Emerging Writers Network

More Titles I'm Looking Forward to in the Near Future

A follow up to last week's post about the trio of female-authored short story collections that will simply kick your ass this fall (you all did pre-order these right?  Right?) as there are other books I cannot wait to see in stores - that trio just seemed to fit together perfectly for a post.

September

From Milkweed comes the last of the reprints of David Rhodes.  Having rediscovered this wonderful writer, publishing his new Driftless and reprinting his over 30 year old third novel, Rock Island Line, Milkweed has also brought back his two earlier novels, and September brings us his debut, The Last Fair Deal Going.  I've loved what I've read of Rhodes to date and am looking forward both to this, and to more of his writing in the future.

From another Minnesota based publisher, Coffee House Press, comes Andrew Ervin's debut, Extraordinary Renditions, a trio of novellas that work together very nicely.  Ever since meeting Andrew down in Atlanta at AWP a few years back, I've tried to keep up with both his fiction and his criticisms.  He's one of the most well-read individuals I know, with a very well thought out mindset of what makes for great fiction that has for years come through in his criticisms, and shows just as clearly in his own fiction.  

Unbridled Books will be bringing out Frederick Reuss' A Geography of Secrets and if there's one thing I've learned since starting the EWN it's that if Fred Ramey and Greg Michalson continue publishing an author from MacMurray & Beck on thru BlueHen and up to Unbridled?  Well, that's an author I should be reading.  This novel looks to be a psychological peek into the lives of two men and is one to look for come September.

From Grove/Black Cat comes the debut story collection of Patricia Engel, Vida.  You've read her name here more than once as I've read anything and everything I could find of hers the past year or so.  This collection will have some threads woven all the way through, and you'll not find the word stories anywhere to describe the book on the cover or inside, but much as they stand together, these individual pieces are just as solid on their own.

October

HarperCollins will publish Tom Franklin's third novel, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.  Why is this one on the list?  Because it's Tom Freaking Franklin and that should be enough of a reason.  As great as his debut title, Poachers (a story collection) was, his first novel, Hell at the Breech was a step up.  Then Smonk, his last novel, well, that was the most entertaining ride through hell that I can imagine one taking. Another step up with this one and I'll run out of superlatives for Mr. Franklin and his work.

Graywolf pops up with Benjamin Percy's debut novel, which follows his two award-winning short story collections, The Wilding.  Recent recipient of a starred Publisher Weekly review, and praise from writers such as Pam Houston, Antonya Nelson and William Kittredge, has readers everywhere excited to both read this and then hopefully hear Ben read it somewhere himself.  

November

Barry Hannah's Lost, Last, Happy:  New and Collected Stories comes out from Grove Press.  Not much needs to be said anywhere about Barry Hannah and his work for anybody to understand why this book is on the list of titles I cannot wait for.

Home Team

I'd be remiss in not mentioning a trio of titles that I've had the pleasure of reading over and over the past few months and weeks as they are going to print, or to galley print, as you read this.  Each one is wonderful in it's own way.

September will see Black Lawrence Press bringing out Steven Gillis' fourth novel and fifth book, The Consequence of Skating.  I'd say I've read this one cover to cover six or seven times and find more reason to like it each and every time.  I've been a fan of Steven's writing since before the inception of Dzanc Books and am pleased to say that he's still getting better each time around.  This is a novel to read for sure and it also has a stunning new cover, designed by Steven Seighman.

September also sees Dzanc publishing Terese Svoboda's novel, Pirate Talk or Mermalade.  A novel in voices, it runs many roads - funny as hell, interesting in both plot and structure, great characters, and I've got to mention funny again, especially if you like your funny with a tad of darkness.

November will find Dzanc publishing Robert Lopez' debut story collection, to follow up on his two novels, Asunder.  The collection finds Lopez continuing to work with language and ideas and finding an incredible mix.  The many that raved about Kamby Bolongo Mean River and Part of the World are going to find that Lopez is just as incredible in the short story format.

Source of Lit - The Quarterly - Spring 1987 - Chris Spain

Chris Spain's short story, "Playing Iwo Jima," starts off with a fantastic image:

What I am doing now is I am butt-welded to a John Deere 4020, unzipping the earth west of Muleshoe, lifting her dusty dress.

