in the Night” defies.
This week’s feature is Ethan Rutherford’s debut collection, The Peripatetic Coffin, which was published earlier this month by Ecco. Ethan Rutherford was born in Seattle, and now lives in the Midwest. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, New York Tyrant, Esopus, Five Chapters, and The Best American Short Stories. He received his MFA from the University of Minnesota, and has taught creative writing at Macalester College, the University of Minnesota, and the Loft Literary Center. He is the guitarist for the band Pennyroyal. He is currently at work on a novel set […]
Last week’s feature was Sarah Gerkensmeyer’s debut collection, What You Are Now Enjoying, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Carabella Sands (@CarabellaSands) Mary Weber (@mchristineweber) E.B. Wilkes (@WilkesPoetry) Congrats! To claim your free copy, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!
