Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 35
December 16, 2019
2020 Literary Magazine Ranking–Poetry
Below is the 2020 Perpetual Folly Literary Magazine Ranking for Poetry. Go here to read about the methodology.
If you find the list useful, please consider making a donation.
2020 RankMagazine2019 Rank2020 Score1Poetry181.52Kenyon Review2503American
Poetry Review3444Poem-a-Day840.55New England Review5376Southern Review6367Threepenny Review4348Paris Review1424.59Gettysburg Review723.510Sun1021.511Copper Canyon Press111812Cincinnati Review1217.513Ploughshares91714Georgia Review161615Michigan Quarterly Review3314.516Blackbird2013.516Five Points2113.516Tin House1313.519Copper
Nickel231319Spillway161321Boston Review1912.521Field1512.523New
Ohio Review261223Poetry
Northwest511225Agni1611.526Beloit
Poetry Journal1831126Birmingham Poetry
Review1831126Ecotone511126Poetry
Review271126Rattle211126Virginia Quarterly Review331132Lake
Effect301032Sugar House Review241032Vallum:
Contemporary Poetry241032Willow Springs691036Arroyo Literary Review339.536Southern
Indiana Review339.536American Scholar518.536Literary Imagination418.536The Journal278.541jubilat29841Massachusetts Review37841Sixth
Finch38844Alaska Quarterly Review697.544Four
Way Books307.544Tupelo
Press307.544ZYZZYVA417.548Hudson Review48748Ninth Letter41748Tar
River48748Yale Review41752BOA
Editions486.552Pleiades416.554Adroit Journal51654Alice
James Books69654Missouri Review38654Nepantla51654Plume69654Prelude51654Salamander69654Southeast
Review51654White
Pine Press51654Foglifter664Codex515.564Greensboro Review615.564New
Criterion615.564Nimrod615.564River Styx405.569Abstract Magazine TV69569American
Journal of Poetry69569Benniington Review69569Bettering American Poetry69569Butcher’s Dog69569Cave Wall69569Conduit69569Constellations69569Crab Orchard Review69569Foundry69569Hawaii Pacific Review69569Hopkins Review61569I-70 Review69569Image41569Kweli Journal69569LitMag69569LSU
Press69569Moonpie
Press69569Nerve
Cowboy69569New Orleans Review69569Prism69569Purple Passion Press69569Quarterly West69569Rhino69569River Teeth69569Salmagundi61569Saturnalia
Books69569Seneca Review69569Shade Journal69569Smartish
Pace41569Storm Cellar69569Summerset Review69569Sycamore Review69569TAB69569Thrush69569Tiger Bark Press69569Tipton Poetry Journal69569Tule
Review69569Volta69569Wordtemple Press69569Bare Life Review569Clover ©569Love’s Executive Order569Twyckenham
Notes569Washington Square Review569Waxwing
Literary Journal5115Denver Quarterly1174.5116Hotel Amerika1194116Indiana Review1224116Little Patuxent
Review1194116Shenandoah1174120Awl513.5120Crazyhorse1223.5120Hunger Mountain1223.5120Zone
31223.5124Gulf Coast613124Lana Turner613124Little
Star613124Paterson Literary Review1273124Poetry International1273124Subtropics1273124Palette Poetry31315 a.m. © 1302.5131Account692.5131Assaracus (?)1302.5131Atlanta
Review1302.5131Briar Cliff Review1302.5131Brick692.5131Café
Review1302.5131Collagist1302.5131Court Green © 1302.5131Cypher
