MoodyTunes

Strange, strange feeling to learn that Barry Hannah died yesterday.
When I re-started my writing life in 2006, I found one of those Books Every Writer Should Read lists somewhere on the Internet. The list was sorted by titles, and a book called “Airships” was at the top. I thought I’d start from there and work [...]

Congratulations go out to Lorraine Lopez, whose story collection “Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories” was named a PEN/Faulkner finalist yesterday.
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Richard Ford, in his introduction to Barry Hannah’s story collection “Airships,” uses the phrases “what’s-real-at-ground-level” and “what is the matter at hand” when describing Hannah’s stories, how they work, and why. As in, Hannah has a unique and twisted way of getting to what is central and what is real — the matter at hand. [...]

I can’t put anything coherent together, so I’ll make a list of things I’m doing. Maybe something will come of it…I am:
- reading Manuel Puig’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men,” and Paul Lisicky’s “Famous Builder.”
- for fun, watching episodes of “Stella” on Hulu.
- criticizing writers of TV shows [...]

(This is probably my reaction to reading Padgett Powell’s new book, The Interrogative Mood, which is composed of questions. Just questions. That’s it. Check it out. I had the chance to hear Powell read from the book last weekend and it was interesting to track the threads, themes, thoughts…if I was tracking them at all. [...]

I rarely step inside an antique store — I’m allergic to both dust and buying furniture — but when I do, I like to find the shelves of old books. A ratty book is like a time machine. I assume the role of a book or journal’s intended reader. Student in 1924. Literary journal subscriber [...]

A couple sites you might find interesting:
American Short Fiction’s blog. What they do (and I don’t) is update regularly…with interesting stuff! An amazing concept. I think blogs are the way of the future.
Wordnik. A wacky new all-in-one dictionary thingie that tells you everything about a word. Definitions, synonyms, antonyms, etc. etc. but also fun stuff [...]

I just saw that Kelly Link put her story collection “Magic for Beginners” online, free of charge, so go download it.
“Catskin” is one of my favorite stories out there. Link read from it at AWP Atlanta (2006, I think? Sheesh.) and I was hooked. I also like “Some Zombie Contingency Plans” and “Stone Animals.”
Hope you [...]