Brandon
from KCMO is reading Made to BreakFebruary 22, 2012 - 8:52am
I'm going to pimp out this old issue of Cannoli Pie Magazine simply because it's got so much Cult and Velvet going on. Authors include: Pablo D'Stair, Nik Korpon, Richard Thomas, Craig Wallwork, and myself. Caleb J. Ross served as guest editor.
Great issue. Proud to be a part of it.
Richard
from St. Louis is reading various anthologiesFebruary 22, 2012 - 10:52am
sweet!
MattF
from Tokyo is reading Borges' Collected FictionsFebruary 25, 2012 - 3:31am
Great thread--I'm a huge fan of the short story, and this thread reminds me of how many great writers I need to get to.
For me: Chekhov, Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver, also Borges and Bartheleme are kind of the heavyweights as far as influence on the form and other writers/generations, and worth study.
Would also say Grace Paley, Amy Hempel, and Cheever are worth reading in their entirety.
Some favorite indiviual collections, many mentioned above, would be The Pugilist at Rest (love all of Thom Jones, but think this is his most concentrated quality), will second The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Alexie, Drown by Diaz, and add Big Bad Love by Larry Brown (the last story, "92 Days" is the best I've ever read about the rejection/struggles of the aspiring writer), and Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders.
I think Jesus' Son is the most perfect single collection of short stories I've ever read.
Some individual stories I liked by authors not mentioned above are "Drown" by Aimee Bender, "The Elephant Vanishes" by Murakami, "Beautiful World" by John Haskell, "Men Under Water" by Ralph Lombreglia, of the top of my head...
Anyone know what happened to Melanie Rae Thon? I remember being excited about her stuff a while back.
Alexander Hemon is also interesting. Once you start throwing out names it's hard to stop. Granta magazine has consistenly turned me on to good story writers over the last ten years. In college I subscribed to Story Magazine where I first read Chuck's "Project Mayhem," as well as Junot Diaz and a bunch of others--it was a pretty badass journal back in the day (with shitty covers...)
Pete
from Detroit is reading Red DragonFebruary 25, 2012 - 5:29pm
Oh, I've read bits and pieces of Big Bad Love. I love Larry Brown's writing, but for some reason I never finished that collection.
Dr. Guillotine
from Phoenix, AZ is reading Kurt Vonnegut Slaughter House-FiveFebruary 25, 2012 - 5:51pm
Who said O'Connor??
Definetely, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Also, Cathedral (Carver) and Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.February 25, 2012 - 6:15pm
Good Man is hard to find is one of the best short stories ever. Even though the title sounds like a romance novel or Reese Witherspoon comedy.
MattF
from Tokyo is reading Borges' Collected FictionsFebruary 25, 2012 - 6:33pm
@Pete -- I haven't read the whole collection in years, but the last story "92 Days" I've gone back to again and again. It's a pretty long story, but if you haven't gotten that far into it I'd highly recommend giving that one another shot. Especially if you're in the process of writing and submitting short stories right now.
Feels deeply autobiographical (don't know how much of it is), about a poor southerner, Leon Barlow, who writes, tries to write, drinks, drives around with a friend, argues with his ex, works a little till he can quit and drink and try to write again...just the struggles and rejections of trying to be a short story writer with the odds against you. It's funny but quite heart-breaking, and is some of the best writing I've read about why a man sits down at the typewriter day after day and hammers away, despite it all. I actually think about it all the time on this website with the constant threads about rejections, and the insulated world of lit mags, being an outsider, not writing the right kind of stories: Larry Brown's been there and done that. There's a Dirty South documentary that shows his handwritten list of rejections, over a hundered stories with lines crossing them out. Pre-internet. It's inspiring.
Dr. Guillotine
from Phoenix, AZ is reading Kurt Vonnegut Slaughter House-FiveFebruary 25, 2012 - 7:41pm
No love for Emergency?
Is it cliche too like Poe? I like The Black Cat and The Raven (too cliche?? I knew it, man you're so judgemental)
MattF
from Tokyo is reading Borges' Collected FictionsFebruary 26, 2012 - 2:05pm
Everyone loves "Emergency"--but the collection feels too damned strong to recommend any one--but here you set me up to pull this all together:
Richard T. recommended The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories edited by Tobias Wolff (a great recommendation). Here's a podcast of Tobias Wolff reading "Emergency" and discussing the story and why he loves it, and Denis Johnson, with the New Yorker's fiction editor Deborah Treisman:
At first Wolff's voice is kind of syrupy-uncle for me with this particular story, but it did make me notice how the language of the story begins to shift and rise in grandeur, and Wolff's voice begins to suit the language perfectly as they find the drive-in and Denis Johnson shifts into his great biblical strung-out poetics, in a way you might not feel as you just read it to yourself. And there's some interesting discussion of the story and Denis Johnson before and after the reading. Give it a listen if you got the time...
Renfield
from Hell is reading 20th Century GhostsFebruary 25, 2012 - 11:08pm
I've always wanted to do something like A Bad Man Is Hard to Kill, or A Goo-Man Is Hard to Slime. And yet...
A couple I have partially read, but do not own yet (still in my nook queue/from library.) What you guys think of these? All seem to be brilliantly written:
Pinckney Benedict - The Wrecking Yard
Kevin Canty - Where The Money Went
Tom Franklin - Poachers
Chris Offutt - Kentucky Straight
Rob Roberge - Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.February 26, 2012 - 12:05am
And the classic porn, A Hard Man is Good to Find.