Books (?)1302.5131Dunes Review1302.5131Eleven Eleven1302.5131Fifth Wednesday © 1302.5131Forklift Ohio1302.5131Granta692.5131Graywolf Press692.5131Great River Review692.5131Green Mountains
Review1302.5131Harbour Publishing1302.5131Harvard Review1302.5131Ibbetson
Street1302.5131Malahat Review692.5131Manhattan Review1302.5131Muzzle Magazine1302.5131Nebraska
Poets Calendar © 1302.5131New South Books1302.5131New Verse News1302.5131Notre Dame Review1302.5131Orion1302.5131Parnassus: Poetry in
Review1302.5131Pilot Light1302.5131Pleasure Boat
Studio1302.5131Poems & Plays (?)1302.5131Quiddity1302.5131Southern Poetry
Review1302.5131Spork
(?)1302.5131Think Journal1302.5131Treelight Books1302.5131Verse Wisconsin © 1302.5131Water-Stone Review1302.5131YesYes Books1302.5172Colorado Review1832172Narrative1702172New South1302172Prairie Schooner1302172Upstreet1702172Verse Daily1702172World Literature Today1702179Believer1751.5179Cimarron Review1751.5179Hampden-Sydney
Poetry Review1751.5179Iron Horse Literary Review1701.5179New Letters2321.5179Poet Lore1751.5179University
of Pittsburgh Press1751.5186Academy of American Poets1831186Bauhan Publshing1831186Birdfeast1751186Chinquapin Literary
Magazine1831186Chiron Review1831186Cleveland State
Univ. Poetry Ctr.1831186Cossack Review (?)1831186Cutbank1831186Enizagam1831186Epoch1221186Exit
71831186Great Weather
for Media1831186Grub Street1831186Gulf Stream (?)1831186Gun Powder Press1831186Heart1831186Hobart1831186Iowa Review1301186Jai-Alai (?)1831186Lake, The1831186Louisiana
Literature1831186McNeese Review1831186Meadow1831186MIZNA1831186North American Review1191186Offing1831186OmniVerse1831186One Throne1831186Pinch1831186Pluck1831186Poetry South1831186Porkbelly Press1831186Portland Review1186QWERTY1831186Radius1831186Raleigh Review1831186Raritan1751186Rove1831186Rumpus1831186Saranac Review1831186Scablands Books1831186Southwest Review1751186Springhouse1831186Tupelo Quarterly1831186Upstairs at Duroc (?)1831186Wave Books1831186Yarn1831186Pembroke Magazine1186Common, The1186Valley Voices1236A Public Space2320.5236Able Muse2320.5236Airlie Press2320.5236Autumn House2320.5236Barefoot Muse2320.5236Bellevue Literary Review2320.5236Black
Warrior Review1830.5236Bloom1830.5236Blue Earth Review2320.5236Calyx2320.5236Cardinal Points2320.5236Chautauqua2320.5236Clockhouse1830.5236Columbia
Poetry Review2320.5236Connecticut
Review2320.5236Construction1830.5236Evansville
Review2320.5236Examined Life2320.5236Fort Hemlock Press © 2320.5236Hanging
Loose2320.5236Haven Chronicles (?)2320.5236Healing Muse2320.5236Hollins
Critic2320.5236InDigest (?)2320.5236Live Mag!2320.5236Long Island
Quarterly2320.5236Make2320.5236New Haven Review2320.5236New Madrid2320.5236Normal School2320.5236Paris American1830.5236Persea Books2320.5236Silk Road2320.5236Sink Review2320.5236Solstice1830.5236Specs (?)2320.5236Valparaiso Poetry Review2320.5236Verse Magazine2320.5236Wordcraft of
Oregon2320.5236Zephyr Press2320.5
2020 Literary Magazine Ranking–Non-Fiction
Below is the 2020 Perpetual Folly Literary Magazine Ranking for Non-Fiction. Go here to read about the methodology.
If you find the list useful, please consider making a donation.
