With my first blood, a scale appears, hard and iridescent in the soft skin below my arm. In bathroom mirror light, elbow raised, I press and prod, fingertips rusted from menstrual discovery. They trace red, which soaks into the skin and blossoms more scales, reflecting blue and green. I wash my hands. And the scales […]
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Christopher Gonzalez discusses his debut story collection, I’M NOT HUNGRY BUT I COULD EAT.
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Christopher Gonzalez discusses his debut story collection, I’M NOT HUNGRY BUT I COULD EAT.
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Tyler Barton discusses his new story collection, ETERNAL NIGHT AT THE NATURE MUSEUM.
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“Life is incredibly sad, but it’s also funny, joyful, wonderful, and strange.”
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he lives in closets, stalks young kids, & takes them in the middle of the night.
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Beth Gilstrap discusses her new story collection, DEADHEADING.
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“The book is about the complicated problem of loving.”
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We get to devour our horror from the top of the head down to the tips of the toes.
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It was strange what the nudity did to us—what the nakedness undid.
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Tara Isabel Zambrano discusses DEATH, DESIRE, AND OTHER DESTINATIONS.
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Rebecca McClanahan discusses her new memoir-in-essays, IN THE KEY OF NEW YORK CITY.
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Tara Campbell discusses her new book, POLITICAL AF: A RAGE COLLECTION.
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A permanent job doesn’t need her, and neither do her boyfriends.
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Leesa Cross-Smith discusses her new story collection, SO WE CAN GLOW.
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My favorite was usually the smallest, the most alive.
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Could scars be daughters? The hands don’t understand why I am asking this.
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“I hope it will mean as much to readers as it does to me.”
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Peg Alford Pursell discusses her new story collection, A GIRL GOES INTO THE FOREST.
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The lasso was a gaping mouth that opened wide enough, we hoped, to swallow the cloud.
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Imagine a man looking at the artist looking at the art at the party.
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Will you join us? When you are ready, lie down to rest.
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The only way to guarantee a secret is for the only person to know about it be you.
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In the first story of this collection, a girl learns the shocking truth that the world is made of atoms, that “when you get right down to it, it’s all just studs and holes.”
...moreRion Amilcar Scott discusses his story collection Insurrections, father relationships, hip-hop, knowing when to abandon a project, and choosing not to workshop certain stories.
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Vi Khi Nao on her new novel Fish in Exile, why women shouldn’t apologize (even when they’re wrong), moving between genres, and why humor is vital in a novel full of darkness and grief.
...moreIn reading short story collections I always gravitated towards the shortest story, curious to find the idea expressed in the shortest amount of time. Over at the jmww blog, Jen Michalski talks to Amelia Gray about short fiction, flash fiction, and fables.
...moreAt WhiskeyPaper, Linda Niehoff writes briefly and beautifully about fire and magic, hinting at post-apocalyptic worlds with lines like, “We’d spent long evenings sewing together old bedsheets and nightgowns, the last pillowcase.” “Elsewhere” brings to mind Ray Bradbury and autumn nights, and is best read in one sitting. It comes with a suggested song—Iron & […]
...moreIf you were to hear a story with its own soundtrack, it’s going to affect how you feel and interact with that story, even if you’re not directly paying attention to the music, and vice versa. I also believe that language is the shortened version of music. They’re just different methods of communication. Over at […]
...moreIn a column for SmokeLong’s “Why Flash Fiction?” series, author Anne Weisgerber compares writing flash fiction to painting: I realized I could craft flash miniatures that added up to something bigger if I intended them to, like dabs in a Seurat painting. In this way, my reader at novel distance will see the rose window, […]
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