The new issue of American Short Fiction contains a wonderful story by Kevin Wilson about, as Bret Anthony Johnston puts it, "that moment in your teens when everything seems both possible and doomed." In a few casual, funny, accessible scenes, Wilson conjures this delicate moment in all its brimming, about-to-spill-over fullness, all its wonder and vividness and heart. Here, in a podcast produced by our assistant editor Andrew Bales, is Kevin Wilson reading a few pages of the "The Horror We … [Read more...] about Inside the Issue: Kevin Wilson reads from “The Horror We Made”
NOTEBOOK FEATURE
Inside the Issue: Anis Mojgani illustrates Joyce Carol Oates’ “The Disappearing”
In "The Disappearing," Joyce Carol Oates examines the way time can unravel both our relationships and our selves. The story chronicles the fading of a marriage from the wife's perspective, but we are left uncertain as to whether it is her husband or she herself who is gradually disappearing. We asked poet and artist Anis Mojgani to illustrate the story for us. Here, alongside some excerpts from "The Disappearing," is his beautiful and moving response. "Alone with her husband in … [Read more...] about Inside the Issue: Anis Mojgani illustrates Joyce Carol Oates’ “The Disappearing”
We’re Back!
ASF is back with a new issue brimming with exquisite fiction. Behind Elizabeth Chiles' gorgeous cover photo you'll find wonderful stories, including: Joyce Carol Oates' "The Disappearing" Kevin Wilson's "The Horror We Made" Rachel Swearingen's "The Night Between Us" Barrett Swanson's "Annie Radcliffe, You Are Loved" Kellie Wells' "A Unified Theory of Human Behavior" and the stories that won our Short(er) Fiction Contest: Ryan MacDonald's "The Observable … [Read more...] about We’re Back!
ASF Alumni: Laura van den Berg
Laura van den Berg has published three short stories in American Short Fiction. In November, her second collection of stories, the scintillating The Isle of Youth, will be released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book has elicited raves in advance of its publication. Kirkus Review calls The Isle of Youth “mesmerizing.” Publishers Weekly says, “If ever there was a writer going places, it’s Laura van den Berg.” The Isle of Youth explores the lives of women mired in secrecy and deception: a … [Read more...] about ASF Alumni: Laura van den Berg
Notably
Huge congrats to the authors whose ASF stories were recognized as notables, or distinguished reads, in the most recent Best American Short Stories and Best American Non Required Reading anthologies. From Vol. 15, Issue 54 Laura van den Berg's "Lessons," which is included in her newest collection, The Isle of Youth, out November 5th (in both BASS and BANRR). Robert Boswell's "American Epiphany" (in BANRR). Robert's newest novel, Tumbledown, was published by Graywolf in … [Read more...] about Notably
Things American: Egyptian Revolution Reading
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. There was something slightly unsatisfying about the classes on the politics and history of the Middle East that I took as an undergraduate. … [Read more...] about Things American: Egyptian Revolution Reading