2020 RankMagazine2019 Rank2020 Score1Sun2552Georgia Review3473Orion144.54Tin House435.55Granta5346Ploughshares1033.57Salmagundi9298Gettysburg Review627.59n+11226.510Threepenny Review1424.511Point,
The102312Creative Nonfiction1822.513Agni82113Fourth Genre122115New England Review2519.516Narrative2118.516New Letters718.518River Teeth161619Conjunctions151420Iowa Review1913.521Antioch
Review221321Brevity331321Paris Review231324American Scholar1712.524Missouri Review1912.524Oxford American2512.527Ecotone231028Kenyon Review318.528Southern Review298.528Virginia Quarterly Review258.531Boulevard30831Image25833Pinch38733Southampton Review32735Bennington Review38635McSweeney’s100635War, Literature and The Arts35635World
Literature Today38639Bat City375.539Believer375.539Ninth Letter375.542About Place Journal38542Colorado Review37542Fourth River38542Gigantic (?)38542Sewanee Review38547Harvard Review574.548Big Roundtable (?)53448Blackbird50448Hedgehog Review64448Yale Review34452Alaska Quarterly Review573.552Hudson Review503.552Raritan503.552Ruminate573.552Shenandoah573.557Broad
Street53357Hunger Mountain57357Normal School53357Prairie Schooner64357Sweet64362American
Circus (?)692.562Brain, Child532.562Brick642.562Fugue692.562Great River Review692.562Massachusetts Review882.562Michigan Quarterly Review692.562New Orleans Review382.562News from the Republic of Letters
(?) 692.562Radio Silence382.562Seattle
Review (?)692.562Southwest Review572.562Tusculum692.562ZYZZYVA882.576Another Chicago Magazine100276Bellevue Literary Review78276Boston Review69276Catapult78276Common, The100276Crazyhorse100276Electric Literature78276Five Points78276Guernica78276Gulf Coast100276Hopkins Review78276Milkweed Editions – Press78276O-Dark-Thirty78276Offing78276Prism78276TriQuarterly57276Water-Stone Review69293Florida Review881.593High
Desert Journal1451.593Lapham’s Quarterly881.593Los
Angeles Review881.593Mount Hope881.593Passages North881.593Under
the Sun881.5100American Athenaeum (?)881100American
Chordata1001100Arts & Letters1001100Baffler1001100Baltimore Review1100Barrelhouse1001100Black Warrior Review1100Bomb1001100Catamaran1001100Caught by the River1001100Chattahoochee Review1100Cimarron Review1001100Cincinnati Review1100Consequence1001100Crab Orchard Review1001100Denver Quarterly1001100Epiphany1001100Epoch1001100Heyday
Books1001100Kitchen
Work1001100Malahat
Review1001100Memoir © 1001100Pacific Standard1001100Pleiades1100Provincetown Arts1001100Redivider1001100Room1001100Santa Monica Review1001100Slice1001100StoryQuarterly1100Tahoma Literary Review1001100Terrain.org1001100Third Coast351100Tikkun1001100Timberline
Review1001100Transition1001100True Story1001100Willow Springs881100Witness881100Zone
31001100Red Hen Press1100Turtle Point Press1100War
Horse1100Speak 1100Potomac Review1145A Public Space1450.5145Alimentum1000.5145American
Poetry Review640.5145Arts Fuse1450.5145Bookforum1450.5145Camera Obscura1450.5145Canteen (?)1450.5145Chautauqua1450.5145Chicago
Review1000.5145Columbia Review1450.5145Dart
Society1450.5145Delmarva Review1000.5145Diagram1450.5145Europa
Editions1450.5145Fiction1450.5145Fiction International1450.5145Fifth Wednesday © 1000.5145Five Chapters © 1450.5145Free
Inquiry1450.5145Haystack
Mountain1450.5145High Country News1450.5145Hub City Press1450.5145Idaho Review1450.5145Literary Review1450.5145Manoa1450.5145Minnesota Review1450.5145Natural Bridge1000.5145Nelle (formerly
PMS)1450.5145New Ohio Review880.5145Noon1450.5145North American Review1000.5145North Dakota Quarterly1450.5145Oregon Humanities1000.5145Oregon Quarterly1450.5145Packinghouse Review © 1450.5145River Styx1450.5145Rumpus1450.5145Subtropics1450.5145Tavern Books1000.5145The Journal1450.5145Tupelo Press1450.5145University of Michigan Press1450.5145Wag’s Revue1450.5145Wilson Quarterly1000.5145Writers
Chronicle1450.5
December 5, 2019
2019 Reading–November
November was a busy month for me, in part because of the election early in the month and in part because I left for Spain near the middle of the month. Still, I managed to finish these books:
[image error]The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger
The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger is a timely novel about corruption in school admissions. Set in a suburb of Denver, the story revolves around four women and their families, a cast that is sometimes hard to keep straight. At the heart of the novel, though, is Rose, a successful scientist and her less successful husband, Gareth, a novelist. The local school district is developing a magnet school for gifted children and the four women will do almost anything to get their children admitted. The children of the four women—two normal girls, a chess genius, a teen rebel, and a couple of soccer whizzes—are far less interested in the outcome of their applications, however. Complicating it all, each of the families is going through problems unrelated to the school, including grief over a lost spouse, financial problems, a failing marriage, etc. It’s an amusing read.
