Editorial Outtakes is a feature in which we publish excerpts from novels and story collections that you won’t find in the finished books because, prior to publication, these sections were cut. This installment of Editorial Outtakes features Carmiel Banasky, whose prologue to her debut novel The Suicide of Claire Bishop was cut from the manuscript at the proverbial last minute. Here's the disappeared prologue, followed by Banasky's commentary on the process of writing (and then cutting) this part … [Read more...] about Editorial Outtakes: Carmiel Banasky
ASF Reads: Fall 2015
Periodically, we poll our staff to see what they're reading and to ask about what they're excited to see published in the coming weeks and months. For this fall's installment of ASF Reads, we've included recently published and forthcoming titles, as well as a few earlier titles and a couple of classics that our staff demanded appear here. While this is certainly not a best-of list, it does include some titles that you've likely heard of elsewhere (Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies, for … [Read more...] about ASF Reads: Fall 2015
Editorial Outtakes: Benjamin Markovits
Today, we launch Editorial Outtakes, a new series here at ASF Online where we'll feature excerpts from recently published novels and story collections that you won't find in the finished books because, prior to publication, they were cut. The reasons for the cuts will vary, of course, but in the case of Benjamin Markovits, who is the brother of our co-editor Rebecca Markovits and the author of our debut installment of Editorial Outtakes, they were the result of finding that the heart of his most … [Read more...] about Editorial Outtakes: Benjamin Markovits
The Five Star Hotel of Bangkok
Everyone laughed about its name. In the 90s, the old concrete building had been a brothel, but it was now owned by a dreadlocked Israeli living out his dream of running a cut-rate hostel-cum-bar. For 100 baht, you rented a cinderblock room in one of the top three floors, a little box with exposed electrical wires and fluorescent lighting that flickered like life was quivering out of the tubes every time a semi clattered past. For 150 baht, the Israeli rented you a mattress. Nightly, the first … [Read more...] about The Five Star Hotel of Bangkok
Online Fiction Interview: Sofi Stambo
Sofi Stambo's "Ships" presents a vivid summer break on the Black Sea during which a young, unnamed protagonist pines for the son of the Tomov family, which is headed by a sea captain who lives across the street from her grandparents. It's a story so precise in its sensory details that it feels deeply familiar—and even nostalgic—in spite of its Bulgarian setting. We emailed Stambo recently to ask about those details, about Bulgaria during the communist years, and about what she's working on … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Sofi Stambo
Things American: Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and the Hell’s Angels at La Honda: August 7th, 1965
Fifty years ago today, Ken Kesey, not yet thirty and already the author of two acclaimed novels, invited the members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang to a party at his home in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. When the Angels arrived it was just past 3 p.m. A blue summer afternoon: Kesey and his Merry Pranksters—the friends who’d accompanied him, the year before, on the cross-country bus trip that would later become the subject Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test—watched … [Read more...] about Things American: Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and the Hell’s Angels at La Honda: August 7th, 1965