Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House follows one large Detroit family struggling to do right by one another while also figuring out what to do about the family home, which is on the brink of foreclosure. It’s a tender look the messiness of sibling relationships set against the backdrop of a slumping economy and the then-emerging housing crisis of 2008. Among other honors, the novel was a Summer 2015 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and was awarded the Center for Fiction … [Read more...] about An Interview with Angela Flournoy
NOTEBOOK FEATURE
Online Fiction Interview: Liam Callanan Remembers Ihab Hassan
We were immediately enchanted by our October web exclusive, Ihab Hassan's “Three.” Sadly, Dr. Hassan passed away shortly after we accepted his work for publication. We would have loved the opportunity to speak with him about the pieces, but his colleague and friend, the author Liam Callanan, was kind enough to share some memories and insight. Suffice it to say, we would have loved to be the man's dinner companions. Erin McReynolds: We were so sorry to hear of Dr. Hassan's passing. How far … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Liam Callanan Remembers Ihab Hassan
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
Excerpt: Honey from the Lion, by Matthew Neill Null
Tomorrow, to our delight, Lookout Books will publish Honey from the Lion, the debut novel of Matthew Neill Null. The novel travels the same West Virginian logging terrain as "The Slow Lean of Time," the stunner of a story we published in our Spring 2014 issue (if you would like to read that story, you can pick up a copy in our store; choose Issue 57 from among the back issues). Like "The Slow Lean of Time," Honey from the Lion employs a sweeping omniscient narration almost Victorian in its … [Read more...] about Excerpt: Honey from the Lion, by Matthew Neill Null
Bourbon and Milk: Here Is the Essay, Now Where Is the Child?
Bourbon and Milk is an ongoing series that dives into the perplexing spaces parenting sometimes pushes us and explores the unexpected ways writers may grow in them. If you’re interested in joining the conversation or contributing a Bourbon and Milk post, query Giuseppe Taurino at giuseppe@americanshortfiction.org. “Where do you get so much energy?” I asked my daughter recently, the age-old parenting question. She was running around like on any other day while I sprawled supine on the … [Read more...] about Bourbon and Milk: Here Is the Essay, Now Where Is the Child?
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