[image error]Down by the Eno, Down by the Haw by Thorpe Moeckel
Down by the Eno, Down
by the Haw by Thorpe Moeckel is called an essay collection, but it feels
very much to me like poetry, which shouldn’t surprise as Moeckel is primarily a
poet. In this book, he explores the woods of North Carolina, becoming
acquainted with the animals and plants he encounters and experiencing with them
the seasonal transformations. I could pick just about any passage to exemplify
what he’s doing in this book, but I like this one: “Accuracy is not everything,
but it’s close. I don’t come to the woods to be an expert at anything. I come
here to see where I’ll be led and let myself be lost enough to be led. My
destination is wandering, my motive not clarity but surprise. Emptiness means
acceptance that the void is full of everything and nothing, more crowded than
God’s voicemail.”
[image error]Rewilding by January Gill O’Neil
Rewilding by
January Gill O’Neil is a fine collection of poems from which I heard the author
read earlier this year at the Virginia Festival of the Book. Several of the
early poems in the book are about her marriage and divorce, and even some of
the later poems are at least in part about being
divorced. Of course, that’s in keeping with the collection’s title, which the
poet helpfully defines in an epigram: “1. To reverse the process of
domestication. 2. To return to a more wild or self-willed state.” Probably my
favorite poem in the book is “Brave,” which moves forward and back in time from
her wedding in the aftermath of 9/11 to the divorce court that ended her
marriage.
[image error]Meander Belt by M. Randal O’Wain
Meander Belt by M. Randal O’Wain is a muscular collection of essays about the author’s strained relationships with his father and brother and their untimely deaths. Although prose, these pieces reminded me very much of the poetry collection Tap Out by Edgar Kunz that I read earlier this year. The narrative is brutally frank, describes a bleak environment that is unfamiliar to me, and ultimately reveals a man’s emotions in a way that we don’t usually see in literature. And given that I’ll always question my own relationship with my father, these kinds of explorations continue to draw me in. While the chapters can be read independently, they are arranged chronologically and the effect is a successful whole work of memoir.
[image error]The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón while in Barcelona on a working vacation at the end of the month. The book had been recommended to me ages ago, but for some reason I never took it off the shelf. Set mostly in the 1940s and ‘50s, the book is about Daniel Sempere who, when he is a boy, comes across a book by a mysterious writer. Enthralled, Daniel seeks to find out more about the writer, Julian Carax, and in the process discovers the tragic history of his city and country. While it was a huge bestseller, many writers I know struggled with the book because of the way the story is told. In addition, I found it melodramatic—exaggerated emotions, tragic in broad strokes—so I can’t say I loved it. However, because Zafón uses real streets and locations in Barcelona for key events in the plot, it was great fun to read the book after walking around those same streets.
November 1, 2019
2019 Reading–October
How to Write an
Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee, for me, didn’t live up to the
praise I’d heard about the book. While the first essay, about learning Spanish
in Mexico, was somewhat engaging (despite the author’s self-congratulations for
his fluency), the essay about reading tarot cards completely lost me.
Seriously? Writers are often eccentric, but that was a bit much. Many of the
other essays felt like opportunities for name dropping and, again, boasting,
without offering too much in the way of larger life lessons. Along the way
there are some writing tips, but nothing that most writers haven’t heard
before.
[image error]Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
Head Off & Split
by Nikky Finney from Northwestern University Press won the National Book Award
for Poetry in 2011 and Finney inscribed a copy to me when I was visiting the NU
Press at the AWP Conference earlier this year. (I got a couple of her other
books signed, too.) In contrast with much of the poetry I’ve been reading
lately, these are long poems. And while the personal and family experiences
Finney writes about are far from my own, any empathetic reader will appreciate
them. As Thomas Sayers Ellis writes in a blurb for the book, “No one opens a
vein on the page with a sharper and more nuanced gathered set of senses than
Nikky Finney.”
