Ben Hoffman's "All the Girls We Knew in the Suburbs" was an obvious and perfect choice for our December online exclusive short story. Featuring bored Jewish teens on Christmas Eve, the story is an examination of difference, ennui, and adolescent anxiety, and its dark tone stands in sharp contrast to the bright, shining high holiday of Christendom. We recently emailed Hoffman to ask about the story, his other work, and about those long, cold Wisconsin winters. Nate Brown: I want … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Ben Hoffman
All the Girls We Knew in the Suburbs
It was the night before Christmas, but all that meant to us was that no one else was out and the suburbs were our playgrounds more than ever. We were two Jewish kids from the city and it was not our holy night. No family unwrapping ceremonies awaited us in the morning. Our days of unwrapping, all eight of them, had ended a week earlier, though those days of miracle light were not our holiest. Everyone thought that because they fell so close to Christmas, even if no one ever knew exactly when; … [Read more...] about All the Girls We Knew in the Suburbs
Online Fiction Interview: Helen Hooper
Few things are more disappointing than a predictable work of fiction, but one worse thing is the work of fiction that aims to surprise but falls flat. There's a big, fat, twist in November's online exclusive work of fiction, "Edge Habitat," by Helen Hooper. It's a particularly welcome twist because, well, it blindsided us. We recently emailed Hooper and asked her to tell us a bit about that twist, her other work, and about her previous life as a DC-based policy analyst with The Nature … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Helen Hooper
Edge Habitat
The window over the kitchen sink looks out at the backyard. Theory’d been, she could watch the kids play. Croquet or whatever. That was a long time ago. Carl had put in a garden that turned out to be popular with local wildlife. Once the shoots were up they came and returned, voracious. Subsequent Googling to learn that deer like edge habitat. Which is what this is, he said. The edge. The best place. He installed that fence, the so-called exclosure, a metal net reinforced with steel rods. … [Read more...] about Edge Habitat
Online Fiction Interview: C.M. Barnes
This month, I want to preface our online exclusive interview with an anecdote. In my first semester of graduate school, I taught an introductory creative writing class in which I received four—four!—stories that were about a dying or recently deceased grandmother. My first thought: why no dead grandfathers? My second thought: along with stories about car crashes and college keg parties, I must ban stories about dead or dying grandmothers in future classes, and that's just what I … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: C.M. Barnes
In Our Defense
So help us, we spread her remains in a minnow bucket. It shouldn’t have come to that, but there was a law against scattering ashes in the lake, and we had to be clandestine out in the boat, the rope tossed casually over the side, the sooty remainder of her trickling out through the sieve holes. We played her favorite music: Sinatra, Bennett—old-timey, feel-good stuff—and sipped G&Ts as we plowed through the chop. No one said much, although Daughter-in-law Judith read a prayer. To throw off a … [Read more...] about In Our Defense