Category: Essay

Emerging from my cave

After a quiet first quarter, I emerge from my cave with a small flurry of publications. Here they are, in glorious bullet point:

At Words Without Borders, I reviewed two books by Thai author Duanwad Pimwana, her first to be translated into English (by Mui Poopoksakul).
For Fiction Writers Review, I interviewed Caleb Michael Sarvis about his debut story collection, Dead Aquarium (we published his story, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” at Atlas and Alice).
I wrote an essay/dispatch/confessional about PEZ conventions and collecting for Barrelhouse.
This one is weird, but I had a Tweet story collected in the latest volume of the Mythic Picnic Tweet Story Project.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a busy second half of 2019.

Tags Barrelhouse, Caleb Michael Sarvis, Duanwad Pimwana, essay, Fiction Writers Review, interview, micro-fiction, Mythic Picnic, PEZ, Words Without Borders

Book Review Essay Fiction Interview

2018, Condensed

The year is over (pretty much), so (bowing to peer pressure) here’s everything I put out in the world during 2018:

I published the following stories, most of which are quite small:

“The Wherewithal” at Monkeybicycle

“Creatures of Love” at Last Exit

“Old Friends” at Last Exit

“Everyone Needs a Kind Stranger to Listen to His Secrets” at Last Exit

“Parental Concerns” at Bending Genres

“Half Tank” at Atticus Review (nominated for Best Microfictions 2018 and Best Small Fictions 2019)

“Living Our Best Lives” at jmww

Though I anonymously reviewed 20(ish) books for PW, I also wrote some longer takes for these fine outlets:

“Love Is a Powerful Drug: On Tomb Song by Julián Herbert” (Kenyon Review Online, Nov. 2018)

“Review of The Concrete by Daniel Abbott” (Rain Taxi Review of Books, Issue 91, Sept. 2018)

“Hollywood Babylon: A Review of Ross McMeekin’s The Hummingbirds“ (Vol. 1 Brooklyn, June 2018)

“I’m So Free: On A Working Woman by Elvira Navarro” (Kenyon Review Online, March 2018)

“On Tatiana Ryckman’s I Don’t Think of You (Until I Do)“ (Alternating Current’s The Coil, March 2018)

I got to interview my buddy Donald Quist about his new story collection:

“Living as Lion and Hunter: An Interview with Donald Quist” (Fiction Writers Review, Oct. 2018)

And lastly, three of my short essays appeared in the collection Miscellany, from Run Amok Books:

About a year ago, Gary Anderson, who runs the small New Jersey publishing house Run Amok Books, approached me about releasing a collection of my various nonfiction writing. While I was flattered, I didn’t have a full collection’s worth of material, but our back and forth inspired Gary to create a volume of nonfiction by writers from all over the globe. The end result is a book titled Miscellany, which is scheduled to come out in September. The book brings together 11 authors and 21 essays. I have 3 short pieces in the collection.

You can preorder the book right now: B&N, IndieBound, and (if you must) Amazon.

Also, Run Amok is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to raise some money for promotional materials and to pay contributors (outside of copies of the book!). If you’re interested in helping out (there are some great perks, like ebooks and paperbacks) click here.

Tags collection, essay, essay anthology, run amok books

Essay Fiction

It’s such fun

I have two stories in the new issue of Hypertrophic Literary (a reprint of “Fatherwifehusband” and a new one, “The Word Hater Reads His Future”). You can buy a print or digital copy here. Many thanks to editors Maddie Anthes and Lynsey Morandin for their enthusiasm and help.

Also, the kind folks at The RS 500 let me write an essay about Lou Reed’s 1972 classic, Transformer. Of course, the essay is mostly about my first semester of college, but Lou Reed makes several appearances, too. (I promise!)

Tags essay, Fiction, Hypertrophic Literary, Lou Reed, short story, The RS 500, Transformer