Feature Essay: Reading John Cheever’s “The Swimmer”
Reading John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” by Charles May may-on-the-short-story.blogspot.com Two of John Cheever’s best known early stories, “Torch Song” and “The Enormous Radio,” are outright fantasies. Later stories, such as “O Youth and Beauty” and “The Country Husband,” are more realistic treatments of middle-aged men trying to hold on to youth and some meaningful place in […]
Review: Bookmarked: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five
Bookmarked: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five By Curtis Smith The Bookmarked series is a new line of books from IG Publishing in which lesser-known authors meditate on the impact that various works of literature by better-known authors have had an impact on their lives. Tackling Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five in the second volume of the series, Curtis Smith […]
Poetry: Serpentine Loop by Elee Kraljii Gardiner
Oh, Vancouver by Elee Kraljii Gardiner The city is one big in-law suite, Crowded by natural beauty, and lonely. My friend feels bad about being depressed. A woman I met sends me one line: I’m lonely. Statuesque, articulate, she is the city, yet also the forest bruised by developments. Hear us tapping on the stucco […]
Excerpt: The Battle for Guiniloupay Through the Ages of Guiniloupay, Book One by Joseph Brown
About the Book: Long ago, the guinea pig race lived together in a city on the coast. But when a storm came from the sea, that way of life ended. Now a nomadic culture, they’ve become experts at finding the best places to live, gather, and thrive. They follow their curiosity to find new lands […]
Excerpt: Tin Man by Tom Lisowki
veryshortfiction.com Featured in June/July 2016 Issue: Short Stories Caught myself thinking life was not so bad. I’m sitting on a plane wearing silk shorts instead of pants. I have a tinfoil helmet on, with the eyes cut out. Some green slippers from Bali. None of this is illegal. Either that, or no one in the […]
Excerpt: Man and Wife by Katie Chase
About the Book: This bracing, intelligent debut tackles the strangeness of growing up, the joys and difficulties of breaking away from family, and our sometime absurd or downright dangerous rites of passage. The girls and women in these stories come up against the rules and roles that give shape to their worlds. As marriages are […]
Interview: Amy Gustine Author of You Should Pity Us Instead
Sarabande Books http://sarabandebooks.org Buzzfeedcalled You Should Pity Us Instead one of the “most exciting new books of 2016.” We totally concur. Shelf Unbound: These stories are intense and gut-wrenching, frequently looking at failed familial love. What interests you in writing about this subject? Amy Gustine: Maybe I’m not a romantic by nature. I have never […]
Interview: Callan Wink Author of Dog Run Moon: Short Stories
Random House http://penguinrandomhouse.com Following in the steps of Richard Ford and Annie Proulx, Wink is the American West’s newest star storyteller. Shelf Unbound: The title story, “Dog Run Moon,” was published by the New Yorker when you were at the University of Wyoming working on your MFA. Did this early accolade make you more serious […]
Interview: Tara Ison Author of Ball Stories
Soft Skull Press http://softskull.com “Tara Ison’s stories locate the pleasure in pain, the victory in betrayal, the beauty in depravity—they walk the line between love and debasement.” —Sarah Gerard, author of Binary Star Shelf Unbound: What’s the starting point for your stories, such as the title story in which a woman sets strict emotional boundaries […]