[image error]The Story of Language by John McWhorter
The Story of Language
by John McWhorter is an audio version of a Great Course from The Teaching
Company. I had previously read McWhorter’s book The Power of Babel because I’m very interested in the evolution of
language. My book club read a book about tracing human origins back to Africa,
and that made me curious about language. Indeed, McWhorter and other linguists
start with the assumption that the “first language” started back then and
evolved into the various languages we now know as humans spread (and time
passed). Regrettably, it’s hard to nail down the family tree specifically, or
even as closely as we can do with DNA. For example, English is part of a large
language family known as Indo-European, and it is believed (but not known),
that Proto-Indo-European developed among the people who lived on the southern
steppes of Russia, and then began to split as those people migrated. Of course,
PIE would have developed from whatever preceded that language, so where did
THOSE people come from and how did the language of their ancestors become PIE?
We don’t know. The rest of the book is about how languages change, and that’s
interesting enough to keep me going for all 38 lessons.
[image error]
We Love You Anderson
Cooper by R.L. Maizes is an enjoyable collection of short stories, some
with a slightly sinister feel, others verging on the supernatural: there’s the
tattoo artist who can do magical transformation with his work, the psychologist
who acquires a mysterious couch, a cat who is over-protective of its owner,
etc. In all, family relationships, especially failed marriages, are at the
center. It’s a short book and recommended reading.
[image error]The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Overstory by Richard Powers is a powerful, if melodramatic, novel with an agenda: we’re doomed if we don’t start respecting trees, and most of us are going to stand by and do nothing while the catastrophe plays out. The first third of the book consists of distinct chapters introducing the main players in the drama, although tree-imagery links these pieces together. It is only in the second third that we begin to see how the narratives intersect, as each character is drawn in one way or another to a movement to defend forests, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, against insatiable logging. We then see how this activism plays out, for better or worse. As the story unfolds, Powers delivers more information about trees than anyone really needs. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. (Note that the cover accompanying this paragraph says “Winner of the National Book Award,” but the book did NOT win that award. Instead, Powers won the award for an earlier novel, The Echo Maker.)
[image error]The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt
The Swerve: How the
World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt is fascinating. In 1417, Poggio
Bracciolini, an Italian scribe who had until recently worked as a secretary to
the Pope, discovered a copy of a “lost” manuscript in the library of a
monastery in Germany. It was a long poem written in the First Century BCE by
Lucretius called “On the Nature of Things” and, Greenblatt argues, it launched
us into the modern era. Much of the book feels like a digression, however,
albeit a fascinating digression. I learned a great deal about political and
church affairs in Central Europe in the 15th Century at the time
that Poggio was Apostolic Secretary to Pope John XXIII—sometimes called
Antipope John because he was one of three claimants to the papacy and was
ultimately deposed and imprisoned.
October 29, 2019
Cover Reveal: House of the Ancients and Other Stories (Forthcoming, May 2020)
I am delighted to announce that Press 53 will publish my third short fiction collection, House of the Ancients and Other Stories, in May 2020. It has been a long time since my last collection (What the Zhang Boys Know came out in October 2012), so I’m thrilled. Some of the stories in the new book were published more than ten years ago, some just this year, so there’s quite a range. Unlike my first two collections, this book isn’t unified by theme or setting. It is divided into four parts and there are linkages within the parts, but they can all be read separately.
Information about pre-orders will be available soon.
October 28, 2019
Book Reviews
Book reviews come in all shapes, sizes, and venues, but they
can provide very helpful feedback to writers. Certainly other writers should
always make an effort to review what they read in some way; that’s just being a
good literary citizen and is a way to “pay it forward.” But writers also want
to hear from casual readers and professional reviewers.
First, a word about full reviews (as opposed to casual
reviews). Although most newspapers have eliminated their book review pages,
there are still a lot of print and online venues for book reviews. Several
years ago, I joined the National Book Critics Circle because I was interested
in staying on top of trends and markets. But, while I enjoy writing reviews,
I’m a slow reader and writer, so I can’t produce a lot of reviews without
stealing time from my fiction writing. As a result, I haven’t pursued all the
opportunities that are out there for publishing reviews.
