Emerging Writers Network

NSSM 2018: Mini-interview with Josh Barkan (Mexico: Stories)

Mini-interview with Josh Barkan, whose collection, Mexico, was published by Hogarth.

 

EWN:  Your short story collection, Mexico was published in 2017. What story within the collection had the earliest publication history outside of being in the collection, and what was that history?

JB: The first story published from the collection was “The Kidnapping.” It won the Lightship International Short Story Prize, judged by Tessa Hadley, and was published, first, in an anthology in England.

 

EWN:  How did the publication of this particular collection come about? Were you solicited by the publisher, win a contest, agent submission, etc.?

JB: The collection was submitted by my agent to Hogarth/Penguin Random House. Nate Roberson, my editor at Hogarth, decided with his team at Crown Books to publish. Prior to publication, the collection was runner up for the Grace Paley Short Fiction Prize, judged by Jaime Manrique, and runner up for the Juniper Prize for Fiction, judged by Edie Meidav.

 

EWN:  Where do short stories fit within your life as an author? Primary form to work with, or something you write when an idea hits, or …?

JB: I write both short stories and novels. I don’t consider one form to be more suited to me than the other. The compression of short stories is what attracts me to writing them—the idea of conveying a great deal in such a short space.

 

EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?

JB: I read short stories more than novels. You can expose yourself to many important writers, quickly, because of the shorter form. So it helps to keep up with the experimentation of other writers. More importantly, I simply like the difficult mastery of a short story that works in every line—that is tight.

 

EWN:  How will you be celebrating National Short Story Month this May?

JB: Reading more short stories, as always, and giving some public readings.

 

EWN:  Thank you very much for your time!

JB: Thanks for taking the time to bring the work of so many writers together in one place.

 

http://www.joshbarkan.com/ has a good amount of information about Josh and his trio of books.

 

NSSM 2018: Mini-interview with Charles Holdefer (Dick Cheney in Shorts)

Okay, the final push to make sure that every person with a 2017 short story collection that was kind enough to fill out a mini-interview with us will get it posted--the final month of the year--not how we intended. Been an odd year.

 

EWN:  Your short story collection, Dick Cheney in Shorts, was published in 2017. What story within the collection had the earliest publication history outside of being in the collection, and what was that history?

Charles Holdefer: The story “Goodness Like a Fetter” was published under another title in Caliban way back in 1987. It was a very interesting print magazine run by Larry Smith. I submitted to Caliban because it seemed like a lively venue. Smith isn’t afraid of writing that takes risks. The magazine is still going today in an online format. I’ve been lucky to have several pieces published there.

 

EWN:  How did the publication of this particular collection come about? Were you solicited by the publisher, win a contest, agent submission, etc.?

Holdefer: I had the good fortune to contact Jacob Smullyan at Sagging Meniscus. I saw his listing as a publishing house that was open to experimental work. So I queried him with an early version of Dick. He was receptive to the premise, offered astute observations, and was very helpful. He made it part of a series called Sagging Shorts. These are smallish books that fit in your pocket, like the Penguin Blacks or the old City Lights issues of Ginsberg and O’Hara. I’m very happy with the design. At the beginning I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into and it’s turned out very nicely.

 

EWN:  Where do short stories fit within your life as an author? Primary form to work with, or something you write when an idea hits, or …?

Holdefer: I’ve always written both long and short forms, and I would hate to give up on one or the other. They answer different needs. A novel requires so much stamina but that doesn’t mean a story is easier. I can draft a story more quickly, which is gratifying, but sometimes it takes a very long time to get the story to final form, to make things click and hum. I’m afraid I have a lot of unfinished stories lying around, like unwieldy gizmos in a crackpot’s workshop.

 

EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?

Holdefer: I’ve always read short stories. But there is something different about reading a story collection. A story collection is a series of bursts. Taken as a whole, it’s often more taxing or strenuous than a novel. But it brings its own rewards.

