By: Dan Wickett,
on 6/28/2015
According to Facebook (my birthday calendar of record), it's Squire Babcock's birthday, which immediately brings to mind a great road trip with Aaron Burch and Matt Bell to Murray State University, a fried bologna sandwich, the Wiggles, a great cheeseburger in the middle of Ohio, broken bottles of beer, Matt Bell's great sleeping dilemma, and really enjoying the hell out of Squire's novel, The King of Gaheena, on the ride home.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 9/4/2012
The Emerging Writers Network started as a bit of a lark--me seeing just how lousy a book review I could write. It was intended to be newspaper-style and was of Alyson Hagy's Keeneland (that sad little review can still be read over at Amazon--I'll not be providing you a link though). That first year (2000) was fun, I was reading again (something I'd somewhat given up for a five year period--hmm, my first was born in 1995...) and people were actually emailing me and asking to be put on this mailing list I had created that sporadically sent out book reviews.
By 2002 those poor bastards were receiving an email just about every other day as i reviewed 102 books and interviewed over 30 authors during that calendar year.
2005 was a highlight year though. Sometime in late 2004/early 2005 I got some confirmation that a small publisher I was excited about was going to take on a manuscript of an author that I really liked, and had put in touch--my first bit of agenting (though at the much less than standard, zero percent take). Somewhere around the same time, a person I'd befriended online, another reviewer (though one who also wrote fiction) with similar tastes as my own, David Abrams, found out he was being sent to Iraq via Kuwait. I was one of the fortunate few that was on his email list when he began sending journal entries back home. After some asking and his verifying it wouldn't lead to a court marshal on his end and me disappearring from the world--we received permission for me to share these journal entries with the Emerging Writers Network. At the end of each entry I'd add something about David's military address and how was a voracious reader that liked movies and sand was everywhere and snacks were cool, etc.
And here's where the bit of pride comes in--the members of the EWN, political views non-withstanding, thoughts on the war set aside, flooded David with books and dvd's and chocolates and baby wipes and thank yous and praise. It was fantastic knowing I had a small part in seeing that happen.
February 28, 1995. That would be the day I received an email from super-agent Nat Sobel noting he'd been reading the journal entries and wondered if David had an agent. If I remember hard enough, I think I can hear David yelling ARE YOU KIDDING ME, OF COURSE I KNOW WHO NAT SOBEL IS in reply to my email to him asking if it was okay to pass along his contact information.
Today Fobbit, the novel David wrote that are at least somewhat based on his meticulous journals from his time over there, is officially published. While I received a galley not long ago, I purchased a final copy Saturday morning. David was overly kind in his acknowledgments section stating:
My thanks to:
Dan
Wickett who posted some of my journal entries from Iraq at his Emerging WritersNetwork blog in early 2005. The result
was an outpouring of care packages full of not baby wipes or
foot powder, but the finest kind of surprise a soldier like me could have found
after he ripped away the packing tape: books.
The EWN members kept me well-supplied with enough reading material for five
deployments. Thank God it never
came to
that. Aside from the wartime support, Dan's EWN introduced me to an
entire army of writers who have continued to support me over the years
as I hunkered down at the keyboard. I've met some of those writers, but
for the others, I remain little more than a mute avatar on Facebook.
They have never stopped buoying me up with encouragement and for that, I
am truly grateful.
It was great reading that and reliving the experience of watching something go wildly beyond whatever motion I thought I could nudge forward. It's the sort of thing that makes me realize I need to make better efforts at keeping this site alive daily so people continue to stop by with visits.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 6/12/2012
Robert Coover on characters. This comes from An interview by Larry McCaffrey that was originally published in Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists (University of Illinois Press, 1983) and then re-published in Robert Coover: A Study of the Short Fiction by Thomas E. Kennedy (Twayne, 1992). The interview is from 1979.
LM: Critics and reviewers have often remarked on this surprising empathy they feel for Nixon. How did you choose him to be your central narrator in The Public Burning.
RC: I'm not sure whether it was a matter of choice or necessity--he emerged from the texts, as it were. He has a way of doing that, fighting his way to the cener stage; it's hard to stop him. Nevertheless, there were other possibilities. The book began as a little theater idea which grew into a series of rather raucous circus acts. I began to feel the need for a quieter voice to break in from time to time. I wanted someone who lived inside the mythology, accepting it, and close to the center, yet not quite in the center, off to the edge a bit, an observer. A number of characters auditioned for the part, but Nixon, when he appeared, proved ideal.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 3/20/2012
Detroit Poetry is kicking a little rear end these days!