Still, over the last couple of years I’ve had several
reviews published:
Inland by Téa Obreht, in New York
Journal of Books
Growing Things by Paul Tremblay, in
Washington Independent Review of Books
Happy
Dreams by Jia Pingwa in Washington
Independent Review of Books
Eveningland by Michael Knight in Washington
Independent Review of Books
Village by Stanley Crawfordin Washington Independent Review of
Books
Refuge by Merilyn Simonds in New
York Journal of Books
Then there are casual reviews. I like to keep track of the
books I read on Goodreads. Some people
keep a reading journal, which is nice, but the public nature of Goodreads
provides information to other readers and authors that can be valuable. I don’t
always write a review of the books I read, but I almost always provide a star
rating, five for excellent books, one for terrible (or even zero stars,
although those ratings don’t get included in the average). I might not comment
about a book by a big-name author who has hundreds or thousands of ratings or
reviews—my voice isn’t going to matter much in those cases—for a friend or an
emerging writer, I usually do. It’s helpful to lesser-known writers to have
more ratings/reviews on Goodreads. (Ahem. I’d love it if you’d dash over to
Goodreads and leave a rating and/or review on any of my books, all of which are
listed there.)
Reviews on Amazon.com require slightly more effort because a star rating isn’t enough. You have to write a sentence or two and give your review a title. Consequently, I usually only do this for emerging writers or friends and typically I copy the review I did on Goodreads and post it on Amazon. (And if I’ve blurbed the book in advance of publication, which I do sometimes, I might just post the blurb as if it were a review.) Amazon reviews are extremely helpful. The more reviews a book has, the more likely Amazon’s algorithms are to recommend it to other readers. (Apparently, you have to be an Amazon customer to post a review, but you don’t have to have bought the book you’re reviewing on Amazon.)
In a slightly different environment, there are reviews on blogs and social media. Lots of readers use their personal blogs as reading journals, posting reviews of varying lengths that their blog subscribers see. On my blog I do a single monthly post about my reading for the prior month, usually devoting a paragraph or two to each book. My blog posts also show up on my social media feeds, so my followers may see my commentary there. Then there are the more dedicated book bloggers who write longer reviews on their sites and may even do them on the basis of advance reader copies (ARCs) sent to them by the publishers or publicists. Book bloggers aren’t exactly professional reviewers, but they are unquestionably part of the publicity machine for books.
Reviews in general periodicals—newspapers, magazines,
literary reviews. Book review space in newspapers is shrinking, so few books
actually get reviewed there. These are often assigned reviews, so a writer
usually can’t simply read a book, review it, and submit the piece for
publication. (Having said that, I recently did just that, and two months later
I’m waiting for the magazine to either accept or reject the review.) Reviews in
the most prominent newspapers are highly sought after, but there are millions
of publishers and publicists chasing that space on behalf of their writers.
October 24, 2019
Happy Birthday to IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY!
Ten years ago this month, Press 53 published my first book, In an Uncharted Country, a collection of linked short stories. By the time the book came out, all but one of the stories had appeared in magazines, either online or in print, but it was a huge thrill to see them in book form and to be able to share them with readers.
I began writing the stories shortly after I moved to the Shenandoah Valley from Washington DC. I loved the new environment, but it took me a while to feel at home. That sense of displacement apparently informed my writing from that period, because many of the stories in the book are about people who are feeling out of place–newcomers to the small town that is the setting for the book, or estranged from their families, or otherwise feeling lost.
Some writers I admire greatly were generous with their praise:
This collection
delivers on its title: each story takes us into an area–emotional and
geographic–that we may not have been before. There is an impressive variety
here, and Garstang’s ability as a storyteller is on display each time. These
characters are real, vulnerable, and always, in unique ways, brave. — Elizabeth
Strout, author of Pulitzer Prize-winner Olive Kitteridge
In an Uncharted Country is an impeccably written, sumptuously
imagined, and completely enchanting book of stories, each with its own high
ambitions, each successful both as prose and as story. Clifford Garstang is the
real thing–a writer loaded with talent. And this book is a reminder of the
delightful miracles a good story can perform in a reader’s heart. — Tim
O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried and National Book
Award-winner Going After Cacciato
In an Uncharted Country is a subtly braided collection of spare, taut stories that conjures a community and a way of life with respect, affection and intimacy. Clifford Garstang often captures his characters at sharp moments of loss, but it is their dogged perseverance in the face of those losses that makes these figures move us. — Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl and winner of the 2008 PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction
If you would like to buy a copy of the book, Press 53 has it on sale for $10. Or, if you see me, I’ll be happy to sell you one for that price, too. Signed!
