I'm honored to have my short story, "Street of the Deported," included in Lilith Magazine's forthcoming anthology, Frankly Feminist (Brandeis University Press, November 2022), collecting 45 years of Jewish feminist fiction published in the magazine. My story won first prize in their 2017 contest and is included in the anthology's section on war. The collection is edited by Susan Weidman Schneider and Yona Zeldis McDonough and includes a forward by Anita Diamant. You can pre-order the book now. You can also add it your Goodreads. I am so looking forward to reading all of the other stories in the anthology!
I'm delighted to share that my short story "Hinges," published in Gordon Square Review last November, was nominated for the Best of the Net. Many thanks to Prose Editor Nardine Taleb for the nomination! You can see the list of nominees here and check out their work here. Hooray!
I'm delighted to have a new short story out today in Gordon Square Review, a journal based in Cleveland that spotlights writers from Northeast Ohio alongside those from around the world. Here's how "Hinges" begins:
"In fact in Vienna I starved a little."
If you'd like to hear me read a snippet of the story, and snippets from the stories, essays, and poems in Issue 7, register here for the virtual launch party happening tomorrow at 7:30 pm EST! (And, if you'd like to hear me read tonight, I'll be discussing the politics of then and now in historic fiction virtually at Greenlight Bookstore with Kris Waldherr, author of The Lost History of Dreams, and Tauno Biltsted, author of The Anatomist's Tale; register here for tonight's event.)
Many thanks to Prose Editor Nardine Taleb, Editor-in-Chief Laura Maylene Walter, Issue 7 Prose Readers Jackie Krogmeier, Alexandra Magearu, and Valli Jo Porter, everyone at Gordon Square Review and Literary Cleveland!
Here is a source of comfort in difficult times: all issues of Fairy Tale Review are free for the foreseeable future. Kate Berheimer wrote on Twitter:
This doesn't put a dent in the painful news today, but maybe it will help some people through the difficult hours. I've always found that being in the company of a good fairy tale helps me do a little bit better, be a little bit kinder. It's why I founded this journal in 2005. xo
I wrote "More Like Home Than Home," the title story of my story collection, as an antidote to the darkness of Daughters of the Air. It was meant to comfort me, and I hope you find comfort in it too. It appeared in the Wizard of Oz-themed Emerald Issue. Now free and online, thanks to Fairy Tale Review , JSTOR, and Wayne State University Press.
Last year around this time, Michael and I traipsed about Portland for AWP, skirting the conference itself, simply enjoying off-site readings and the book fair on Saturday. It was a lovely way to round out our time in the Pacific Northwest.
This year, because of our move, I never had any intentions of going to the conference in San Antonio, but because of the coronavirus, lots of folks, including my publisher Lanternfish Press have cancelled their trips. Because small presses depend on AWP each year for sales, a virtual book fair has been set up as a Google Doc by Trevor Ketner, publisher of Skull + Wind Press, inspired by poets G. Calvocoressi, Dana Levin, and Greg Pardlo. Now folks can browse from afar, and check out the many beautiful books and journals on sale here at #AWPVirtualBookfair. In random scrolling through the virtual book fair, I came across this intriguing book of poetry, Goodbye Wolf, by Nik De Dominic. Most discount codes are good through Sunday. Lanternfish Press is offering 30% off all of their books (including Daughters of the Air); use the code AWP2020.
Another press I love that has cancelled its trip to San Antonio is Fairy Tale Review. Their newest issue, back issues, subscriptions, and the complete set of issues are 20% off. Use code AWP20. The title story of my in-progress story collection, "More Like Home Than Home," is in their Wizard of Oz-themed Emerald Issue. It's set in Brooklyn in the 1980s and is a potpourri of the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Twelve Dancing Princesses.
But what is a book fair without getting to pick up a book and open it at random? Below is random page from Daughters of the Air (you can read the opening over at Tin House). Beneath that, a taste of what all is in FTR's Emerald Issue.
Stay healthy out there! Enjoy yer book browsing & book reading!
I'm excited to have a new short story, "Sneaking Into Dr. Zhivago," in the spring issue of Confrontation. It's an honor to be in a journal that's published the likes of Cynthia Ozick and Joseph Brodsky! Here's how the story begins:
If not Paris, Vienna. That's where I should have landed. My father sent my brother to medical school in Vienna, and I, I was being groomed for the Sorbonne. I would have studied history. And literature. Between the wars, many of my cousins moved to Vienna, London, New York. Children of my seven uncles.
Below you'll find a photo of the first page of the story so you can get more a taste of it. If you're intrigued, you can order a copy for just $12!
I'm excited to share that my story "Street of the Deported," part of my in-progress story collection More Like Home Than Home, won first place in Lilith Magazine's fiction contest. You can read the story right here, or pick up a copy from your local newsstand. Over on their blog, I spoke with fiction editor Yona Zeldis McDonough about the story, Daughters of the Air, fairy tales, and food. You can read that Q & A here. Hooray!
Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Hunters in the Snow (Winter) - 1565
This winter, I'm teaching Writing About Place at Hugo House. In this six-week class, we'll read stories by Flannery O'Connor, Louise Erdrich, and Ursula LeGuin, among other illustrious authors. We'll write about places we know, places we don't know, and places that exist only in our imaginations. And, we'll talk about memory, research, and world building. Class meets Wednesdays 5-7 pm from 2/22-3/29. Hugo House is located in First Hill, an easy-peasy trip from downtown and right next to the always-free Frye Art Museum. Speaking of place, if you've not been to the Hugo House's temporary home, you're in for treat, with a light-filled atrium and mysterious winding hallways. Registration is now open. The scholarship deadline is 12/16 and there's an early bird discount until 12/19! Hope to see you there.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with Steve Barker for the 76th edition of Ordinary Madness, his Arts & Entertainment podcast. We talked about novel writing, rejection, The Furnace, the effects of winning awards, and a bit about my time at McGill University in Montreal. I also read two short-short stories, one of which is quite new. Fun!
My short story "I Loved You in New York" is being released as a chapbook in alice blue books' fantastic series SHOTGUN WEDDING. It's a story about cities (New York, Montreal, D.C.), bodies, relationships, history. It glances fleetingly at Coney Island, George Grosz, James Brown, and, uh, Marquis de Sade. This is the fourth volume of the SHOTGUN series, a special double issue which includes my dear friend and excellent poet Janie Elizabeth Miller, as well as Dennis James Sweeney, Lillian Ruth Nickerson, Amy Ratto Parks, Brian Cooney, Stephen Danos, Sarah Gallien, Will Gallien, Evelyn Hampton, Graham Isaac, and Ashley Benson.I'll be reading an excerpt from the story at Vermilion on October 22 at 6 pm as part of the Seattle Lit Crawl--our event is called Quick & Dirty. The chapbooks will be available at Fred's Wildlife Refuge during the after party's mini-book fair. You can also pick up a copy at the Seattle Center during Short Run, a small press and comix expo, on October 31 11-6. I expect the Seattle Center on Halloween to be super fun! Finally, you can also snag a copy via Etsy.Many thanks to Amber Nelson for giving this story from my in-progress collection MORE LIKE HOME THAN HOME a home.
A while back, I shared a YouTube video of Bradford Loomis performing his song "Come Dance with Me," which was inspired by my short story "More Like Home Than Home". This August, he released a new album with Beth Whitney, Banner Days, which features a gorgeous recording of the song. Check out the song and the whole album--they are so, so talented. You can read "More Like Home Than Home" in the Emerald issue of Fairy Tale Review.
In case you couldn't make it or wanted to watch again, here's the video from my final Made at Hugo House reading. I read half of my story "Healers," which I workshopped at the Tin House Writers' Workshop this summer and which may be the final story in my collection MORE LIKE HOME THAN HOME. Many thanks to Samudre Media for recording![youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVbvZoFVd1c&feature=youtu.be]
The 2012-13 Made at Hugo House Fellowship is coming to an end (sad day!), and the first of our three final readings is this very Tuesday.Come see what we've been toiling away at all year:
- Poetry! September 10. Katie Ogle will read from THE SMALLEST GUN I COULD FIND which follows a conversation between a speaker and her homonculus (Latin for "little man"). Bill Carty will read from YOU TROUBLER (Ahab to Elijah: "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" Taylor Swift: "I knew you were trouble.")
- Fiction! September 25.Irene Keliher will read from her dystopian novel THE VISIONARIES, Eric McMillan will read from CLEAR, his novel about the Iraq war, and I will read from my story collection MORE LIKE HOME THAN HOME.
- Nonfiction! November 21. Elissa Washuta will read from her second memoir, STARVATION MODE, along with Claire Jackson and Catherine Slaton.
These readings will be amazing! Come, come, come!It's been a wonderful year meeting with these talented writers, hearing guest speakers on topics such as grants and first book publications, taking free Hugo House classes, and snatching up surprise opportunities along the way, like Hedgebrook's Spring Salon. This year, I started to feel much more integrated in Seattle's literary community. And the fellowship encouraged me to roll up my sleeves, get more writing done, and get my writing out into the world more aggressively than I have ever done before. "The Zoo," the first story I wrote with the fellowship in mind (while nervously waiting to hear back about the fellowship, actually), was published in January, and two stories I've revised this year will be coming out later this fall (details to come). I workshopped what I believe will be the last story in MORE LIKE HOME THAN HOME at the Tin House conference, and I'm excited to read it on the 25th. Many thanks to Brian McGuigan for coming up with this program and to Hugo House for making it happen!And check out the 2013-14 fellows!(Whew. I think I exhausted my monthly allotment of exclamation points.)
For the APRIL festival, The Furnace teamed up with the Bushwick Book Club Seattle, asking three musicians to create original music inspired by the three pieces presented by the series so far. Bradford Loomis wrote "Come Dance With Me," an enchanting lullaby inspired by my story "More Like Home Than Home" and full of so much tender longing and hope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSwQzavucYIn February, the Made at Hugo House fellows read from our works-in-progress. I read "The Zoo," which I had written in October while nervously waiting to hear whether I'd gotten into the program, and which was published in Washington City Paper's D.C.-themed fiction issue in January. It was a lovely evening!
I'm honored to have my story "The Zoo" included as one of four stories in Washington City Paper's D.C.-themed fiction issue . Here's how the story begins:
The Zoo
That’s what my brother calls it. The quarantined room at the end of the hall. It has two sets of windows: one looking into an air lock, where two white bunny suits hang on the wall, then another looking into the room kept pristine for the most fragile.