Today's Poem of the Day at Verse Daily was Terry Blackhawk's "The Burn," from her most recent collection, The Light Between.
The Light Between is also slotted as the 7th Best-Selling contemporary poetry collection for the week of March 4 according to the Poetry Foundation.
The number 1 Best-Selling contemporary poetry collection?
Allegiance by Francine Harris.
What do these two books have in common up there among the collections published by FSG and Random House, Ecco, W.W.Norton and Random House; written by Billy Collins and Philip Levine, Mary Oliver and Patti Smith?
These two collections are both recently published by Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI) and written by women in Detroit.
Two of Terry Blackhawk's previous collections have recently been contracted to join Dzanc Books rEprint Series as eBooks in the coming months (Body & Field, and Escape Artist).
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 12/8/2010
It's been pretty quiet around here at the EWN the past week or so and those of you that also bounce to my Facebook page occasionally have seen friends and family posting well wishes and nice sentiments. They've all been appreciated greatly.
My mom passed away this past Sunday. A year and a half ago I wrote about why I wouldn't be trashing the Twilight books anytime soon, as they were a launching point for my daughter that led her to books by Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Shakespeare and beyond (Moby Dick is even on the TBR pile these days). Beyond truly believing that there is hardly anything out there that can be considered a complete waste of time for beginning readers, I am also a firm believer that parents can mold their children into readers.
If you were to walk into the front door of my parents home, a fairly modestly sized home, you couldn't help but notice the right hand wall is covered with three immense, floor-to-ceiling, ridiculously overcrowded, bookshelves. My mom was an incredible multi-tasker, and reading a book was almost always on of those multi-tasks. My dad is similar. And I can't remember the last time that either my sister or myself was not in the middle of at least one book. I don't think that is a coincidence at all.
She was a funny reader--a lover of mysteries, she always bailed from the first chapter to read the last 2 or 3 pages of the book, but then went back and read from where she bailed to the end of the book again. She was an author's dream though--if she read one of your books and liked it, she's immediately haunt bookstores, Amazon, and the local library to find each and every other title you ever published.
I cannot remember a birthday or Christmas that I wasn't given a book by her as my gift. In the rare cases it wasn't a book, it was money with a note--do not spend this on necessities--buy yourself a book and if you need more, let me know. If there's a reason I do what I do here at the EWN, some sort of cause and effect, it definitely traces back to my parents, their love of reading, and their taking me to the library every week when I was five years old. While she did end up with a reading snob who tended to say no thanks more than not when she suggested a book for me the past few years--her tastes ran extremely wide: romances, mysteries, thrillers, true crime, and beyond--she did end up with two readers for kids and a trio of grandkids that those traits were also passed on to.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 12/1/2010
Per her Facebook page, Kathryn Lang spent her last day of employment as Senior Editor at SMU Press yesterday. The status update doesn't state anything more than that, but if one recalls last March it was announced that the Provost of the University was looking into shutting down this venerable institution. Then in May it was suggested to send letters (and in the comments of this blog, perhaps small checks of donation) explaining just why the press was needed, to said Provost.
While I've not read anything that specifically states so, the removal of the wonderful Ms. Lang as Senior Editor there leads me to believe we should all be more than ready to hear that the press has taken a new direction sometime soon and is no longer publishing the wonderful literary fiction and non-fiction that we've seen the last decade or so from the trio that ran the press. Authors like Mitch Wieland, Debra Monroe, Alan Wier, Janet Peery, George Garrett, Tracy Daugherty, Sam Michel, W.P. Kinsella, Liza Wieland, Anthony Bukowski, Edward Falco and so many more.
It's simply sad. I can only hope that more and more people continue to be willing to start up new publishing ventures and authors like these can continue to find homes for their work.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 10/25/2010
Many thanks to Jeremiah Chamberlin (see much more of his work at Fiction Writers Review), and Poets & Writers, as JC spent a good 4-6 hours talking to Steven Gillis and myself awhile back and put together a really nice article on the forming of Dzanc Books, how it all works and what our big goals are. If you have any interest in the early days of either the EWN or Dzanc Books, or what exactly makes the amazing Steven Gillis tick, it's well worth your time to read.
