Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘short stories’

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Thursday morning candy: The Nashville Review

by Lee Thomas

The third issue of The Nashville Review – an online celebration of storytelling out of Vanderbilt University – is live, and it’s a doozy. You can read copious amounts of fiction, listen to musical/poetic mashups between the likes of composer Andrew Bird and poet Galway Kinnell (I always like a little music and poetry as a foil to fiction), straight-up poems, interviews, comics, experimental dance. I feel like here is where one of those Batman & Robin “Kabow!” graphics should just obliterate this blog post. The NR’s mission is also the kind of benevolent, gather round the campfire and tell […]


Interviews |

Interesting Characters: An Interview with Brad Watson

Watson was born and raised in Meridian, Mississippi. And the Mississippi of today, and of the not-too-distant past, is the setting of much of his fiction. In Airships, Barry Hannah wrote that “In Mississippi, it’s hard to achieve a vista,” but Brad Watson does just that in this new collection. Not only is there a breathtaking sense of the Gulf Coast and the Delta in his writing, that geography is given depth—a hardscrabble social landscape inseparable from the place itself.


Reviews |

Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, by Brad Watson

There are no zombies or vampires in Brad Watson’s new collection, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives (W.W. Norton, 2010), but there are plenty of folks who act like they’re either dead or from another planet. And, yes, many of Watson’s characters are “aliens”—not green creatures with large heads, but alienated, isolated. They are people who wander through life without an anchor, who don’t feel the pull of gravity.


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1,000 Words Are Worth a Picture

by Celeste Ng

Here’s something I hope becomes a trend: illustrated short stories. The Creative Company produces illustrated versions of classic short stories, each bound as its own beautiful mini-book. With titles that recall 11th-grade English, like Frank Stockton’s “The Lady or the Tiger,” Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” these books are geared towards in-school use. Writes The School Library Journal: Each book contains the story itself with various sections written in different colored fonts. Then there is a series of thoughts on the story, and finally a biography of […]


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Calling all Bostonians

by Lee Thomas

As a quick follow-up to the One City One Story post last week, we wanted to let you know where you can get your hands on a copy of Tom Perrotta’s “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face,” courtesy of the Boston Book Festival. They write: Starting Monday September 27th the story will be available at all Boston Public Library branches, several cafes and bookstores from Charlestown to Rozzie and farmers markets from Dewey Square to Mattapan. You can also grab a copy from one of our fabulous volunteers at select T-stops from 7am – 9am September 27th – October 1st. […]


Interviews |

Some Supernatural Source of Primal Energy: An Interview with Benjamin Percy

by Shawn Andrew Mitchell

Graywolf published Benjamin Percy’s much-anticipated debut novel The Wilding earlier this week. Shawn Mitchell talks with the acclaimed story writer about making the transition between the short and long forms, his apprenticeship to the craft of story, the obsessions that drive his work, and how he manages to balance his fiction and family life with teaching, traveling on assignment for magazines like Outside and The Wall Street Journal, and contributing regularly to publications like Esquire, Men’s Journal, and Poets & Writers.


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One City, One … Story?

by Lee Thomas

Many of us probably live in a city that’s participated in some version of “One City, One Book,” which is a great way to spark a conversation between strangers. This year the Boston Book Festival opted for One City, One Story. The BBF chose local legend Tom Perrotta‘s “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face” as the tale to get people talking. On September 30th they’ll be giving away 30,000 bound copies of the story at locations around the city. You’ll also be able to download a PDF of the story on the BBF website. Added bonus: on October 16 Tom […]


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Tomorrow! Free stories on the NYC subway!

by Celeste Ng

In one of the coolest promotions ever, One Story will be handing out free issues—each containing a complete short story—tomorrow at Brooklyn subway stations. Says the magazine’s blog: From 7:30-9 am on Wednesday, September 8th, volunteers will be handing out free copies of One Story at subway stations throughout Brooklyn, as part of the “One Story, One Borough” campaign, in our ongoing effort to save the short story. Each issue will include an invite to a One Story reading by Brooklyn OS authors James Hannaham, Reif Larsen and Caedra Scott-Flaherty at noon at The Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, September […]


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Five Chapters to publish print books

by Celeste Ng

Most of the news lately is about print publishers moving to electronic publishing. So it’s refreshing to hear about the opposite: short story website Five Chapters will soon begin publishing print books. In January 2011, Five Chapters will publish three short story collections by Five Chapters alums: Nobody Ever Gets Lost by Jess Row, Other People We Married by Emma Straub, and “an anthology of stories which have been published on FC over the last four years.” Five Chapters founder David Daley shared the news with Mediabistro’s Morning Media Menu. Click here to listen to the interview with Daley, and […]


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Sunil Yapa wins Hyphen/AAWW Short Story Contest

by Celeste Ng

Hyphen Magazine and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop have named Sunil Yapa as the winner of their 2010 short story contest. From the announcement: Hyphen and The Asian American Writers’ Workshop have selected the 2010 Asian American Short Story Contest winner, Sunil Yapa, who penned “Pilgrims (What is Lost and You Cannot Regain)”, a poignant story of anguish and reconciliation. Yapa is a recent graduate from the MFA program at Hunter College in New York City. His work has appeared in Pindeldyboz: Stories that Defy Classification and The Multicultural Review, and he has received scholarships to the New York State […]




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