I love the verb there, "unzipping", as well as the image of this John Deere "lifting her dusty dress."  The sentence also introduces the reader to a feature of Spain's writing in this story, the merging of two words with a hyphen to create the word he's looking for:

butt-welded

flashbulb-caught

Kansas-straight

Marine-women

desert-place

The playing of Iwo Jima involved frogs and firecrackers and getting frogged - a pretty disgusting version of grenades exploding I'll let you visualize on your own.  Spain's writing goes back and forth between very direct, short sentences and some winding sentences maybe bent a bit more on imagery.  Those he writes really well as you can see from the ending of this story:

When I come up for air, someone has killed the water well.  It is the quiet of quiet after battle.  All I can hear is breathing from the mud.  I stand naked in the water.  I try to wash myself with the soft caliche.  I try to clean it from me.  But what I have on me won't come off, what I think I have on me is frog for always.

Source of Lit - The Quarterly - Spring 1987 - Matthew Levine

Man, on December 24, 2009, I decided to embark on a project - going through issues of The Quarterly:  The Magazine of New American Writing, edited by Gordon Lish, one by one, author by author, and post about what I read.  That night I read and posted about the first two stories and noticed that John Madera had also posted about the first issue at Big Other.  And then silence.  Seven full months of silence.  I'm back (I'll leave the usage of an exclamation point to your discretion).

The next story in line is "Noises of Astonishing Satisfaction," by Matthew Levine.  Like the narrators in the first two stories of this issue, the narrator of this story lies at some point.  What the story also has is an opening sentence that is going to get me to move on to sentence number two - I have a feeling that this is going to be a consistency among the works in this journal:

We lived in a condemned building a former Japanese revolutionary and his wife.

This is one of the few times the word Japanese is typed in full, as the narrator more frequently uses the racist term, Jap, in his thinking.  I believe this is an intentional feature of Levine's as we the readers are not supposed to thoroughly like the narrator.  As noted earlier, he also lies.  He lies to his wife who clearly tells him that if they have mice in their top half of this building, specifically if they have mice in their bed, then she is leaving. 

"Nonsense, big as we are, why should there be mice i the bed?"

I woke up early and swept the pellets from the sheets.  I cleaned the place immaculate to force the mice down, but the Jap, he was cleaner, and the mice lived with us.

There is, eventually (an odd word choice seeing as the story's only four pages long, but it feels like the right word for the story), a confrontation between the two men, but Levine allows to be wordless and the choice seems perfect based on how the two men have acted toward each other to that point. 

Speaking of Women Writers Kicking Your Ass

Following the exciting news about Vievee, there are many books I'm looking forward to this fall, but there is a particular trio that stands out in my mind (and when you consider there are books by such long-time EWN favorites such as Benjamin Percy, and Tom Franklin, well, I hope that shows how exciting these three are):  Alissa Nutting's Unclean Jobs for Women and Children (Starcherone Books), Amelia Gray's Museum of the Weird (FC2), and Tina May Hall's The Physics of Imaginary Objects (University of Pittsburgh Press), which you may have noted I listed in alphabetical order by first name of the author.

All three of these books are short story collections and all of them have me excited because they are giving greater exposure to this trio of authors with extraordinary imaginations, with no fears of crossing any boundaries with their work, and with talent to burn (had to get at least one solid cliche in there).

Alissa Nutting's work has been praised here before, and this is a collection I've waited to hear was being published for quite some time.  The collection, her debut, was selected by Ben Marcus as winner of Starcherone's 6th Annual Innovative Fiction Award winner.  Here's a bit of what Mr. Marcus had to say:

Alissa Nutting builds a dark catalog of behavior for her characters and the result is a kind of human bestiary, if humans were programmed to go down in flames, to run themselves aground, to seek ruin on every occasion. These fine stories, anthropologically thorough in their view of the contemporary person, illuminate how people hide behind their pursuits, concealing what matters most to them while striving, and usually failing, to be loved.

This is a wonderful description of Nutting's works, and captures much of what excites me every time I see her name in a Table of Contents.  I know the work will be a bit (at the very least) dark.  I'm sure the characters will run into some major issues and most likely, while trying really hard, won't quite get beyond said issues.  And who knows where she might take her readers?  The last story I read of hers was set in a bowling alley, and the parking lot for the alley, and involved a guy and his girlfriend who was really a man--and the repercussions of the guy finding out that very fact.