By: Dan Wickett,
on 10/23/2010
The photo to the left does not do the book justice. At least not as an object. Adam Novy's The Avian Gospels: Book I (Short Flight/Long Drive Books, a division of Hobart, 2010) has some incredible writing within. It's a tale I fell deep into and was elated I had Book II handy in galley form when I did so I could keep reading. That said, I think I'd want this book on my shelves even if the writing was only so-so. Aaron Burch, at least to my knowledge, designed this book, as he has previous issue of Hobart and the other Short Flight/Long Drive mini-books. This time around, Aaron went over the top. With the gospels right there in the title, Aaron designed the book as much like a bible as possible. Not your big family bible, but the personal, small black leather bound bible one might carry to and fro to church on Sundays. The leather look is red this time around, with gold lettering (as well as bird-shapes), plus gold gilded edges and a bright red page placeholder. Even the interior design (and this may be from Adam's original concept, it may be from Aaron's, I don't recall) has a biblical look to it with the line tracking up and down the pages. It's truly a book I pick up just to look at with admiration every so often.
Zach Dodson over at Featherproof Books is another guy that's just not satisfied putting out a great book, not if something special can be done with the design. One of their most recent titles, Lindsay Hunter's Daddy's (Featherproof Books, 2010) is made to look just like a tacklebox. The book needs to be held sideways to read the stories within, and the cover flaps over the edges on both sides, with what appears to be a lock right in the middle, just like a real tacklebox would have.
Diagram Magazine celebrated their tenth anniversary by putting out a deck of cards with short stories or poems on them (well, some had diagrams on them). With authors and editors from past issues involved there is work from people like Brian Evenson, Michael Martone, Lucy Corin, Caitlin Horrocks, Sean Lovelace, Ben Marcus, Kellie Wells and the journal's main man, Ander Monson. Each author did a great job of working the card specifics (Jack, Clubs) into their work as well. It's a great deck of cards for poker, or for simply reading on the couch.
Back to Hobart, but this time via the fine folks at Spork. They
By: Dan Wickett,
on 7/29/2010
A follow up to last week's post about the trio of female-authored short story collections that will simply kick your ass this fall (you all did pre-order these right? Right?) as there are other books I cannot wait to see in stores - that trio just seemed to fit together perfectly for a post.
September
From Milkweed comes the last of the reprints of David Rhodes. Having rediscovered this wonderful writer, publishing his new Driftless and reprinting his over 30 year old third novel, Rock Island Line, Milkweed has also brought back his two earlier novels, and September brings us his debut, The Last Fair Deal Going. I've loved what I've read of Rhodes to date and am looking forward both to this, and to more of his writing in the future.
From another Minnesota based publisher, Coffee House Press,
comes Andrew Ervin's debut, Extraordinary Renditions, a trio of novellas that work together very nicely. Ever since meeting Andrew down in Atlanta at AWP a few years back, I've tried to keep up with both his fiction and his criticisms. He's one of the most well-read individuals I know, with a very well thought out mindset of what makes for great fiction that has for years come through in his criticisms, and shows just as clearly in his own fiction.
Unbridled Books will be bringing out Frederick Reuss' A Geography of Secrets and if there's one thing I've learned since starting the EWN it's that if Fred Ramey and Greg Michalson continue publishing an author from MacMurray & Beck on thru BlueHen and up to Unbridled? Well, that's an author I should be reading. This novel looks to be a psychological peek into the lives of two men and is one to look for come September.
From Grove/Black Cat comes the debut story collection of
Patricia Engel, Vida. You've read her name here more than once as I've read anything and everything I could find of hers the past year or so. This collection will have some threads woven all the way through, and you'll not find the word storie
By: Dan Wickett,
on 6/4/2010
My guess is that most that read this blog have encountered the list of 20 authors of fiction under the age of 40 that the New Yorker has come out with that are "worth watching."
In the article from the NY Times the other day, while detailing the process, they noted the following:
Each person who made the shortlist was asked to produce a piece of writing that could be published, whether a short story or an excerpt from a novel. Some had nothing to submit and were taken out of the running.
Say again? "Some had nothing to submit and were taken out of the running."
So, beyond all other things that one might have to say about this list - many Ivy Leaguers, many higher powered MFA schools, published by major houses, etc., there was one HUGE thing that each author needed to be considered "worth watching." Something new that the New Yorker could publish.
What? An author under the age of 40 (we won't get into that) can only be deemed one of the twenty most worthy of your attention, both for what they've written and what they may publish in the future, if they had something for the New Yorker to publish.
I can see the email now (yes, this is my assumed reading, I have NO SUCH EMAIL in my possession):
Sorry "so and so,"
We realize you just published a novel that took you XX years to write, and might be a bit tapped for new material right now; it truly was pure genius and you may be the best writer of your generation, BUT we cannot include you on our list because of that being tapped. Too bad, we'd have loved to have included you.
