Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 154

Book Review: Visit Me in California by Cooley Windsor

Check out my review of Cooley Windsor's fine short story collection Visit Me in California in Examiner.com.

The New Yorker: "An Honest Exit" by Dinaw Mengestu

Here's another installment in The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 series, and yet again it isn't a story. It's an excerpt from Mengestu's new novel—or at least that's how I read the Q&A with Dinaw Mengestu and that's also the only explanation for this piece of work. The frame of the story is the story of an Ethiopian who is teaching English in New York, and he's telling the story of his father's escape from Ethiopia, through Sudan. 
He's telling the story to his students instead of presenting the...

An Interview with Prime Number's Editor Clifford Garstang - The Subversive Copy Editor Blog

An Interview with Prime Number's Editor Clifford Garstang - The Subversive Copy Editor Blog

Dzanc Books: You Buy and We'll Donate

We've talked about the Tin House news -- they're now insisting on a receipt for a book purchased in a bookstore accompanying submissions to the press and the magazine, for a limited time. It's caused a stir, if not a stink.
Here's one response. Dzanc books is now saying that if you send them a receipt for a book purchased in a bookstore (during July) they will donate a book to the library of your choosing. Buy a book (must be literary fiction). Send Dzanc a receipt and tell them where you...

Sewanee is coming

Actually, Sewanee (the Sewanee Writers Conference) is staying right where it is. But I'm going to it in a little over a week. It's going to be a fun time and I'm looking forward to it. I'm even looking forward to the 8-hour drive and hoping I (and the old car) get there in one piece. I plan to blog about the conference while I'm there, and might do some tweeting, also, and in preparation for that I created the hash tag #Sewaneewriters. I'm hoping that catches on with others who might be tweet...

The New Yorker: "The Erlking" by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

We know from the Q&A with Sarah Shun-lien Bynum that this story is based in some way on Goethe's The Erlking. We have Kate and her daughter Ruthie (whose name is really Ondine, which in European folklore is a fairy-like creature) on their way to the Elves' Faire, some sort of Renaissance festival at the local Waldorf School. As Kate admires the grounds, she regrets that she hasn't enrolled Ruthie her, and also ponders the other option, the Jewish Montessori school, that had rejected their...

Rerun: In the Palace of Cortés

I just had a chance to revisit my story In the Palace of Cortés which appeared in Per Contra some time ago, and thought I'd just post a link here in case anyone else wants to do the same.

Tin House to Require Bookstore Receipt for Unsolicited Manuscripts - mediabistro.com: GalleyCat

Tin House to Require Bookstore Receipt for Unsolicited Manuscripts - mediabistro.com: GalleyCat
You want to submit to Tin House (Books or Magazine), you gotta buy a book and send them your receipt. I'm not too upset about this, frankly. I buy books all the time, usually once a week and usually in a bookstore. This won't be hardship for me. In fact, I've offered to sell receipts (or scanned copies thereof) to people who desperately want to submit to the press or the magazine but can't be...

The New Yorker: "The Young Painters" by Nicole Krauss

I liked this "story" a lot. It's not a short story, of course. It's an excerpt from Krauss's forthcoming novel. I wonder if all these excerpts mean that the editors of The New Yorker believe the short story is a dead art form. But then I thought the novel was supposed to be dead, so maybe the new new thing is the novel excerpt—neither story nor novel, but a digestible hunk of fiction.
Still, I liked this. The narrator (Nadia, according to the Q&A with Nicole Krauss, but not so identified in...

Peace Corps Writers - Review: Peter Blair's poetry about the PC experience – Farang

I met Peter Blair at the AWP Conference in Denver this year. It's nice to see his book getting a little exposure!
Peace Corps Writers - Review: Peter Blair's poetry about the PC experience – Farang