Rain Taxi just posted my review of Glossolalia, a collection of new and selected stories by David Jauss. Dave is really a wonderful writer, one of the true unsung heroes of modern American prose. I got to know him a bit while I studied for my MFA, and I was pretty thrilled to have the chance to give him props in such a great journal.
Feel free to read the review here.
I regularly write semi-anonymous book reviews for Publishers Weekly, but recently I got to talk to Jessica Hollander for the magazine. I wrote about her debut collection (this isn’t so much a secret, as we started our contact with, “Hi, I’m Ben, the guy who reviewed your book!”), and was so floored that, when the chance came to interview her, I jumped at the opportunity. During our Skype session, we touched on influence, books, and family. If you’re a subscriber to PW, you can read the whole transcript here. Hopefully the interview turns free for all soon.
My thoughts on Albertine Sarrazin’s 1965 novel, Astragal—recently reprinted by New Directions—are over at Numéro Cinq. The novel, written while Sarrazin was in prison for armed robbery, slots in nicely with the French New Wave movement. It really is a brilliant work, full of long, rhythmic language and cruel bouts of misfortune. Click on through to read the full report.
At AWP this past March, Atlas and Alice, a new lit mag, was born. My buddy Brendan Todt decided he wanted to create a journal that hosted work that existed at an intersection: unusual forms, blurred genres, basically work that didn’t fit into a standard definition. I was lucky enough to co-edit the fiction section with the talented Whitney Groves, and our very first issue is now available to read online. So please do check out what we have to offer.
Benjamin Woodard 