Light the Dark, edited by Joe Fassler Penguin Books, 2017 A collection of craft essays from a series in The Atlantic, this is a book to treasure, one to read again and again. The online series, called “By Heart,” is curated…
Invasive Species: a species that is non-native to an ecosystem and that is likely to cause harm to native species. The creature had been spotted again, and this time, accounts came from two unrelated individuals. The sightings had taken place…
Another AWP has come and gone. This time we got palm trees, warmer weather for many, and late arrivals from the New York crowd, as a Nor’easter hit just as planes were scheduled to leave. Some committed New York writers…
Here’s a quick look at some of the great books out this week. Happy pub day to all! Alan Hollinghurst, The Sparsholt Affair Knopf From The Guardian: “Alan Hollinghurst’s sixth novel, The Sparsholt Affair, opens in Oxford during the second…
If you’re heading to AWP, please stop by and say hello! We’ll be at Table 1219, along with drDOCTOR and Triangle House. Are you staring at that AWP schedule, not sure where to begin? Quite a few of our authors…
Here’s a quick look at some of the great books out this week. Happy pub day to all! Ramona Ausubel, Awayland Riverhead From Kirkus Reviews: “Eleven stories laced with humorous developments, mythic tendencies, and magical realist premises. Ausubel (Sons…
The start to a story is so important. It’s what draws the reader in, it’s what sets the stage for everything to come. When we read stories (and especially when we read submissions!), an arresting first line can capture our…
The 2017/2018 winner of The Story Prize is Elizabeth Strout, for her collection Anything is Possible. The other top two finalists were Daniel Alarcón for The King Is Always Above the People and Ottessa Moshfegh for Homesick for Another World. In addition, Lee…
When it comes to doing research for a novel or story, the resources are endless. We typically turn first to non-fiction sources, writers documenting the history of the time. Often, though, these accounts are written after-the-fact as the historian makes…
I got laid off from the realty company, and then the foreclosure followed hard. Reya absorbed the shocks better than me. She was still working, managing the liquor store. She was the one who found us a new place to…
I’m currently working on a book of horror stories called Vampire Radio. Horror was where I started out in childhood, listening to Alfred Hitchcock anthologies on the turntable with giant headphones at my local library in Wisconsin, devouring Poe and Kafka in the high school library, and watching Twin Peaks with my mom. Horror suits reactionary eras, like the 1980s, when I grew up, and I think the genre fits in with our current predicament rather well. The state of being afraid weirdly connects Americans across the spectrum right now – people who otherwise think they don’t share anything in common. Everyone is anxious, and this universal state of fear puts people into situations where they can be manipulated more easily. The horror genre is a double-edged sword in this regard, since it contributes to the climate of fear but also can offer the chance to confront and challenge our worst fears in a fictional space that makes it safer, perhaps, or more distanced, at least. All this sounds more like theme than craft, but I guess theme is always a hidden or unconscious aspect of craft. I would add that writers don’t set out to create concepts or messages, of course, and yet the work-space inevitably feels invaded by the barometric pressure of the wider atmosphere in which we work. I don’t think that’s anything to fear. Regarding “Parenthood,” I’d like to thank Liz Bradfield for an anecdote that inspired this story.
J. M. TYREE is the coauthor, with Michael McGriff of the story collection Our Secret Life in the Movies (A Strange Object), an NPR Best Book of 2014. He teaches at VCUarts and is Nonfiction Editor at New England Review. His most recent book is a collection of essays, Vanishing Streets – Journeys in London (Stanford University Press).