 

EWN:  How will you be celebrating National Short Story Month this May?

Holdefer: Reading more stories, I suppose! This month will provide a good pretext.

 

EWN:  Thank you very much for your time!

Holdefer: My pleasure.

 

You can find out more about Mr. Holdefer at his website.

NSSM 2018: Mini-Interview with Lee Upton (Visitations)

August saw the publication by LSU Press of Visitations by Lee Upton, as the Yellow Shoe Fiction series title of 2017--one of the more dependable short fiction series. She was kind enough to answer some questions for us.

 

EWN:  Your short story collection, VISITATIONS, was published in 2017. What story within the collection had the earliest publication history outside of being in the collection, and what was that history?

Lee:  “Escape from the Dark Forest” was the earliest story to be published in the collection.  It appeared in Fairy Tale Review in 2012.  Originally I was going to include it in my first short story collection, The Tao of Humiliation, but the story didn’t seem to fit comfortably in that collection—not that the story would be entirely comfortable anywhere.  It’s a story that’s meant to be unsettling.

 

EWN:  How did the publication of this particular collection come about? Were you solicited by the publisher, win a contest, agent submission, etc.?

Lee:  A friend, the marvelous writer Alix Ohlin, suggested that LSU Press, through the Yellow Shoe Fiction Series, might be a good fit for my work.  I submitted the manuscript and was happy to hear back with an acceptance from Michael Griffith, an astonishingly gifted fiction writer and a meticulous editor.

 

EWN:  Where do short stories fit within your life as an author? Primary form to work with, or something you write when an idea hits, or …?

Lee:  The form feels natural to me, and I find myself gravitating toward it as a reader and a writer.  I write short stories frequently. I also write poetry, creative nonfiction, literary criticism, and long fiction.  Some of my short stories originally were very long before, by necessity, I cut them back.  Over time I’ve found that I like stretching out the form.

 

EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?

Lee:   I’m an obsessive reader of short stories.  Whenever I can, I pick up collections of short stories.  I read short stories on-line often, but there’s something wonderful about holding a short story collection in hand and seeing the shape of a story on a page—that visual and tactile experience. Some collections I’ve read recently that I admire:  The Price of the Haircut, by Brock Clarke, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, by Denis Johnson, Aetherial Worlds, by Tatyana Tolstaya, The Dark Dark, by Samantha Hunt, and Wait Till You See Me Dance, by Deb Olin Unferth.

 

EWN:  How will you be celebrating National Short Story Month this May?

Lee:  I’ll be continuing to read short stories with gratitude.

 

EWN:  Thank you very much for your time! Thank you!

 

 

Lee Upton, the Francis A. March Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Lafayette College, is the author of many books of poetry, fiction, and literary criticism. Kirkus Reviews named her previous collection of short stories, The Tao of Humiliation, one of the Best Books of 2014.

National Short Story Month - Story Review - David McLendon

David McLendon is a fabulous editor--see Unsaid. A fantastic eye for fiction and poetry. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think the only thing he's written that I've read to date has been an essay he was kind enough to write for Dzanc Books online journal, The Collagist, way back at the beginning, an essay that was an introduction for a classic reprint of a Gordon Lish short story. It was fantastic. I've read it many times over the years.

About two weeks ago I noticed that David had a story posted over at 3:A.M. Magazine. It is another McLendon piece that I will find myself reading over and over again in the future. "Until a Place is Given a Name," is a two page short story and the language within is both subtle, and exuberant. The title is repeated, as in a place is not a place until a place is given a name. It's direct and while it might be able to be said with a word or two fewer, the way it is said rolls off the tongue, especially when repeated for the 2nd and 3rd times. Another sentence rolls and rolls off the tongue and is anything but quick and direct:

If you recall the pages I began all those years ago, you know without pause that for me to begin them again--or again to commence where I left them off--places me in a good place, a difficult place, a place essential, and I want you to know why I'm writing to you all this time later, to let you know, to let you know when distracted or turned untoward my pages I stand from my chair at my desk by the window, I move to a point, which is always the window, and I turn from the window and return to my my chair at my desk, to sit and to write to you.

