Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 169

Jessie Carty interviews Cliff Garstang

Must be an ego thing, but I like being interviewed. Check out this very nice conversation I recently had with Jessie Carty: Interview with Cliff Garstang.

Thanks, Jessie!

Snow

Lots of it, and it can't be ignored any longer. We've been hit by two huge storms this season along with several smaller storms that in other years would have been considered major. The first big one was shortly before Christmas. I was at VCCA at the time, where we had even more snow, but at my house about 20 inches fell. Which would have been fine, but I wasn't here to deal with it, and when I got home two days later -- I couldn't get in my driveway. I had to park in the neighbor's driveway,...

New Issue: The Short Review

The February issue of The Short Review is up and filled with lots of reviews of short story collections, as usual. This month there are reviews of collections by Russell Bittner, Tom Lee, Stefanie Freele, Joseph Young, Betty Sera-Rojas, James Buchanan, Alisa Cox, Davy Byrnes, and anthologies from McSweeneys and Oxfam. Not to mention interviews and various other goodies.

The New Yorker: "William Burns" by Roberto Bolaño

I have little to say about this story. It is framed, as some other Bolaño stories are, as a story told to him by someone else. It involves Burns, an American who becomes involved with two women who live together, along with their dogs. They ask for his protection against a killer and in the process of his protection, he kills the "killer." He eventually realizes that the man he has killed is no killer. Later, Burns himself is killed, presumably by his successor, just as he was apparently his ...

Andrew's Book Club: February

It's time for the February picks from Andrew's Book Club, and this time he's chosen a couple of books about which I know little.

The "Indie Pick" is Lyn Kilpatrick's In the House from FC2.

The "Big House Pick" is Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever by Justin Taylor from Harper.

Print vs. Online

This really isn't about that, at least not in any conclusive way. I mostly aim to publish my longer work in print and shorter work online. That's not any kind of a judgment on my part; it's just where those pieces seem to me to fit best. Since I've been working "long" lately, I haven't been publishing much on line. But I know that there are lots of very fine online publications--more, in fact, than I can keep up with.

Which is why I wanted to mention two websites that keep up with those online...

Million Writers Award

The Million Writers Award, sponsored by storySouth, is now accepting nominations from readers and editors for the best short fiction (over 1000 words) that appeared online in 2009. Got a favorite? Nominate!

The Cradle by Patrick Somerville

The Cradle
Patrick Somerville
Little Brown 2009

Matt Bishop is on a quest. His pregnant wife, Marissa, insists that he find the cradle, the one that she slept in as an infant and that her mother, who walked out on her, stole. Marissa has no idea where her mother might be, but she sends out into the wilds of Wisconsin to find that cradle. Armed with one clue, the address of a relative, off he goes. Great premise for a book, and on a quest anything can happen.
But there's more: Renee Owen gave up a...

The New Yorker: "Fjord of Killary" by Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry has a novel coming out, but based on its title, I'd guess this story is just a story. (But I could be wrong about that; it might just be the rare excerpt that works well on its own.) Which is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned, because mostly I liked it a lot.

But first things first. Caoimhin (Irish for "Kevin") has acquired a 350-year-old hotel ("So I bought an old hotel on the fjord of Killary," is the first line, which I love). He had wanted to escape the city and had romant...

Writers At The Beach: Seaglass 2010

Writers At The Beach: Seaglass 2010

Check out the site of this conference coming up in March. I'm on a couple of panels and the rest of the faculty looks terrific. It's a great opportunity to learn something, do a little networking with writers, and help out a good cause. I hope to see you there!