If there is anything ridiculous about this list, to me it is this aspect.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 5/31/2010
This Memorial Day weekend, it's been difficult to scan the channels on the television without bumping into war related movies. The paper each morning has had articles about parades forthcoming, or articles about Michigan soldiers that recently lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan, and how their families have come to realize that this holiday isn't simply about getting together for a family bbq, and even the radio, in between songs, reminds us to remember those that have served our country, and those continuing to do so today.
A few books came to my mind while I thought about the weekend and Memorial Day. This being the EWN, the books aren't going to be by Hemingway or anything like that. It's a quartet of books, all put out by independent publishers, two of which I've written about here at the EWN before and two I have not, or at least not in great detail. I think all four very well fit this particular holiday.
Homefront by Kristen J. Tsetsi was originally published by Penxhere Press in 2007. While nearly all war related fictional efforts are set smack in the middle of the war itself, or reflections of such, Tsetsi tackles those left behind. She writes of Mia, a former professor, now driving a cab, who is left behind when her boyfriend, Jake, is deployed to Iraq. Tsetsi's writing perfectly captures the psychological traumas that those waiting for scraps of news from their loved ones (as opposed to news of their loved ones) go through. There are other characters as well, in Mia's world: Jake's mother, another woman whose husband is in Iraq, and an alcoholic/regular customer that may or may not be a Vietnam War veteran, and Tsetsi shows how just like individual soldiers take different measures to handle their deployment as best they can, so do those that have watched them leave. Tsetsi has re-released this novel with a different cover than I've shown and it's available from her website, which I've linked to above, or your regular online haunts.
Matthew Eck's The Farthest Shore was published by Milkweed Editions in 2007,
having won it's National Fiction Prize that year. I did a full review (4.5 stars) here. Bits and pieces from that review that still resonate with me and my memory of this great novel:
"it becomes clear that it was a conscious decision on Eck's part to not refer to a specific recent war or conflict too closely - that he was writing more about modern warfare, and to an extent, even more generally, about the day to day battles each of us encounters."
"There is this lack of moralizing throughout Eck's writing. Stantz and his men really aren't portrayed as heroes, and, in fact, at times one might even lean in the other direction."
"Where there is certainly a physical toll in being constantly on the move, carrying everything they have with them, extreme heat and lack of sleep - listening in on the conversations and thoughts of Stantz and the others, Eck makes it clear that the mental toll is even more strenuous."
By: Dan Wickett,
on 5/30/2010
I'm not quite done with Steve Stern's latest novel, The Frozen Rabbi (Algonquin Books, May 2010), but that's because I'm refusing to read it fast. There is just too much goodness in this novel to plow through it to find out what happens. Not that I don't want to get to the end and see how Stern wraps up this multi-century, multi-generational, epic novel. That's certainly a reason to read Stern and the fantastic collection of titles with his name on the spines. However, Stern is also a practitioner of the sentence. The incredible sentence that spins nearly out of control but doesn't. The short but ridiculously descriptive sentence. The metaphor that originally seems out of left field until you give it two more seconds and then find yourself nodding your head and mumbling, "Yeah!"
I'd suggest you hurry to your local store to pick up the single copy that they probably stocked. Yep, Stern is one of those magical writers that you'll hear other writers rave about, even if they've only read one or two of his works themselves. He's one of those that each time you see a review it's an absolute rave, and it will undoubtedly (as I do here) mention that hopefully this, this latest masterpiece, will be the one that gets him the readership he so certainly deserves. His last book, The Angel of Forgetfulness (Viking, 2005) had Viking's resources behind it and they pushed it pretty hard from what I remember. I'm guessing the fact that this new one is out with a different publisher says they didn't get back what they put into their effort. I hope I'm wrong. I hope it was simply a one book deal and Stern really, really wanted to work with the editorial staff at Algonquin. But after a steady string of critically raved about, but low selling titles, I'm guessing that if that last one did well, both he and Viking would have decided they made the perfect match. Sadly, unless you special order that book to see what was wonderful about it (and it is another great, great novel), you're most likely not going to find it on your local bookseller's shelves. And you might only find one, or if lucky, two copies of The Frozen Rabbi (unless another EWN reader in your town gets there first).