There's a lot going on in this little story--it builds up and settles back down. And there isn't a sentence that doesn't roll smoothly, with rhythm, from first word to last, no matter how long. McLendon's writing eye is similar to his editing eye, and that's a great thing. Keeping my eye out for more work from this man.

COMING SOON -- Discussions of the Stories of Dana Johnson from In the Not Quite Dark

In the near future, here at the EWN, there will be a detailed discussion of each of the stories from Dana Johnson's most recent collection, In the Not Quite Dark (Counterpoint, 2016). The conversation will be held between Julia Brown, Tony Ardizzone, and myself. With this we hope to garner some more attention for this fantastic collection, as well as get to really dig into both individual stories and the collection of them, and by bouncing our ideas off of each other, maybe come to some thoughts and conclusions we otherwise might not have.

 

Julia Brown earned her MFA from the University of Houston, where she was a Fiction Editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. She is a Kimbilio and VONA Fellow whose work has appeared in Gulf Coast and Mosaic Magazine. She lives in Houston, Texas. You can find her on Twitter: @juliabrown.

Tony Ardizzone was born and raised on the North Side of Chicago and is the author of eight books of fiction. His most recent work includes the novel The Whale Chaser, recently released in paperback by Chicago Review Press, and an interconnected story collection set in Rome, By the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

He has also written the novel In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu, the interconnected collection Larabi's Ox: Stories of Morocco, and edited the anthology The Habit of Art: Best Stories from the Indiana University Fiction Workshop. A paperback edition of his 1986 book of short stories, The Evening News, was released in Spring 2013 by the University of Georgia Press as part of its celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Flannery O'Connor Award competition.

And if you don't know Dan Wickett, I have no idea how you stumbled over here in the first place.

Small Press Month - Publishing Genius

I've not really dug too deeply into the legend, if there is one, of the naming of this fine house.  I don't know if Adam Robinson was being sarcastic, or attempting self-deprecation, or if he truly was cocky enough to label himself a Publishing Genius, but of all those choices, four years into the gig - the last one is the most accurate.  Adam truly is a publishing genius.  What is PG all about?  This is from their about page:

Publishing Genius was founded in 2006, when the first issue of isReads was published.

There are four venues within Publishing Genius:

1. Paperback Books. These started as staple-stitched chapbooks. Since 2007 the production has expanded into short, perfect bound volumes.
2. Chapbook Genius. This series features one story or a chapbook-length collection of poems that are released online. They are also formatted to be printed from home.
3. isReads. The outdoor journal, which is also edited by Peter Cole of Keyhole Magazine and Kathryn Regina. This features short poems posted in public spaces in cities across the United States.
4. Everyday Genius. This is an online journal that is updated Monday through Friday.

There isn't one of these four aspects that falls behind the other three either.  The books have been excellent, the chapbooks great, isReads is a fantastic idea that I hope to see hitting SE Michigan soon, and Everyday Genius has a ton of material that found its way into Best of the Web 2010.  The book designs have been fantastic, and Adam's pulled all this off while writing his own poetry along the way too.  They've recently announced they'll be publishing a Sean Lovelace manuscript in early 2011 - the sign of a great small publisher, getting far enough out in your publishing schedule that you begin to worry you might be finding too many great books too quickly - it sounds ridiculous but I bet Adam is starting to get that worry right about now.

Small Press Month - Keyhole

Not a bad ascent for this house - first start off as an independent quarterly literary journal and blow through your first year and a half without so much as a late issue, getting more and more popular and recognized with each issue.  Then publish a chapbook that sells out.  Then start doing books that get great reviews, look amazing, and do some unique things with your authors - not touring?  Not a big deal, have them read live over the computer and let anybody with a modem watch them.  Books coming out this fall?  Let's publish a limited edited sneak peek and release it with, or without (but really, did anybody buy it without?) an audio version.  Let your readers download that audio version immediately while waiting for the print copies to arrive.  Once they do arrive, there'll also be an electronic coupon so when the collections do come out later this year, your readers remember to come back.