MattF
from Tokyo is reading Borges' Collected FictionsFebruary 26, 2012 - 1:37am
Renfield, I haven't read any of those collections, but have read individual stories by Pinckney Benedict ("Mud Man"?, one or two others), and Chris Offutt's story "Aunt Granny Lith." I think they're both undeniably talented writers, but none of the stories I read really sent me to pick up their collections (the language is strong, but the stories were just lacking something for my tastes...)
What I've read from William Gay and Ron Rash has impressed me more, as far as southern short story writers go--though I've only read a hanfdul of their stories as well. Here's one by Rash that impressed me:
I'm going to pimp out this old issue of Cannoli Pie Magazine simply because it's got so much Cult and Velvet going on. Authors include: Pablo D'Stair, Nik Korpon, Richard Thomas, Craig Wallwork, and myself. Caleb J. Ross served as guest editor.
Great issue. Proud to be a part of it.
sweet!
Great thread--I'm a huge fan of the short story, and this thread reminds me of how many great writers I need to get to.
For me: Chekhov, Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver, also Borges and Bartheleme are kind of the heavyweights as far as influence on the form and other writers/generations, and worth study.
Would also say Grace Paley, Amy Hempel, and Cheever are worth reading in their entirety.
Some favorite indiviual collections, many mentioned above, would be The Pugilist at Rest (love all of Thom Jones, but think this is his most concentrated quality), will second The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Alexie, Drown by Diaz, and add Big Bad Love by Larry Brown (the last story, "92 Days" is the best I've ever read about the rejection/struggles of the aspiring writer), and Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders.
I think Jesus' Son is the most perfect single collection of short stories I've ever read.
Some individual stories I liked by authors not mentioned above are "Drown" by Aimee Bender, "The Elephant Vanishes" by Murakami, "Beautiful World" by John Haskell, "Men Under Water" by Ralph Lombreglia, of the top of my head...
Anyone know what happened to Melanie Rae Thon? I remember being excited about her stuff a while back.
Alexander Hemon is also interesting. Once you start throwing out names it's hard to stop. Granta magazine has consistenly turned me on to good story writers over the last ten years. In college I subscribed to Story Magazine where I first read Chuck's "Project Mayhem," as well as Junot Diaz and a bunch of others--it was a pretty badass journal back in the day (with shitty covers...)
Oh, I've read bits and pieces of Big Bad Love. I love Larry Brown's writing, but for some reason I never finished that collection.
Who said O'Connor??
Definetely, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Also, Cathedral (Carver) and Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.
Good Man is hard to find is one of the best short stories ever. Even though the title sounds like a romance novel or Reese Witherspoon comedy.
@Pete -- I haven't read the whole collection in years, but the last story "92 Days" I've gone back to again and again. It's a pretty long story, but if you haven't gotten that far into it I'd highly recommend giving that one another shot. Especially if you're in the process of writing and submitting short stories right now.
Feels deeply autobiographical (don't know how much of it is), about a poor southerner, Leon Barlow, who writes, tries to write, drinks, drives around with a friend, argues with his ex, works a little till he can quit and drink and try to write again...just the struggles and rejections of trying to be a short story writer with the odds against you. It's funny but quite heart-breaking, and is some of the best writing I've read about why a man sits down at the typewriter day after day and hammers away, despite it all. I actually think about it all the time on this website with the constant threads about rejections, and the insulated world of lit mags, being an outsider, not writing the right kind of stories: Larry Brown's been there and done that. There's a Dirty South documentary that shows his handwritten list of rejections, over a hundered stories with lines crossing them out. Pre-internet. It's inspiring.
No love for Emergency?
Is it cliche too like Poe? I like The Black Cat and The Raven (too cliche?? I knew it, man you're so judgemental)
Everyone loves "Emergency"--but the collection feels too damned strong to recommend any one--but here you set me up to pull this all together:
Richard T. recommended The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories edited by Tobias Wolff (a great recommendation). Here's a podcast of Tobias Wolff reading "Emergency" and discussing the story and why he loves it, and Denis Johnson, with the New Yorker's fiction editor Deborah Treisman:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/05/11/090511on_audio_wolff
At first Wolff's voice is kind of syrupy-uncle for me with this particular story, but it did make me notice how the language of the story begins to shift and rise in grandeur, and Wolff's voice begins to suit the language perfectly as they find the drive-in and Denis Johnson shifts into his great biblical strung-out poetics, in a way you might not feel as you just read it to yourself. And there's some interesting discussion of the story and Denis Johnson before and after the reading. Give it a listen if you got the time...
I've always wanted to do something like A Bad Man Is Hard to Kill, or A Goo-Man Is Hard to Slime. And yet...
A couple I have partially read, but do not own yet (still in my nook queue/from library.) What you guys think of these? All seem to be brilliantly written:
Pinckney Benedict - The Wrecking Yard
Kevin Canty - Where The Money Went
Tom Franklin - Poachers
Chris Offutt - Kentucky Straight
Rob Roberge - Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life
And the classic porn, A Hard Man is Good to Find.
Renfield, I haven't read any of those collections, but have read individual stories by Pinckney Benedict ("Mud Man"?, one or two others), and Chris Offutt's story "Aunt Granny Lith." I think they're both undeniably talented writers, but none of the stories I read really sent me to pick up their collections (the language is strong, but the stories were just lacking something for my tastes...)
What I've read from William Gay and Ron Rash has impressed me more, as far as southern short story writers go--though I've only read a hanfdul of their stories as well. Here's one by Rash that impressed me:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/interactive/2010/sep/22/hard-times-ron-rash
^yeah, i love RR too. His collection, CHEMISTRY is worth picking up.
Matt - I'll have to flip to that story and check it out. Thanks for the rec.