But let's not end this post on a downer, let's instead go back to the beginning - go out, find a copy of The Frozen Rabbi and take as much time as you need to enjoy the hell out of a great story, with fantastic characters and sentences that you'll wish you came up with yourself. A full review is forthcoming, along with reviews of at least two of his other titles, if not three or four, and an interview with Stern sometime in June hopefully.
Update: I forgot, you can give The Frozen Rabbi a test drive as it was serialized over at Tablet back in March. Warning though, they did not serialize the full novel, but again, for a test drive, it's a great bit to try out.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 5/6/2010
Good morning EWN Readers. I received an email early this morning from Kathryn Lang, the Senior Editor of SMU Press. As many of you probably know, SMU has been a long time favorite of the EWN, publishing many short story collections and great works from favorites around here like Mitch Wieland, Tracy Daugherty, early Brad Barkley, etc. The email from Kathryn was not one bearing good news at all - here it is in its entirety:
Dear friend of SMU Press:
Last Thursday Keith Gregory, director; George Ann Ratchford, production and marketing manager; and I, acquisitions and developmental editor, were summoned to a meeting with the SMU Provost, at which we were told that the operations of the SMU Press would be closed down on June 1, 2010. We had no hint or prior warning that this was coming. We have fifteen stranded new projects under contract and 130 other titles in print, effectively unsupported if this should come to pass.
Would you please e-mail me a statement in support of the Press ASAP (today, if possible, for us to take to our editorial board meeting—and later this week, if not)??
Many thanks,
Kathryn Lang
Senior Editor
There was a meeting last night of the Faculty Senate and apparently the few quick letters of support that Kathryn had received right away made a big impact and there is still hope as a future Board meeting looms. Just think what might happen if everybody that reads this writes up a quick letter of support and she walks into that next meeting with hundreds of requests to keep the press running?
I'm writing mine now, but if you would be so kind as to send an email of support for SMU Press, explaining why you believe the University should continue to support the press and its long-time staff of three in their efforts to publish great fiction - short story collections and what I'll call quieter novels - such emails can be sent to Kathryn at [email protected]
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 3/26/2010
Nope, not the EWN's anniversary (though it is exactly 9 years and 11 months to the date that the EWN began). This one's not even close to literary. March 26, 1997 - Red Wings vs. Avalanche - an event that just may have nudged the Wings to two straight Stanley Cups.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 1/8/2010
So the next five posts make sense, I'm setting this one above them, and deleting the super sized post from Wednesday that had all the same information.
One of the early things I did in the EWN was send out review via email. In those emails I'd also try to remember to mention various things I'd noticed about EWN members - so and so published a poem here, so and so got a book deal here, etc. It's been a while since I've done so, and so, this is a bit longer than usual. Here's what's going on with some of those in the Emerging Writers Network - congrats to them all (this is supposed to be in alphabetical order and I hope I spelled everybody's names properly):
David Abrams: His short story, "This is Not a Christmas Story," was chosen as a finalist in Narrative's Fall 2009 Story Contest.
Steve Amick: His novel, Nothing But a Smile, was selected for the 2010 Michigan Notable Book Awards.
Shaindel Beers: Press 53 Spotlight will be featuring three of Shaindel Beers' short stories, “Longing on Hwy 10,” What to Expect When You’re Introspecting,” and “ISO.”
C.B. Bernard: The short story, "Buckets," will run in the February/March issue of Gray's Sporting Journal.
Jessica Breheny: Has a story, “For They Heard the First Sound
and Trembled,” forthcoming in Electric Velocipede. She also has a story, “Pan and
the
Bonnie Jo Campbell: Received National Book Award Finalist status for American Salvage. It was als
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 1/8/2010
And the last group - quite a bit of talent in the EWN these days:
Curtis Smith: His new novel, Truth Or Something Like It, from
Casperian Books, hits March 1st. His essay collection, The Agnostic's Prayer, from Sunnyoutside
Press, will be out this summer.
Barbara Smith-Alfaro: Her poem titled "Oddly American" is published in the latest edition of New Millennium Writings (Number Nineteen - 2010).
Garret Socol: Saw the short story “Aesthetics” recently published in Metazen, and the story “Gathered Here Together” appeared in Spork Press on January 4th.
Tatjana Soli: Her story, "The Sweet & the Salt," will appear in the January 2010 issue of The Sun.