Peter Cole and those that have been helping him with this very recent start-up in Nashville are doing ridiculously great things (which is why I need to remember to pop in with the disclaimer that Keyhole recently became a working imprint of Dzanc Books).  Being the home for authors like William Walsh, and Matt Bell, and Stephanie Johnson and Shellie Zacharia, and the home of one of my favorite journals - all great stuff.  Learn more about this fine press here.

Small Press Month - Brave Men Press

Instead of simply showing you the logo from this fine small press, I thought I'd show you the block which they use to letterpress the logo onto their works.

Brave Men Press is essentially E.B. Goodale as proprietor/art director and Brian Foley as poetry editor.  They are located in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts and they do damn nice work. 

They've now published three chapbooks, all of which have letter-pressed covers and are printed on high quality, acid-free, papers and available in limited edition runs, only through the website.  That has not seemed to hurt their ability to find homes, as the only one of the three that is currently available finds itself in that position because it's in a second print run. 

Beside the gorgeous chapbooks, they also publish coinsides - small broadsides with a solitary work on them that coincide with the Deep Moat Reading Series that Brian runs.   They've even created their own custom holder for the coinsides and made it available at a reasonable cost.  It holds 14 coinsides and can either be scrunched up like a book, or accordianed out to display everything nicely on a shelf. 

Small Press Month - Press 53

Is it overly cheesy to begin this post with the cover photo of an anthology that I edited?  Press 53 was kind enough to agree that it was worth publishing a year and a half ago, but even before they said yes to that, they were one of my favorite up and comers - mainly because they were cranking out short story collections, and by damn good authors.

From their website:

Press 53 is a small independent publisher of literary fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that was founded in October 2005. Kevin Morgan Watson is the founder, owner and Fiction Editor. Tom Lombardo is Poetry Editor. Press 53 is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and publishes full-length books by both new and established writers. In addition to finding and showcasing new writers and new books, we also have a fondness for bringing back great books that are out of print, which we re-issue under our Press 53 Classics imprint.

Before you submit your writing to us, please read our submission guidelines thoroughly.

Here is a brief list of what we DO NOT publish.

Children’s books (There is an exhaustive list of children's book publishers available at BookMartket.com).

Books that are considered strictly "genre" (western, mystery, thriller, detective, romance, horror, or graphic). The exception here is anthologies (see below).

Coffee table or picture books of any kind. 

Here is a brief overview of what we DO publish:

Short Story Collections: Since we published our first book in October 2005, Press 53 has gained a reputation for being a champion of the short story. We publish 4-6 short story collections each year. If you are a short story writer, read our guidelines to learn how to receive an invitation to submit your collection to us. Several colleges and universities use our collections in their classrooms, including the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking, whose students adapt short stories for film projects.

Poetry: We also publish 3-4 poetry collections each year. We prefer narrative poetry that tells a story or shares an experience. To get a clear idea of what we are looking for, please read some of the poetry we have published. Samples can be found easily by doing an Internet search for any of our poets.

Novels: We rarely publish novels outside of our Press 53 Classics imprint, which is dedicated to bringing out-of-print books back to life. Novels written by authors and poets who have published collections with Press 53 are considered first, as are the prist prize winners and finalists in the Novella category of the Press 53 Open Awards. Each October, we publish the first prize winner in the Novella category in the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology. Finalists are also given consideration for stand-alone publication.

Creative Nonfiction/Memoir: We publish creative nonfiction when we find something that absolutely knocks us out.

