Emprise Review

I have a new story up here: Emprise Review. Check out the entire issue, because it's great. Also, the whole site is redesigned! Go, get there, right away.

Giraffes, Worms, Ugly

I went to AWP last month and was really overwhelmed the whole time. Mostly I walked around with my old buddy Colin Winnette*. My face turned really red every time I snuck into the book fair. Working from home makes me pretty bad at making new friends, but I decided this month I'm going to try harder. Do you want to be my friend?

Print publications don't usually choose my work but surprise! I have two stories in magazines that are out right now.

My story, "Giraffe Land," is in the current issue of The Lifted Brow. If you order it, you will get mail from Australia. Here is an excerpt:

"A long time ago, I knew a giraffe. Even further back, giraffes ruled the land. Babely girls were second in command. They rode atop the giraffes, high above the city streets. This was the only time in history the rider was not in charge of what she was riding. The babe riding the giraffe was the passenger, and if the giraffe wanted to walk past a snarl of roses, then the babe on top had to draw her pretty legs up to avoid the thorns."

I met the editor of Juked, John, at AWP, and he was really nice. My story is called "Ugly Brown Car." When I was in high school, my best friend's dad gave him a car we called Ugly Brown Car. You could only drive it in a straight line or it died. Could that actually be true? I don't remember. The story itself is not based on real events:

"Bobby came home from work and told his sister, Beatrice, he’d like her to pitch in.
'Pitch in how?' she asked, sitting at the kitchen table and shucking onions from their peels.
Bobby told her she could get a job too, maybe at Jack’s Hot House. She could work days he said. Then they could pool their pennies and buy a car that wasn’t the ugly brown car. They’d had ugly brown car for what felt like forever and lately, forever had been feeling not so great to Bobby."



* If you go to Colin's blog, you'll see a picture of a cereal bowl. This always reminds me of a time I saw Colin spit out a spoonful of cereal because it was full of worms.

MANY AWESOMES

BACK TUCK is now available here.

I am hoping Tim Allen will blurb it. Learn more about this project here and join this facebook group to show your support.

Thank you to Magic Helicopter Press and Mike Young!

The above rendering of Tim Allen enjoying BACK TUCK was created by Tag Savage.

IT IS AWESOME: Back Tuck Cover

Look at this tiny preview of the cover for my upcoming chapbook, Back Tuck! Thanks to Tag Savage for making it and to Mike Young for making it happen.

Are you going to AWP? I live in Brooklyn now so I get to go. I startle really easily but want to have a good time this year. We are staying in a hotel called The District, which seems like a good place to start. I'm reading on Saturday night at 7:00 at The Black Squirrel (2427 18th Street NW

Washington, DC). It's called MEGAREADING and a lot of other people are reading too, so I promise to read really, really short.

American Short Fiction

I like all short things and lucky enough for me, the nice people at American Short Fiction liked me back.

HERE is a story I wrote and HERE is where I talk about hay falling from my pockets and how unpopular my work was in grad school.

Back Tuck

I have a little book of short fiction coming out next year from Magic Helicopter Press. The cover art is really nice, isn't it? Tag made it. Mike Young of MHP is also really nice. Thanks for inviting me to make a little book, Mike Young!

IT IS AWESOME

I got a twitter.