Editorial Outtakes is a series in which we publish excerpts from recent books that you won’t find anywhere else because, prior the publication, these sections were cut. This installment of Editorial Outtakes features a deleted scene from novelist C. Morgan Babst's debut The Floating World. Published in 2017 and out this month in paperback, Babst's acclaimed story of life in New Orleans following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina has been hailed as a poetic and tragic family tale with the … [Read more...] about Editorial Outtakes: The Floating World
From Printed Page to Silver Screen: An Interview with Novelist Ted Thompson
Ted Thompson's one of the very first people I met in Iowa City in the fall of 2009 when my wife and I moved there so that she could attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Knowing Ted has given me a close view of watching someone move from drafting a book to editing it, then to selling it to a publishing house and editing it some more. On Thursday, an adaptation of that book—The Land of Steady Habits—will premiere on Netflix. Adapted and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Nicole Holofcener, the movie … [Read more...] about From Printed Page to Silver Screen: An Interview with Novelist Ted Thompson
The House in the Woods: An Interview with Jane Delury
In her lush debut, The Balcony, author Jane Delury offers readers wide-angle and macrocosmic glimpses of life in and around a French manor house over the course of more than a century. A novel-in-stories, The Balcony examines the changing fortunes of families who've come and gone over the manor's history, looking both at the occupants of the main house as well as those who've lived in the cottage on the grounds of the estate. Both the fictional village of Benneville and the surrounding woods … [Read more...] about The House in the Woods: An Interview with Jane Delury
Dinosaurs, the Alphabet, and Ten Things to Consider Prior to Submitting a Story for Publication
I. To Begin, a Note about Pleasure A few years ago, the late James Salter was honored at the annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Festival with a prize in Fitzgerald’s name. During his keynote address at the award ceremony, Salter said something that was stupefying in its simplicity: reading, he said, was among the very greatest pleasures in his life. Perhaps that’s not a surprising sentiment for a writer so notably interested in pleasure, especially the pleasures of food, drink, travel, language, and … [Read more...] about Dinosaurs, the Alphabet, and Ten Things to Consider Prior to Submitting a Story for Publication
Strange New City: An Interview with Lucy Tan
Lucy Tan's debut novel What We Were Promised is a deftly constructed multiple-perspective work that tells the story of the Zhen household. After attaining educations and building careers in the United States, Wei and Lina return to Shanghai with their daughter, Karen, where they find themselves a part of a new generation of urban elites. Quite suddenly, Wei is tasked with dramatically expanding his business while Lina finds herself part of an upper-crust previously unimaginable to her. As a … [Read more...] about Strange New City: An Interview with Lucy Tan
Tomorrow or Forever: An Interview with Jack Kaulfus
In Jack Kaulfus’s debut story collection, Tomorrow or Forever, the Austin-based author examines life, the afterlife, and the identities we may take on in those spaces and beyond. These nine stories move through a variety of settings, from the cramped inside of a plane to a mystical small town sculpture garden, painting backdrops that are alternately recognizable and otherworldly. In these eclectic stories, tension lies between what’s known and unknown—about the worlds we exist in and about our … [Read more...] about Tomorrow or Forever: An Interview with Jack Kaulfus