Press 53 Classics:  Our first Press 53 Classics edition was The Land Breakers, by John Ehle, which was first published by Harper & Rowe in 1964. It was a best seller in the US and Europe, and somehow ended up out of print. It is one of our missions to find great stories that are out of print that should never be out of print. If you know of such a book, please let us know and we will consider adding it to our Press 53 Classics imprint if the rights are available.

Anthologies: Every odd year on Halloween we publish Surreal South, edited by Laura and Pinckney Benedict, a collection of odd, strange, Gothic, sci-fi, genre-bending short stories. Sumissions usually open every odd year in January. We also publish each year the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology, which features the top three winners in each category (first prize only in Novella) in the Press 53 Open Awards.

The Press 53 Open Awards is a writing contest that allows us to publish and discover new writers each year. The contest has six categories—Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short-Short Story, Short Story, Creative Nonfiction, and Novella—and is judged by six industry professionals ranging from award-winning writers, to editors, agents and publishers. We award a First Prize in each category (which includes a personalized etched-glass award and publication), a Second Prize and Honorable Mention (which includes publication, except for Novella). All finalists receive a copy of the anthology where they are mentioned by name in each category. A special mention is given to those writers who enter two or more pieces and are finalists in one of more categories. Submissions for The Press 53 Open Awards begin in September and run till March 31 for all categories. Winners and finalists are announced in July. This contest is a great way to give your writing and yourself some great exposure.

Press 53 is operated by myself, Tom Lombardo (Poetry Editor), Robin Miura (Novel/Memoir Editor) and a dedicated team of volunteers and interns, who help with editing, proofreading, and marketing. If you are interested in helping out, or if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please drop me an email or a letter. I would love to hear from you.

As to the story collections mentioned earlier, I'd heartily recommend those by:  Curtis Smith (both), Darlin' Neal, Clifford Garstang, Quinn Dalton, Amy Knox Brown, and Mary Akers as collection I've read and enjoyed.  Plus forthcoming from Pinckney Benedict will be a winner for sure, and the Surreal South anthologies, edited by Pinckney and his wife, Laura, too.

Small Press Month - Livingston Press

The inclusion of Livingston Press might be a bit of cheating as they technically seem to be a University Press, as their official handle on their website is The University of West Alabama's Livingston Press.  To me though, this press is Joe Taylor's baby, and I'm not truly sure just how involved the University is.

From their website:

Livingston Press was founded in 1983 by Charles Henley as a means to publish regional authors. Under Joe Musso in 1988, the press expanded, to publish books by regional authors. Again, in 1993, the press expanded its focus to publish "Offbeat & Southern Literature," as well as regional history. We now have authors from Seattle, New York City, Boulder, and Tampa. The press publishes ten titles a year, and is distributed nationally. When sending fiction, please send the first three chapters of a novel, or the first three stories of a collection. Our reading period is in June ONLY.

        We take our "offbeat & Southern" to mean and/or, by the way. About a third of our authors write Southern stories. By "offbeat," we mean stylistically, mostly--either in the form or the author's language. You may request a catalog by e-mail and receive a fifty-percent discount on any books you order within one month. Shipping will be three dollars, regardless of the number of books you order.

This is good for single titles, not quantity. We are especially interested in novels and story collections that intertwine in one way or another.

I've been a fan of the press for some time, having had the pleasure of reading it seems a good half dozen of their titles over the years.  I have two new and forthcoming books from them high up on my  TBR pile - Corey Mesler's Following Richard Brautigan, and M.O. Walsh's Tartt Fiction Prize winning short story collection, The Prospect of Magic.  They are two authors whose work I've enjoyed greatly in the past and am really looking forward to digging into again.

Past enjoyed titles have included:  Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa, Degas Must Have Loved a Dancer by Krista Madsen, The Longest Pregnancy by Melissa Fraterrigo, Opposable Thumbs by Suzanne Hudson, and Taylor's own, Some Heroes, Some Heroines, Some Others.

It's a solid, solid press that's been doing great work for over two decades now - be sure to check them out.