Happy 10th Birthday to my first book!
October 1, 2019
2019 Reading–September
I’m pleased with my September reading, especially because I was traveling a fair amount and also needed to write a book review for one of the titles, which for me is time-consuming.
[image error]Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Bastard out of
Carolina by Dorothy Allison has been around a long time, but I’m just
getting around to reading it. It is the story of Ruth Ann, aka Bone, a girl
born out of wedlock in South Carolina. Her mother then meets and falls in love
with a handsome young man, she has another child, and the man is killed in an
accident. The mother, Annie, then marries Glenn, a man who is good to her but
abusive to Bone, although Annie doesn’t or won’t see it. The book is a harsh
picture of what it means to grow up poor, and while this particular family is
Southern, in an afterward to the audio version Allison makes the point the same
thing could have happened in a Northern family, and we shouldn’t use this story
to reinforce the “white trash” stereotype. However, that’s exactly what the
book does. The Boatwright family is an extended bunch of brawlers and boozers
and the women aren’t much better than the men. Education is not a priority for
anyone and as a result no one escapes. If Allison didn’t want to imprint the
sterotype on the culture, she’d have set it in the North.
[image error]Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne is a detailed account of the conflict between various bands of Comanches, particularly the band led by Quanah Parker, and white settlers on the frontier, primarily in Texas. The book paints an excruciatingly clear picture of the brutality of the Comanches. However, it feels as though not enough attention is given to the fact that the settlers were stealing their land and committing their share of atrocities, too. While Parker (a name taken from the captive white woman who was his mother) and the other Comanches killed many on their raids conducted against the settlers, weren’t they only defending their territory against invaders? I’m not sure the book does enough to make that point. Still, I confess my relative ignorance about Native Americans, and this book was enlightening in many ways. This book was my bookclub’s selection for the month and coincidentally I had it with me to read when I attended a book tradeshow where I met the author (and picked up his latest book). He was delighted that we were reading his older book, now almost ten years old.
[image error]Conversations with Kafka by Gustav Janouch
Conversations with
Kafka by Gustav Janouch is a peculiar book that I found in a used bookstore
right before I left for a trip to Prague, Kafka’s home. When Janouch was a
young man, and for many years until Kafka died in 1924, the two of them met
frequently. (Kafka was a lawyer in insurance company run by Janouch’s father,
who introduced them.) They would sit in Kafka’s office or stroll in Prague’s
streets to discuss various subjects, mostly literature. It is a fascinating
look at Prague in the early part of the last century, and a glimpse into
Kafka’s mind. I enjoyed reading while I myself was exploring that city, where
Kafka is still quite a presence.
[image error]Inland by Tea Obreht
Inland by Téa Obreht
has just come and I’m glad to have read it, although I can’t say I loved the
book. It’s a braided narrative involving decades in the life of an orphaned
immigrant (eventually a “cameleer”) and one day in the life of an unhappy
frontier wife. The two stories share themes of flight and drought, as well as
hardships on the frontier. I wrote a full review of this one for the New York
Journal of Books, and I concluded in the review that the novel left me
unsatisfied. While there are thematic linkages between the two narratives, the
plot linkage is pretty thin. (Hard to explain what it is without giving away
the one little thrill that the book offers.)
[image error]Tacoma Stories by Richard Wiley
Tacoma Stories by
Richard Wiley is a fine collection of linked short stories set (mostly) in
Tacoma, Washington. I’ve known Wiley for a while (and he blurbed my latest
book) as we both served in the Peace Corps in South Korea, although he was
there long before I was. Although Wiley has written about Korea in earlier
books, this one has just a reference to that country, as one of the main
characters reflects on his military service there and a later visit when he
encounters a woman he had known. I like to see one story in a linked collection
that serves as a capstone, and this book’s finale is a terrific way to end a
work like this, at least from a writer’s point of view, as it is an opportunity
for several characters to come together and reflect on the fact that they are
characters in a book by one of their old friends. It’s a bit of metafiction that,
in my view, takes this book to another level.
