As you might’ve heard, Jonathan Franzen’s back at it with his latest novel about suburban angst and ennui. Save your money. Buy Dawg Towne by Alice Kaltman instead.… more
As you might’ve heard, Jonathan Franzen’s back at it with his latest novel about suburban angst and ennui. Save your money. Buy Dawg Towne by Alice Kaltman instead.… more
First of all, her initials are MF and I think she’d be okay with me calling her a badass MF’er, which is what I’m trying to tell you: you need some more MF’in Melissa Faliveno in your life. Which is to say, you need to read Tomboyland. It’s required reading. I’m requiring it for you.… more
People who had childhoods like mine did so comfortably numb. It was normal. It was all I ever knew. But here’s something I didn’t put in the book: in high school (after I got away from my father) I had friends who lived inside the foster care system. I used to go to their homes and hang out after school sometimes, because when I was little, I used to fantasize about being taken away and put into foster care. I knew it would be so much better.… more
I’ve had the great pleasure over the last couple of years of getting to know Satish and Sarina Prabasi—activists, travelers, immigrants, father and daughter and first time memoirists of Fragments of Memory: A Nepali National’s Reminiscences and The Coffeehouse Resistance: Brewing Hope in Desperate Times respectively. It would be impossible not to be taken with… more
Stephen Graham Jones writes about cars, trucks, cowboys, Indians, slashers, zombies, and werewolves as fluently and fondly as your grandma talks about the intricacies of each of her grandchildren. If you haven’t read his work yet, you’re in luck: The Only Good Indians (Saga Press $26.99) was released last month, and his next book is due out… more
You can tell where some bands are from by their sound. Other bands sound like tears in the fabric of reality. Man Man is the latter. If you were to guess where they are from based on the sound of their music you might think they sprang into existence in a secret bunker below a… more
I worked 97 days in a row, 12 hours at a time. We had shoot outs, murders, anthrax and ricin scares. When they captured Dahmer, we got at least four or five bomb scares a week—folks wanted to mail him an explosive package. I made it, and that’s plenty.… more
I deal with people in awkward situations, crisis situations, bad situations of their own making, all the time, so I’ve learned a lot about human nature. I’ve also learned a lot about the way people lead their lives when they hope nobody’s looking. I represent people who break the law. They tell me about it because it’s privileged.… more
What am I looking for as an editor? The short answer—something I wish to God I’d written, something that keeps me up at night. The long—on the first page, I want stakes, tension, and a character that I care enough about to keep reading. By the end, I want to feel something, and I want to not be able to stop thinking about it. … more
I don’t want anyone in my stories to be a joke or a punchline—that wouldn’t be fair to the person they are. I wrote some of these stories when I was very angry…, but if I wrote my anger into the story, it would be just a rant or a diatribe. And that’s not what I want at all. I want real people, doing the best they can. For me, that’s really the heart of all writing, whether it be fiction, poetry or creative nonfiction.… more
One time I had a woman say to me, “Don’t you just love Nicholas Sparks?” I said, “He might be one of the worst writers in the English language.” She said, “But he’s a millionaire!” I said, “People in America spend a lot more money on baloney than they do filet mignon. That doesn’t make baloney good for them.”… more
I knew he had to be challenging. I knew he had to be his own biggest problem. I knew he had to be the hero and the villain of his life… I just didn’t know why. I knew I wanted to write a book about America, but I knew I didn’t want to write a sermon from a pulpit.… more
I want to matter. I want to make a name for myself. I want revenge on people who have abandoned/rejected me in the past. I want to be a big shot, like someone I look up to or have looked up to. I want to transcend my reality of just being another nameless, faceless person who gets up and just goes to work.… more
Throw out everything you know about crime fiction. Tom Pitts, author of Hustle and American Static, returns with a plot stickier than an ounce of Humboldt County’s finest. 101 is typical Tom Pitts, the kind of novel that proves he’ll forever and ever have followers, trailing behind him begging for one more hit. —Eryk Pruitt, author of What We Reckon… more
“I wanted readers to stumble into stewarding the same way I did… MORE
“Personally, I don’t think there are people who are entirely good or evil—the situational forces that we are born into play a much bigger role than people think… MORE
“… when you finally get a chance to use something in your writing, you can stop carrying it around with you… MORE
“I take no responsibility for characters who appear as evil, immoral, and depraved… MORE
“… in those actions, I relived the memory and kept it fresh… MORE
“My personal beliefs, however, are not nearly that consistent. But, my eyes are always brown… MORE
“When any one of them is holding court, people are afraid to take a piss because they might miss something… MORE
“for my own personal nonfictional work, I am committed to being almost completely useless… MORE
“No matter how complicated or contrary or cringe-worthy those facts might be, no one can tell you that you didn’t feel them… MORE
“You can’t bullshit a man like that. … MORE
“Male relationships in art, though, make for an entirely different discussion. … MORE
“No stiff upper lip inhibits the leopard or the crocodile.… MORE
“If the average New Year’s Eve is a lot of build up for nothing, then Y2K had to be 10X nothing… MORE
“He admits their house is infested with vermin. All signs point to an inevitable conclusion, and not a good one… MORE
“Life is a dark repetitive journey, one that is only punctured by sparks of happiness that bind us to what little we already have even tighter. … MORE
“I think at one point or another almost everyone loves someone they shouldn’t… MORE
“But there’s always hope. Otherwise, every alcoholic would give birth to drunks, every abuser bring up future abusers.… MORE
“no matter how “noble” his method of fishing, he is still killing… MORE
“It’s like a person isn’t allowed to make a mistake any more, at least not publicly… MORE
“It’s more of a subtle torture… MORE
“Why believe in a god who wants certain people to be drunks?… MORE
“I wake in the dead quiet of night to find I am inhabiting my body in a way I usually don’t and thinking about large questions”… MORE
The author of this week’s “Wingman” thinks back on jobs he’s loved and lost… MORE
“When a person becomes a witness…of a violent crime, their lives are never the same”… MORE
The author of “Scrabble” on first lines… MORE
“As for craft – frankly, I wing it.”… MORE
“We live in interesting times for men. Unlike more rigid times in our past, we are free to define manhood as we wish. There is evidence all over today’s pop culture … MORE
The author of “The Nazi Method” talks about setting… MORE
“The best one-letter nicknames are, in order: Z, then K, then B. I’ve been nicknamed both K and B, but never Z… MORE
The author of “Rimer’s Boots” on research… MORE