Gabe Durham's Blog, page 25

Reminder: Reading This Saturday, July 24

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I'm reading some fiction alongside the poets Kyle McCord and Keith Montesano as a leg of their national tour. Both Kyle and Keith's first books just came out with Dream Horse Press.

The Titans of Library

Kyle McCord – Keith Montesano – Gabe Durham

Nashville Public Library (Special Collections Center)

Saturday, July 24 – 3 pm

After our reading, Keith and Kyle will hit the road once more:

Sunday, July 25th Atlanta, GA

Beep Beep Gallery 8:00 (w Kara Candito)

Monday, July 26th Oakwood, GA
Gainesville S...

Jack White on Constraint

Here's a clip from the excellent White Stripes tour doc, Under the Great White Northern Lights (interview starts around 35 seconds in):

MAR

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The new 30th anniversary super-issue of Mid-American Review is out. It features one of my favorite stories of mine, "Every Mostly Great Man in the State." Here's a paragraph, plucked nearly at random:

"Well I've had a tough day too," the boss said. "My nephew keeps popping his head in the door to ask, 'Are all the hats this heavy?' 'What does it mean when a marble is smooth?' 'Do I have to wear a shirt to work?' I mean he was a bracketeering major in college—though he was also a business...

Callahan on works in translation and DFW and Bernhard and making good art and stuff

The new Collagist issue that came out today features an alive and thoughtful essay by Jonathan Callahan, a writer whose work I've gotten to spend a little time with lately, doing some close readings that get at the ways technical skill serves emotional truth in fiction, reaffirming some things you really can't hear too many times.

Here's the second to last paragraph:

What I suppose I discovered in my recent reading of works in translation then is a kind of liberation: These books, in the form...

PANK Interview + News + Link + mmm!

I did one of those wet n' wild interviews for which the PANK blog is famous. All questions but one directly reference text from my pieces in their online issue.

New Fun Camps are coming out in Quick Fiction, Everyday Genius (Luke Goebel's upcoming month as editor), NOÖ Journal, and Gargoyle (though since Gargoyle is an annual, that one won't be out until next summer).

Killer Franzen excerpt. Potentially melodramatic subject but really well-handled. I'll read the book even if it is called...

Keyhole

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Really excited to be announcing this: I'm the new editor of Keyhole Magazine.

For those who don't know about the magazine, Keyhole is an indie lit quarterly run out of Nashville. Under the reign of Peter Cole, Keyhole put out nine issues of great writing. A bunch of the better stories I've read in magazines in the last couple of years have come out in Keyhole, including "I Hope You Still Love Me in Your New Hyundai" by Crispen Best, "Hold on to Your Vacuum" by Matt Bell, "I Pilot my Bed Deep I...

Keyhole!

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Really excited to be announcing this: I'm the new editor of Keyhole Magazine.

For those who don't know about the magazine, Keyhole is an indie lit quarterly run out of Nashville. Under the reign of Peter Cole, Keyhole put out nine issues of great writing. A bunch of the better stories I've read in magazines in the last couple of years have come out in Keyhole, including "I Hope You Still Love Me in Your New Hyundai" by Crispen Best, "Hold on to Your Vacuum" by Matt Bell, "I Pilot my Bed Deep I...

Most Used Words in Current Drafts of my Books

Every Mostly Great Man in the State: like, just, got, one, time, Merrill, get, little, back, know, something, man, made, told, right

Them at Their Worst: like, just, know, little, want, Mom, good, go, one, Dad, time, get, way, now, see

Fun Camp: one, like, got, get, just, know, time, something, back, make, tell, love, think, even, way

From these findings, I conclude that all three books are pretty boring and my writing is filled with the same filler words I use in speech when I'm struggling to a...

Five New Shorts in the June issue of PANK

Here, look! Five new Fun Camp shorts alongside the work of…

James Tadd Adcox

Melissa Broder

Kaitlin Dyer

Emily Howorth

Alexandra Isacson

Kevin Kaiser

Victoria Lynne McCoy

Teresa Milbrodt

Traci O'Connor

R.D. Parker

Anne Leigh Parrish

Johnny Peters

Joseph Riippi

Ani Smith

David Frederick Thomas

Tim Tomlinson

Ocean Vuong

Kate Wyer

xTx

Don't be [a] bitter Anna, I know how you think.

I've got another mini-post about The National's High Violet in me, but it's based on a lyric I can't prove exists. The National doesn't release their lyrics officially, so when you look up their lyrics online, you're just getting the product of a fan listening closely.

The lyric, from "Little Faith," as I hear it, goes, "Don't be a Bitter Anna, I know how you think / You're waiting for Radio City to sink." And that got me off thinking how great an unexpected article can be: By adding the...