Kind of old news, but I reviewed Leesa Cross-Smith’s debut collection, Every Kiss a War, a couple weeks back for Necessary Fiction. It’s a great book, and you can read my take right here.
More publications coming soon. Couple of reviews and two new short stories.
Cheap Pop published my short story, “Hood Ornament,” earlier this week. It takes about a minute to read, so please find the time to give it a look, especially if you’re a fan of James Dean, car crashes, and locks of hair. You can find it by clicking here.
Also, over at Numéro Cinq, I review Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret, a really fun novel from Angolan writer Ondjaki. If you were a child of the 1980s, seek out this book. It reads like an adventure film from my youth, as a group of kids band together to take down the Soviets who threaten their beachside village. Here’s a link.
The newest print edition of Rain Taxi contains my thoughts on Halina Duraj’s story collection, The Family Cannon. And over at Necessary Fiction, I review John Flynn’s Dreaming Rodin. Both of these books are from rather small presses, but don’t think that says anything about the quality of the writing. Duraj’s book is quite good, delving though years and continents to tell the story of a Polish family in America, and the best stories from Flynn’s collection call to mind the short fiction of John Fante.
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Thankfully, the semester is almost over. I can almost breathe again.
Over at Numéro Cinq, I have a brief but lovely interview with the amazing Lydia Davis.
And the latest online edition of Rain Taxi contains my take on the short novel Sleeping with Gypsies.
Lastly, I hosted a short story Skype roundtable on Monday, featuring Laura van den Berg, Ethan Rutherford, and Jessica Hollander. You can watch video from the event below:
Benjamin Woodard 