Onna Solomon: She is the 2009 winner of the
Michael Steinberg: 1) "Memory, Fact, Imagination, Research: Memoir's Hybrid Personality" Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Literary Voices,Fall, 2009 http://solsticelitmag.org/ , 2) "Notes From an Accidental Journal Keeper,"Writers and Their Notebooks, ed Dianna Rabb, University of South Carolina Press, December, 2009, pp 101-109, and 3) "Three Things That Stopped Me in My Tracks: An Exercise in Discovery and Reflection," Now Write Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and Creative Nonfiction From Today's Best Writers and Teachers, ed. Sherry Ellis, Tarcher/Penguin, December, 2009, pp 3-5
Virginia Chase Sutton: Poem "On Being Bipolar and the Phenomenal World" accepted by Bellevue Literary Review; poems "Making Love in Argentina" and "The Swallow Test" accepted by the Wisconsin Review; poem "Lemons" accepted by "Comstock Review"; and "Upon the Death of Fay Wray" accepted by the Salt River Review."
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 1/8/2010
Group V:
Harmony Neal: “Serendipity,” nonfiction, forthcoming in Gulf Coast; “Give Us This Day, Some Meaning, a Purpose,” fiction, forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review; and “Prince Fatty Bottom,” nonfiction, forthcoming in Georgetown Review.
Maud Newton: Was awarded the 2009 Narrative Prize for my novel excerpt, and last month she wrote a piece for the LA Times about my reasons for writing a novel rather than a memoir.
Perry Norton: Has an essay on prepping for giving a webinar, for a book that’s literally just been published called Public Speaking and Presentations Demystified by Melody Templeton, Publ by McGraw-Hill; the other in the last three months was a case study for RainToday.com about how “SoloPreneurs” thrive and survive in a tough economy.
Carol Novack: Recent and future publishings: 1) Caketrain: Violet's Dream published.
2) Jivin' Ladybug:
Collaborative poem "ROOM" with Sheila E. Murphy: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8911e/jivinladybug/id100.html
3) Scythe Vol. 1: Poem &
Playpoem: http://scytheliteraryjournal.com/
4) Acceptance of "Quantum Physics" in Flash Fiction issue of
5) Acceptance of flash "A Tourist" in
Ashley Owens: She has been published for the very first time. A single poem in a book titled Inspired.
Jeff Parker: His story collection, The Taste of Penny, is coming out in April with the baddest ass indie press around!
Anne Leigh Parrish: Her story, "Pinny and the Fat Girl" will appear in the February, 2010 issue of Storyglossia.
Benjamin Percy: The Refresh, Refresh graphic novel -- co-authored by filmmaker James Ponsoldt and illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff -- was published in October, 2009 by First Second Books (a division of Macmillan). USA Today listed Refresh ,Refresh as one of the top ten comics/graphic novels of the year. In the past few months I've also publ
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 1/8/2010
Next group with stuff to share:
Edan Lepucki: Her recently-completed novel, Days of Insignificance and Evil, won the 2009 James D. Phelan Award from the Intersection for the Arts and the San Francisco Foundation. She also had a story, "I am the Lion Now" in Narrative Magazine, and had a very short story on FiveChapters (as part of the Infinite FiveChapters 2 story marathon), called "Pretzel Girl" (it was on the site on January 1, 2010).
Aimee Loiselle: 1) "Souvenirs" won
2) "Three Women Wishing for a Boy" earned an honorable
mention from Glimmer
Train in its August 2009 competition for emerging writers.
Lee Lowe: Has begun serialising his latest F/SF novel Corvus,
and the podcasts, narrated by Welsh actor Ioan Hefin, are especially good.
Here's a link to a recent interview about his work: http://blog.feedbooks.com/?p=304. And here’s a fairly recent review of my first
novel Mortal Ghost, not exactly great, but that's the way things
go:
http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/mortal-ghost/
Kelly Luce: Had a story recently win the 2009 National
Fiction Award from Philadelphia Stories. She'll be the Writer in
Residence at the Kerouac House in
Marylee MacDonald: She learned that Molly Giles had chosen her story, "Finding Peter," as the winner of the American Literary Review fiction contest. Earlier this year, she won the Matt Clark Prize from New Delta Review.
K.G. McAbee: She sold a story to Whortleberry Press for their CHRISTMAS IN SPACE anthology. Story is titled: 'Omega and Alpha'.
Tom McAllister: His 1st book Bury Me in My
By: Dan Wickett,
on 1/8/2010
And here's the next batch:
Christy Tillery
French: 1) Her book The Bodyguard and the Rock Star was
named finalist in the USA Book News Best Books 2009 Awards under the cross-genre
fiction category, and 2) Her book Chasing
Secrets is up for two awards: the EPIC 2010 E-Book Competition Award under
the category: Mystery, Suspense/Adventure Romance (to be announced March, 2010)
and the Dog Writers Association of America's 2009 Writing Competition under the
category: Book: Fiction (to be announced February, 2010).
