Category: Short Stories

  • Politics at Tin House

    Tin House is putting together another interesting issue for this coming fall.  If you’ve got stories involving political trends, you might try them out there: Fall, 2008, the Tin House Political Issue We are now reading for forward-looking political writing. Emphasis on forward-thinking, projections of trends and counter trends (no utopias or dystopias). With nonfiction,…

  • Knockemstiff

    I just read Donald Ray Pollock’s debut story collection, Knockemstiff, which takes place in rural southern Ohio, in a town of the same name as the book. The stories are dark, deadly, and mythic depictions of something more than what you’d even call small town Ohio, a sort of gothic revision of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg,…

  • Wow (now with links)

    It has been brought to my attention that my novelette “The Language of Moths” has been honored with a Spectrum Award (in a three-way tie) in the category of short fiction. I’m surprised that people are still reading that story, but also really happy. At some point in the near-ish future, “The Language of Moths”…

  • Your favorite collections

    In a recent post on short stories, one my local booksellers (hi, Amy!) said her store would put up an end-cap display of collections, and would take suggestions for which collections could be interesting. So I’ve decided to ask here, where many of the people who visit this journal are readers and writers of short…

  • What’s the story?

    Laura Miller is one of my favorite reviewers of fiction.  Her reviews consistently show evidence of a reader engaged in an enthusiastic, thoughtful relationship with whatever she’s reading, even those books that don’t pass muster with her.  Earlier tonight I came across a review she’s written of Connie Willis’ most recent collection of short stories,…

  • Datlow’s issue of Subterranean

    I’m reading the Ellen Datlow edited issue of Subterranean lately, and am having a really good time. The magazine could easily be the core of an awesome horror anthology, which is of course one of Ellen Datlow’s specialities, so it’s no surprise to find exciting, well-written and disturbing stories in this issue. Here’s the lowdown…

  • Light

    If you haven’t read the new Kelly Link story that’s in the new issue of Tin House, you should read it now.  I think it’s totally different than anything she’s written before, and it’s really awesome.  It’s a little long to read online, but I couldn’t pull myself away from it.  If the computer is…

  • Yatterings Interview

    An interview I recently did with Iain over at Yatterings has been posted today. He asked some really cool questions about the novel, process, interstitiality, influences, and short stories. Hope it’s interesting if you pop over there and read. Hope you have a good Sunday. I’m all about taking it easy today and pretending like…

  • Dead Boy Found

    A few people have written me in recent days, wondering about the short story that eventually became my first novel, One for Sorrow, I’ve posted the story under a Creative Commons license on this website for the curious.  The story originally appeared in Kelly Link’s Trampoline, which is still one of my favorite anthologies to…