I first met Marie-Helene Bertino last summer, when she was my workshop instructor at the One Story Workshop for Writers. In person, she is meticulous, charming, and bright. And her writing is the same. Her short story, “Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph,” was first published in Issue 47 of American Short Fiction. Her second book, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas, will be published this August by Crown. Set in Philadelphia, the novel takes place over the course of a single day—Christmas Eve … [Read more...] about An Interview with Marie-Helene Bertino
Emily Smith
The Magic of Helen Oyeyemi’s Mirrors
Toward the beginning of Helen Oyeyemi’s fourth and latest novel, Boy, Snow, Bird, narrator Boy Novak Whitman offers us a dictionary-style definition of the word “mirror.” mirror: [mirə] noun 1. A surface capable of reflecting sufficient diffuser light to form an image of an object placed in front of it. 2. Such a reflecting surface set in a frame. In a household setting this surface adopts an inscrutable personality (possibly impish and/or amoral), presenting convincing and yet … [Read more...] about The Magic of Helen Oyeyemi’s Mirrors
Things American: Sonallah Ibrahim’s Fiction of Politics and Emptiness
While the current crisis in Egypt makes the front pages of our papers on an almost-daily basis, the country’s complex, hopeful, and conflicted revolutionary history has also been written in its fiction. This week at ASF, we’re featuring two essays that explore the political climate and events that shaped region – through the filter of literature. The Egyptian writer Sonallah Ibrahim has been getting much attention in the U.S. these days. In March, his 1966 novel, That Smell, was published in … [Read more...] about Things American: Sonallah Ibrahim’s Fiction of Politics and Emptiness