[image error]What My Hand Say by Glenis Redmond
What My Hand Say
by Glenis Redmond is a collection of poems praised by Kwame Dawes and Kathryn
Stripling Byer. Redmond’s poems offer a real range of emotions, some of intense
anger, some sadness, some love. At their heart is the African American
experience, from the unimaginable harshness of enslavement to the pain of
discrimination. An empathetic reader will find much to appreciate here.
[image error]On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly
Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is novel in the form of a long letter to the
narrator’s mother. They are immigrants from Vietnam who have endured a range of
hardships, but the narrator responds to the abuse his mother perpetrated on him
as well as the madness that afflicted her and her own mother. As a boy, Little
Dog, as he is known in the family, becomes attracted to a white boy and
experiences sex with him. Ultimately, the novel combines the immigrant story
with both coming of age and coming out tales. Vuong, a poet, writes beautifully
(although sometimes obscurely), and that helps freshen the story he’s telling,
which otherwise feels too familiar.
September 30, 2019
My Visit to Gettysburg College
I had the pleasure of visiting Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA last week at the invitation of the English Department and its writing program. Gettysburg is only about a three-hour drive from here, and my route took me right through the battlefield on my way into town. (A visit to the battlefield will have to wait for another trip.)
Shortly after I arrived, Fred Leebron, a former teacher of
mine and a Professor at the College, picked me up at my hotel and took me to a
coffee shop, The Ugly Mug, where I met with a number of writing students. For
about an hour we talked about my path toward writing and publication. I wish we’d
had time to chat longer, but we had to head off to the next event.
[image error]
On campus, in a beautiful event room called The Lyceum, I
gave a reading from The Shaman of Turtle
Valley to an audience of about 50 people—students, faculty, and others.
Fred wanted me to read for about 35 minutes, which is a good deal longer than I
usually read, so I did a combination of talking about the book and reading
different sections to give a flavor of the different voices. One question I got
afterward was which of the voices was my favorite. I’d never thought about that
before, but off the top of my head—probably the best answer—I said it was the
main character’s cousin. Why, then, Fred asked me later, did I not read one of
her sections? Excellent question, Fred, and I won’t make that mistake again.
There were book sales and signing and then we went off to
dinner at a local Irish pub with another faculty member.
The next day, I had to rush back home (so no time to visit
battlefields or wander around Gettysburg’s quaint downtown). But I loved the
visit and would welcome the opportunity to read at other colleges.
September 23, 2019
Q&A
I enjoy being interviewed because the questions always make me think. Sometimes they are written queries and responses, sometimes they are recorded podcasts. Recently, several of these question and answer sessions have appeared online and I wanted to share them:
Madam Mayo (C.M. Mayo) is a writer I’ve known for quite a while. She has a great blog that you may want to explore beyond the interview, but here is our exchange: Q&A with Clifford Garstang
Snowflakes in a Blizzard is a blog that seeks to “separate authors from the herd” and bring them to the attention of readers. There were some fun questions here: The Shaman of Turtle Valley
Virginia Living did an article about my new book recently that was part review and part interview: Culture Shock in the Shenandoah.
Book Club Babble did an interview with me earlier this year: Interview with Clifford Garstang
JMWW‘s Curtis Smith interviewed me before the new book came out, back when I had no idea what anyone’s reaction would be: The Shaman of Community.
Hasty Book List did an interview I enjoyed if only because the questions were mostly a departure from the usual: Interview with Clifford Garstang
The Writer’s Story is a relatively new podcast featuring writers in conversation with Kristin Swenson and Meredith Cole: Guest Clifford Garstang
Big Blend Radio‘s Nancy & Lisa featured me on their show in June. This was a lot of fun because I’d talked to them before about my work: The Shaman of Turtle Valley
The Writer’s Bone did a podcast with me last November, long before the new book came out, but Volume III of Everywhere Stories had just appeared, so I talked about that with Daniel Ford on their Friday Morning Coffee series: Conversation with Cliff Garstang.
That’s a whole lot of talking about myself, and I even feel like I left something out. As publication of my new book gets closer (May 2020), I suppose I can start all over again!
