Cheston Knapp in One Story

Reasons to be excited about Cheston Knapp's upcoming issue of One Story:

1.) This awesome short story trailer(!) that he made:



2.) He worked with me as my editor for Life in the Harem at Tin House, and so I can tell you from personal experience that he is blisteringly cool.

3.) He's a fantastic writer. Perhaps it says something about my priorities that Cheston being a great writer was the third thing I mentioned behind making short story trailers and being cool. But I refuse to retype this list, so maybe you should just read it backwards.

Dark Sky Magazine

The great folks at Dark Sky Magazine just recommended that you read my story Life in the Harem (Tin House 43). After giving it some serious thought, I have decided that this is sage, sage advice. I recommend following this recommendation to the very letter.

Animalcula Excerpt in JMWW

I'm excited to announce that the current issue of JMWW features a quick excerpt from my series, Animalcula: A Young Scientist's Guide to New Creatures.

The issue, put together by the brilliant/incomparable/many-other-positive-adjectives David Erlewine, is a special all flash-fiction issue featuring stories by many cool writers.

Also, you can find more Animalcula in Ninth Letter 6:1.

Harems Are For Closers

Tin House #43 is on its way! The issue will feature work by Steve Almond, Ron Carlson, Martha McPhee, David "Always be closing/Put that coffee down" Mamet, and many other awesome people.

Click here to check out an excerpt from my contribution, Life in the Harem.

"One of us turns over a card, picks it up, looks at it as if he were looking at himself in the mirror."

I used to think that tarot cards were just for people who didn't know any better. That was before I started reading Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies, his book of tarot-inspired fiction, which is pretty great. [Note: tarot cards are still mostly just for people who don't know any better.]

From The Waverer's Tale:

A naked goddess takes two jugs containing who knows what juices kept cool for the thirsty (all around there are the yellow dunes of a sun-baked desert), and empties them to water the pebbled shore: and at that instant a growth of saxifrage springs up in the midst of the desert, and among the succulent leaves a blackbird sings; life is the waste of materials thrown away, the sea's cauldron merely repeats what happens within constellations that for billions of years go on pounding atoms in their explosions, obvious even here in the milk-colored sky.