Amelia Gray is one whose name you've read on numerous occasions here as well.  Her book just might be sporting a blurb from the EWN.  It might not, it was offered pretty late into the process.  However, if it has it, it will go something like this:

At times I worry that an author has maybe opted to go with an idea that is a bit of a reach, even for their many talents.  I've learned to quit doing that with Amelia Gray and her stories, and after reading a couple of sentences, always decide to scrunch back in my chair and really settle in, as who knows where the hell she's taking it.  In what is becoming a very long streak, Gray has never gone anywhere that hasn't amazed me.

The collection, her second, won FC2's American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, as selected by Final Judge, Lidia Yuknavitch.  I loved her earlier AM/PM and everything I've read in journals since then and can't wait to sit back with this collection all in between a couple of covers.

Tina May Hall's earlier publication, All the Day's Sad Stories, won Caketrain's 2008 novella competition as selected by Brian Evenson, and was reviewed here earlier in the year.  This short story collection will also include that novella, as well as 15 stories, and was the winner of the 2010 Drue Heinz Literature Prize.  Hall's stories frequently take interesting looks at life and death and some mixture thereof, and her use of language is nearly poetic at times.

Renata Adler, judge of the Drue Heinz, noted:  “I am struck in particular by the range of imagination and the prose. The power, insistence, occasional humor, and frequent beauty of the authorʼs voice carry the reader as surely as conventional fiction used to.”

All three of these collections should be high on your list of fall titles to order, read, savor, enjoy, and then do everything in your power to spread the word about them to every semi-adventurous reader you know!

EWN Favorite, Vievee Francis, Awarded Poetry Prize!

Some news I've been sitting on for a little while has become public knowledge with the issuance of a Press Release earlier today:  Vievee Francis has been awarded the 2010 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize.  Her collection of poems, Horse in the Dark, will be published by the University's Press in March 2011. 

I loved Blue-Tail Fly (Wayne State University Press), her debut collection, and believe I've had the opportunity to hear Vievee read from some of the poems that will be included in Horse in the Dark, and they've been stellar works.  Mark your calendars!

The following is the full PR as issued:

VIEVEE FRANCIS WINS CAVE CANEM NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PRESS POETRY PRIZE
Northwestern University Press to Publish Horse in the Dark

BROOKLYN, NY (July 15, 2010) — Cave Canem Foundation, Inc., North America’s premier “home for Black Poetry,” is pleased to announce that Vievee Francis has received the 2010 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for her manuscript, Horse in the Dark, selected by Parneshia Jones and Adrian Matejka. Northwestern University Press will publish the collection in March 2011. Combining the efforts of the two organizations to celebrate and publish works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence, the prize is a second‐book award for African American poets. Adrian Matejka writes, “The poems in Vievee Francis’s Horse in the Dark are revelations—of memory, of dust, of the cotton and marginalia strung together to make a history. Her poems remind [us] that geography is fluid and camouflaged by our own memories, memories that are often anthropomorphized by the mechanisms of race and place. And when the poems lean sideways to whisper something necessary, or rise up to tell another kind of truth, history is distilled like moonshine, each moment perfect and dangerous.”

Vievee Francis is the author of Blue‐Tail Fly, a collection of poems published by Wayne State University Press in 2006. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals, anthologies and textbooks, including Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, Rattle, Approaching Literature: Reading Writing and Thinking, Best American Poetry 2010 and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry. She earned her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she was the 2009/2010 Poet in Residence for the Alice Lloyd Hall Scholar’s Program. She is the recipient of a 2009 Rona Jaffe Award, a 2010 Kresge Artist Fellowship, and Callaloo and Cave Canem fellowships.

Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the under‐representation of African American poets in writing workshops and MFA programs, Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. Cave Canem has grown from an initial gathering of 26 poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty and a high‐achieving national fellowship of over 300. Its programs include an annual week‐long retreat, first and second book prizes, Legacy Conversations, Poets on Craft talks, writing workshops, publications and national readings. Such world‐class poets as Elizabeth Alexander, Lucille Clifton and Yusef Komunyakaa number among the organization’s faculty and judges. To date, the organization has published Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade (University of Michigan Press, 2006) and The Ringing Ear:  Black Poets Lean South (The University of Georgia Press, 2007). For more information, visit cavecanempoets.org.