Scott Garson: His American
Gymnopédies is in the wrap-up stages at WWP. Also he has stories
coming from Mississippi Review and Hobart.
Susan Gibb: Was thrilled to have her first hypertext piece, Blueberries, published by The New River Review (VA Tech) in their Fall 09 issue. She will also be seeing some of her short stories in the January issues of The Blue Print Review, elimae, and fourpaperletters.
Aaron Gilbreath: Has essays forthcoming in the Cincinnati Review, Florida Review and Fourth Genre, am working on a memoir and just finished a novel.
Robert L. Giron: With some news from Gival Press – 1) The 2009 Gival Press Short Story Award was won by Perry Glasser for his story: "I-95, Southbound" chosen by last year's winner Tim Johnston. The award has a purse prize of $1,000.00 plus online publication at www.givalpress.com; 2) "Poetic Voices Without Borders 2" edited by Robert L. Giron won the 2009 National Best Book Award for Fiction & Literature: Anthologies, sponsored by USA Book News; 3) Robert L. Giron's poem "Shadows Fall on Washington" will appear in the anthology Full Moon on K Street edited by Kim Roberts and to be released in January by Plan B Press; and 4) Museum of False Starts a collection of poetry by Chip Livingston, a gay mixed-blood (Native American) poet, will be released by Gival Press in April.
Perry Glasser. Perry’s collection of short fiction, winner of the GS Sharat Chandra Award, Dangerous Places, was published in November by BkMk Press at U of Missuri, KC. His short story, “I-95 Southbound,” received the Gival Press Award for Short Fiction. The $1,000 award included online publication at: http://216.197.127.196/gp/index.cfm?rsn=401&mn=Authors.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 1/8/2010
So, that monster ass post I put up two days ago - Who's Who in the EWN? It apparently tries to crash Typepad every time somebody opens my blog - taking between 3 and 5 minutes to have the data appear - something most aren't willing to wait for.
So, I've broken it up into four or five or six posts - the second of which, is this:
Chauna Craig: She was awarded a Full Fellowship at the
Eugene Cross: Has recent work appearing/forthcoming in American Short Fiction, Story Quarterly, and Freight Stories.
Susan Cushman: Her creative nonfiction essay, "The Glasses," will appear in Southern Women's Review in January: http://www.southernwomensreview.com/. It will be Susan's seventh published essay since November of 2007. Susan is at work on a memoir and blogs at http://wwwpenandpalette-susancushman.blogspot.com/ .
Michael Czyzniejewski: He received an NEA grant.
Ramola D: The collection of short fiction, Temporary Lives (
Susan Daitch: had two very short
stories up on Guernica in December,
will have a story up on www.fawlt.com
in mid January, received a second Vogelstein grant, and will have a piece in
the spring 2010 of Conjunctions.
Her fourth book, "The Dreyfus Book" will be published by City Lights.
Ashley David: 1) “Talking
to Snakes,” a poem, was accepted by The
Greensboro Review for Issue 87, due out this spring.
2) “Swells” and “Not Quite a Place,” two poems, were accepted by Center for Issue 9, due out this spring.
3) “Honey,” “Honey Part 1,” and “Honey Part 2,” three poems, were finalists in
the Black Warrior Review’s Fifth Ever Poetry contest.
By: Dan Wickett,
on 1/6/2010
One of the early things I did in the EWN was send out review via email. In those emails I'd also try to remember to mention various things I'd noticed about EWN members - so and so published a poem here, so and so got a book deal here, etc. It's been a while since I've done so, and so, this is a bit longer than usual. Here's what's going on with some of those in the Emerging Writers Network - congrats to them all (this is supposed to be in alphabetical order and I hope I spelled everybody's names properly):
David Abrams: His short story, "This is Not a Christmas Story," was chosen as a finalist in Narrative's Fall 2009 Story Contest.
Steve Amick: His novel, Nothing But a Smile, was selected for the 2010 Michigan Notable Book Awards.
Shaindel Beers: Press 53 Spotlight will be featuring three of Shaindel Beers' short stories, “Longing on Hwy 10,” What to Expect When You’re Introspecting,” and “ISO.”
C.B. Bernard: The short story, "Buckets," will run in the February/March issue of Gray's Sporting Journal.
