Allow me to posit that it is fun to talk about things that don't yet exist, like flying cars and justice and Issue 6.2 of The Cincinnati Review.
Let me further suggest that we now take the advice of Christ and consider that last item first.
Fiction by Micah Riecker and Kevin Wilson. Poetry by Sherman Alexie and William Logan and Chase Twichell. Nonfiction by Khaled Mattawa, and poetry reviews by Norman Finkelstein, and then of course the other things. The fiction reviews. There are at least two of them: one by Keith Lee Morris and one by Erin McGraw.
The issue in question also claims to have a fiction review by me. I shall not cavil with the 'by' part of those last four words, or the 'me' part, or the 'fiction' part. As for the sole remaining cavilable word, well, feel free to make the call yourself.
One thing I know surely: it was as much fun to put to paper as anything I've ever done, and many thanks to Nicola Mason and Michael Griffith for letting me play on their field. Flying cars and justice have got nothing on these folks.
October 16, 2009, 3:40 p.m.Categories: Fiction Collections, Litmags, Review
Thanks to The Rome Review for tucking a poem of mine called "After Jazz" in amongst some really wonderful work by Blake Butler, George Singleton, Steve Almond and Kathleen Rooney, among others.
"Opium Magazine's signature competitive reading series comes to Syracuse: the pilot episode of LDM University will double as a pre-launch party for the magazine’s eighth print issue. The event, hosted by Opium founder Todd Zuniga, will feature 8-minute-or-less readings by Roy Kesey, Dan Roche, Mi Ditmar and Alexander Yates, all judged by Phil LaMarche, Christopher Kennedy, and Elizabeth Koch. Venue: Ambrosia. Date: Friday, June 5. Time: 7:30 p.m."
It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is the most important event of any kind that has ever occurred, except possibly that one thing that happened with the tractor. Remember that? That was nuts.
June 3, 2009, 2:16 p.m.Category: Litmags
An awfully nice thing: Darlin Neal and Scott Garson of Wigleaf have put together a list of their fifty favorite Very Short Fictions from the past year, and saw fit to include a piece of mine, "Flies," which originally appeared in Hobart. This tickles me, not in the bad sense where you can't breathe and then whiz down your own leg, but in the other sense, the good one.
Not that anyone has reason to care, but a thing about this story: it could just as well be called nonfiction. I mean that literally. Nothing in it didn't happen except the fantasy bits labeled truthfully as fantasy, plus also the fictional bits labeled truthfully within the story as fiction. That said, so much of the story is composed of those two elements that, sure, why not: fiction.
Or, no, hold on, how about:
Blobfiction, greenish, and transparent enough that inside it you can see the slowly dissolving hunks of nonfiction it just ate.
Yes, I like that just fine.
May 6, 2009, 3:09 p.m.Categories: Litmags, Short Stories
I've been submitting stories to this contest on and off for the past decade, and to its sponsor, The Missouri Review, for even longer than that.
No dice.
!
February 3, 2009, 6:08 p.m.Categories: China, Litmags, Short Stories
A friend recently wrote to congratulate me. I asked, What for? For the Pushcart thing, she said. What Pushcart thing? I said. The honorable mention, she said.
It was news to me.
Happy news!
And soon confirmed, also happily: a story called "Falling Through," originally published in the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review, had gotten an Honorable Mention in the latest volume, XXXIII.
But I did wonder why the 'Cart hadn't gotten in touch directly.
The answer was obvious enough: that many more email addresses to track down, et cetera.
But still: it is a happiness-provoking thing, hearing that a story has been honored in some way, and happiness is rare enough already. Why wouldn't an editor--or anyone else--take the opportunity to cause a little more?
But then I thought, Okay, Kesey, back to work.
But then I thought...
And I went to check.
Amazon, search function.
And sure enough:
"Wait," first published in Volume 28, Issue 4 of the splendid Kenyon Review, received an Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection.
And "Asuncion," first published in McSweeney's Issue 15, had been HM'd the previous year, in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006.
And I thought again:
Why didn't they let me know?
Were they afraid I was already too happy?
That the slightest bit more happiness would push me over the edge?
Or were they just too busy?
And so to all you anthologizers I say:
We know how hard you work, and for such little recompense in the idiom of mammon.
We know!
And we thank you for it.
We do!
But also:
No one is ever too happy.
January 31, 2009, 3:54 p.m.Categories: Litmags, Short Stories
will be in Chicago for the upcoming AWP conference, by all means track me down.
January 30, 2009, 11:03 a.m.Categories: Interviews, Litmags, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Travel
