fucking fine short stories

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wowza.  30,000 pounds for one short story.  one fucking fine short story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/junot-diaz-wins-short-story-prize?CMP=twt_gu

the globe

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Where did the idea come from for your book? i wrote a story about Fast Eddy in 2004. a couple years later  i was in this rather difficult creative writing class at U of C and found myself missing Fast Eddy. so, i resolved to write a short story cycle about both Fast Eddy and … Read more

the marginalized short-story cycle

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i’m working my short-story cycle through Humber College and the structure of it has got me thinking: i don’t know a fucking thing about the structure of a short-story cycle. sure, there’s the various structures for stories that i’ve experienced, largely by a combination of trial and error, modelling, and falling into something by accident. … Read more

Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa

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i’m a lucky woman to find a first edition of WP Kinsella’s collection SHOELESS JOE JACKSON COMES TO IOWA in the bin at Fair’s Fair Books, a lucky woman. here’s an excerpt: My father said he saw him years later playing in a tenth-rate commercial league in a textile town in Carolina, wearing shoes and … Read more

killer quote

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“writing is defiance,” says John Vigna, short story genius. defiance is defined as “the act or instance of defying:  challenge” by Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  i’ve been thinking on this one and trying to figure out who or what a writer defies and i think i’ve figured it out.  it’s your self.  it’s a challenge to not … Read more

our stewardess swims over the sea

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an excerpt from Mark Anthony Jarman’s story “Our Stewardess Swims over the Sea” from his collection MY WHITE PLANET: We are jammed in the sky like rodents and I have seen it all, I know everything about you. I know about your doe-eyed 4H calf from another lifetime, the Mars bar you stole from Nancy … Read more

dialogue i wish i’d written

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He said, “What am I going to do about these fucking shoes, man?” “Whatever you stole,” I said, “I guess you already ate it all, right?” “Listen to how they squish,” he said, walking around carefully on his heels. (page 58) from the short story “Emergency” by Dennis Johnson.  one of the best short stories … Read more

we’re on tv in the universe

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an excerpt from a fine short story from the collection SWEET TALK by Stephanie Vaughn, titled “we’re on tv in the universe.”   “So you don’t want to go to the party?” I said to the chicken.  I knew by then that I was driving on a chancy road, and I was trying to keep … Read more