Archive for December, 2011

Atticus Review has compiled some of their favorite short fiction from the year into a single volume, which is available for a free download here. Anthology includes my short story “Deep Blue Sea,” and is yet another example of how AR is helping to change the landscape of what publishing can be.

Thanks to Katrina Gray – AR‘s Editor-in-Chief, and Dan Cafaro – founder and publisher of Atticus Books as well as the rest of the editorial staff.

Big thanks to the editors at Atticus Review for nominating my story “Deep Blue Sea” for a Pushcart.

Look forward to watching them grow.

Had the pleasure of seeing Steve Almond read again last night, this time in SC at the Hub City Bookshop. While the poor guy looked exhausted and the reading was a quick hit on a long book tour, he still managed to make us laugh. But there is more to Steve Almond than the clown – in the things he says and through his fiction he seems to encourage empathy and compassion in a world drowning in solipsism and materialism. My newspaper suggests he is correct as it tells stories of insular college athletic programs in which real criminals are given shelter and shoppers pepper spray each other for the chance at a $2 waffle iron. God bless America.

When he signed my copy of his new collection God Bless America, he added: “It all leads to mercy.” Not sure what “it” is (stories? the act of employing compassion itself?), but I like the idea of a little more compassion in the Isles of Walmart.

On Compressed Fiction

Posted: December 4, 2011 in Uncategorized

 

I discuss “compressed” fiction at Matter Press, an interesting journal promoting and publishing great flash fiction.