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:
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.
You know that scene in Pulp Fiction, when John Travolta and Uma Thurman are at Jack Rabbit Slims, and Uma goes to the bathroom, only to come back and see that her food has arrived?
I’m kind of feeling like that right now. See, I spent a few days in Maine, away from technology (I’m not a cellphone guy, really, and had no internet connection), and now that I’m home, I find that I have two new publications out there in the big, wide world.
decomP magazinE was kind enough to run my micro-fiction piece, “Big Country,” in their August issue. You can read—or listen to—the story right here.
Also, my review of the short story collection War Stories just went live at Rain Taxi. Interested parties can find my thoughts by clicking here.
I can’t think about Independence Day without my brain switching over to Aimee Mann’s song “4th of July.” Such a heartbreaking and beautiful tune, full of memory and regret. If you don’t know it, you’re missing out.
We all sit around cookouts and light fireworks, but the 4th of July simmers with an emotional undertone, doesn’t it?
There’s a new book out, titled The Fourth of July, that I recently reviewed for Rain Taxi. It’s a fun story, one that takes the chaos of the holiday and spins it like a screwball comedy. I compare it to an old Saturday matinee, and I think that’s a pretty good description. The men are loud and obnoxious. The women are nags. The rug gets pulled out over and over. People learn. Others don’t. Mix-ups are a common occurrence.
If you’re interested, you can find my thoughts right here.
Benjamin Woodard 