Jessica Breheny: Has a story, “For They Heard the First Sound
and Trembled,” forthcoming in Electric Velocipede. She also has a story, “Pan and
the
Bonnie Jo Campbell: Received Add a Comment
By: Dan Wickett,
on 11/25/2009
The easy post for the day - what it is that I give thanks for.
I'll start with a quick nod to the non-literary world I live in - much as they're trying to slowly (hell, at times very quickly) drive me insane, I'm overly thankful for the trio of kids that call me dad. The constant chess battle over who is really pushing who's buttons might just actually be keeping me sharper than I'd otherwise be.
This is followed by thanks for my parents, sister and one special aunt. Without this quartet my sanity and production level nosedives to ridiculously low levels.
Sliding back towards the literary world - by far the biggest non-family related thing I give thanks for is the friendship of my partner at Dzanc, Steve Gillis. I think it may be a bit rare for middle aged men to develop new friendships, or maybe that's just me, but I'm extremely glad that this one has developed. Each day contains dozens of emails about Dzanc, our families, the world we live in, etc. I get to chuckle a little bit every time I read something about myself being the "hardest working" something or other in the business as I know, and I might be the only one that knows, that I'm not even the hardest working guy at Dzanc.
The group of friends that I'm thankful for that in the past resided in Ann Arbor or nearby has spread itself all over the place this past year - Steve is still here, as is Matt Bell, Elizabeth Ellen, and Dwayne Hayes and Jessica Bomarito. But Mike and Julie Alber are in Columbus, Jeff Parker's in Toronto, Barry Graham's at Rutgers, Aaron Burch is in Champagne, and Stefan and Sanaz Kiesbye are in Los Angeles. I'm thankful for email as I've been able to keep up with all of these incredible folks while they continue to move forward.
I'm also thankful to get to work with such incredible writers as I'm able to do in my role as Director of Dzanc Books. From our first book with Roy Kesey on up to the most recently released title by Hesh Kestin - it's been a pleasure to work with each and every author on the publishing and publicity for their books. I'm thankful we keep getting to read these fine words before anybody else too.
Add in the great people I get to work with through Dzanc that aren't Steve Gillis and Matt Bell - like Steven Seighman (no better art director around), Diane Goettel, Gina Frangello, Stacy Bierlein, J.A. Tyler, Keith Taylor, and an incredible crew of interns.
And a big thanks to everybody that is somehow involved with the EWN - be it as email receiving members, or visitors to this blog, or publicists sending me books, etc.
Another year of realizing just how much I have to be thankful for. I sincerely hope everybody reading this has just as long a list of their own!
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 10/30/2009
Part of what you can read in the upper left corner of this website, in the mission statement of the EWN is the idea of trying to garner wider audiences for 'established writers deserving of wider recognition.'
I just received two galleys this week, for a novel due in January from Knopf, by Steve yarbrough, and a short story collection due in February from Graywolf, by Alyson Hagy. Between them they have published 6 previous short story collections, and 5 previous novels - all very well received by critics. If only that meant they were widely read, or even widely discussed.
I read fewer literary blogs than I used to on a regular basis, but I honestly don't believe I've seen news of these two titles on any other blogs. And that's really just plain sad news. PEN/Faulkner finalist, Best American Mystery Stories, Best American Short Stories and O.Henry Prize Stories are just a few places they've seen their writing. Keep your eyes out for these two books.
One nice thing to see this past week was a title reviewed at Erik Smetana's blog, an older title that saw nothing but great reviews, but not enough of them - Steve Gillis' Temporary People: a Fable. YYou can see what Erik has to say here. With two previous novels and a short story collection of his own prior to TP, Gillis fits right in with Yarbrough and Hagy as an author deserving much wider recognition.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 10/20/2009
The kind folks at the very find independent publishing house, Canongate, have deemed the EWN to be this week's Gatekeeper's Site of the Week on their Meet at the Gate literary blog - which is a great place to visit. Looking and seeing many friends and their sites as previous Gatekeeper's Sites of the Week and it becomes obvious just what a nice thing this is.
Their post begins: "With the stated goals of developing emerging writers and gaining a wider audience for lesser-known writers of literature, what's not to like about the Emerging Writers Network?" I'll let you click on that link above to see the rest.
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By: Dan Wickett,
on 9/24/2009
Nearly a year ago I wrote a review of Jonathan Evison's All About Lulu. It was a pretty positive review.
Just a couple of days back, Evison's debut was named the best novel in the Washington State Book of the Year Awards. Congrats to a well-deserving author and proponent of literary fiction!
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