Since its inception in 1893, Northwestern University Press has been at the forefront in publishing important works of scholarship, as well as quality works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and literary criticism. Created in 1992, the TriQuarterly Books imprint is devoted primarily to contemporary American fiction and poetry. In 2010, the Press established the Curbstone Press imprint, which is committed to publishing creative literature that promotes human rights and inter‐cultural understanding. For more information, go to www.nupress.northwestern.edu.

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Stephen Graham Jones to Publish Two Novels with Dzanc Books

As noted over at the Dzanc News Blog:

Dzanc Books to Publish Stephen Graham Jones

July 21, 2010 - Ann Arbor, MI—Dzanc Books is proud to announce that it will publish 2 novels by Stephen Graham Jones.   The first, Flushboy, will be published in early 2013 and will be followed a year later by Not for Nothing.  Stephen is the author of 9 books of fiction, including The Fast Red Road—a Plainsong, All the Beautiful Sinners, The Bird is Gone—a Manifesto, Bleed Into Me—a Book of Stories, Demon Theory, The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, Ledfeather and the forthcoming novel, It Came from Del Rio, and collection of stories, The Ones that Almost Got Away: Stories.  Stephen has also published over 100 stories in such places as Alaska Quarterly Review, Hobart, and Mississippi Review.

Jones’ work has been called “mesmerizing” and “masterful” by Booklist, and Texas Monthly describes him as “an unapologetic pop-culture savant.”  Jones holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. 

Both hilarious and heartbreaking at times, Flushboy is a novel about the 16-year-old boy working the window of the drive-thru urinal of his father’s latest business venture, The Bladder Hut.  It’s a uniquely told coming-of-age story and more.  Not for Nothing, is in theory, a detective story, but as usual, Jones plays with convention and gives his readers much more than they might expect.

“Stephen Graham Jones is a fascinating writer,” Dan Wickett said. “One that hasn’t delved into the same territory twice, and these two novels continue on in that vein. We at Dzanc are very excited to publish these two wonderful novels from a writer that continues to constantly find new ways of storytelling.”

About Dzanc Books

Dzanc Books was created in 2006 to advance great writing and champion those writers who don’t fit neatly into the marketing niches of for-profit presses. As a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization, Dzanc Books not only publishes literary fiction, but works in partnership with literary journals to advance their readership at every level. Dzanc is also fully committed to developing educational programs in schools, as well as supporting literary community service projects with its Dzanc Prize program.

For more information on Dzanc Books and its mission, imprints, books, authors, awards, and programs, please visit www.dzancbooks.org.

* * *

Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions After a Year

As noted over at the Dzanc Books News Blog - the Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions have been going a little more than a year now:

 

It's been a little more than a year since we started the Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions and it has been just as good as we had hoped it would be.  Where else can you find workshop styled help with your poem, story, essay or novel from either a published author or editor at a publishing house, at rates of $20 per hour or lower, that you can participate in from your own home (or wherever you have access to your email account) and can begin a new session at ANY time?  Nowhere.

Here are some things that happy customers said upon finishing up their session(s):

"I can't say enough about how valuable this process has been for me—and will continue to be as I digest her comments and revise my story. Her insight, encouragement and suggestions are just what I needed. I will definitely participate in this program again in the future! Thanks so much for the opportunity."
—Jennifer Hollmeyer (regarding mentoring author, Katrina Denza)

"I am so glad you guys have this, I cannot tell you how pleased I am."
—James Moore

"I found the experience quite wonderful."
—Caitlin Hamilton

"Thank you so much for your time and for your words of encouragement. And thanks especially for being so straight with me—this is exactly the kind of tough coaching I need."
—Michael Mussman

"Thanks so much for the in-depth critique . . . Also, I'm applying your no-holds barred editorial style to many of my other stories. I appreciate your time and insights."
—John Fox

"I wanted to let you and Michele Battiste know that your program through her guidance has been extremely useful for me. I had gotten to a point in my project at which I felt stuck, and I don't have an effective writers group here in Japan to help me. Michele's comments and critique reminded me of some long-standing tendencies that I had forgotten I need to avoid, and she also made some insightful points which were new ideas for me. Best of all, I am reinvigorated and working hard on the project again. Thank you so much for that."
—Jessica Goodfellow

"Thanks so much! Ah, these comments from Laura van den Berg are just what I needed. I can't wait to use this service again for another story."
—Kassie Duthie

"I was very impressed with DCWS services and would use them in the future."
—Kim Johnson

"Thank you so much. I'm thrilled with my DCWS experience, and the level of thought and critique I received from Gabriel. Tremendously helpful, I will definitely do this again. Thank you to you & Dzanc & Gabriel!"

—Marie Gauthier (after working with Gabriel Welsch)

"I give this program all the credit for my having short stories finally accepted by lit mags. Best deal on the planet. Go for it."

--Jon R. Horton (via Facebook)

"Many thanks for sending this along.  These comments are very helpful!  Please let George know how much I appreciate his help -- what he gave me here is more than worth my $50!"

Matthew L

"This is great, Dan. It's exactly what I wanted. Matt really did a fantastic job of pointing out the story's weaknesses and also ways to fix them. The detailed feedback is invaluable to me. I'll probably start sending ALL my stories to DCWS, since this is the only way for me to get unbiased feedback right now."

Yvette W.

Dzanc Title Short Listed for Frank O'Connor Short Fiction Award!

As noted over at the Dzanc Books News Blog:

Dzanc Books is extremely pleased to announce that Laura van den Berg's short story collection, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009), has been selected as a finalist for the Frank O'Connor Short Fiction Award.

 

Announced earlier today, Laura's book is one of six collections that the committee has winnowed down from the original semi-finalist long list of 58 titles. The Frank O'Connor Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the world as it is open internationally and receives submissions from publishers all over the world, is awarded to the best, original collection of stories published in English in the 12 preceding months.  This year's finalists range from debut authors on up to TC Boyle, who has published 20 works of fiction, including 9 short story collections.  

 

Dzanc Books is thrilled to have Laura's work among the finalists.  Since Laura first won the Dzanc Prize in 2008, proving not only her skills as a writer but dedication to social service, her collection has gone on to receive a starred Booklist review, as well as be selected also as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great Writers and a Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist.  Stories from  the collection have also been reprinted in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008, Best New American Voices 2010, and The Pushcart Prize XXIV: Best of the Small Presses.
 

Laura is a well deserving finalist and we here at Dzanc Books could not be prouder to have published What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us.

 

 

 

For more information about Laura's collection:

 

http://www.dzancbooks.org/store/vandenberg-water.html

 

For more information about Laura van den Berg:

 

www.lauravandenberg.com

 

For more information about Dzanc Books:

 

www.dzancbooks.org

 

For more information about the Frank O'Connor Short Fiction Award:

 

http://www.munsterlit.ie/FOC%20Award%20page.html

Source of Lit - Spork Press

This would have been a Source of Lit - The Postman! post seeing as there were two packages from different locations in the mail today, but they both sort of have the same origination.

The first package arrived direct from Spork Press.  It contained the very cool chapbook they've created, a collection of Dan Beachy-Quick's poems, Overtakelessness.

The other item arrived from Hobart, but also came from Spork Press.  It's the special edition of Hobart 11 that the people behind Spork bound by hand with an awesome new cover.  There were only 20 of these made and as of last week, Aaron thought he was down to about 10 or so.  Jump on it now (by the way, it's a great issue).

You Buy and Dzanc Will Donate

A book and a book that is.  Per the Dzanc News Blog:

In response to Tin House's new submission policy, we at Dzanc Books are motivated to reply with what we hope is an alternative solution to one of the issues Tin House seems to be raising; to wit the decline of books being purchased - and purchased at independent bookstores. Rather than tie our concerns to the submissions we receive at Dzanc - and our lit reviews and imprints:  The Collagist, Monkeybicycle and Absinthe, OV Books, Black Lawrence Press, Keyhole and Starcherone - we would like to make the following offer which we feel will better serve the desire to support independent bookstores and the purchase of books. For the month of July, we at Dzanc will donate a book to a school/library for each proof of purchase provided to us of a book bought at an independent bookstore. The book bought should be a work of literary fiction, though does not have to be a book published by Dzanc Books or any of our imprints. Simply send a copy of your receipt to the address below and Dzanc will donate a new book to a library/school of your choosing.

Steven Gillis
Dzanc Books
2702 Lillian
Ann Arbor, MI 48104