In September's web exclusive story, "Lockwood," a young boy gets a new neighbor, with whom he shares a brief friendship. The story's brilliance is in how clearly it manifests in the mind, as if happened to you. And in many ways, it has—each of us has experienced a similar convergence of moment, setting, and person that formed something like an enduring star in our memory. What we look for in fiction is to have our stars reflected back to us so that they shine a little brighter. The magic really ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
Things American: Treatment vs. Healing
1. The nurse woke me at four-thirty in the morning to take my blood. Someone else had taken it less than six hours before, in the emergency room, but pointing that out seemed disrespectful because he was a nurse with years of schooling behind him, and I was just another suicidal senior in high school. After he left with five vials of my blood, and I was sufficiently drowsy, I rested fitfully until it was time for the morning devotional at six. Wrapped in a beltless robe and wearing ... [READ MORE]
Web Exclusive Interview: Heather Wells Peterson
In our August web exclusive story, "Gorman, CA," a couple's car runs out of fuel on the side of the road in a land that is foreign to them both. Heather Wells Peterson indicates lack throughout the landscape and the action as a skilled painter would, in the wilt of the odometer's needle, in the drought-stricken hills, in the protagonist's silence. It's one of those subtle revelations that's so sublime in short fiction: a moment, seemingly insignificant from an outside perspective, that casts a ... [READ MORE]
Web Exclusive Interview: Rose Gowen
July's web exclusive story, "The Sun and the Pacific, Flowers," is both a beautiful meditation on the passage of time and a careful, close look at a young person's anxiety that she's not doing or being quite enough. Writer Rose Gowen's images and sensory details are stunning; the story is brimming over with oleander and hibiscus, rosemary, agave, palms, and citrus trees. The smells and sounds of the Santa Barbara coast abound here, as does the sense that, for all of that beauty and bounty, ... [READ MORE]
Every Notebook, Photograph, and Letter: An Interview with Jan Ellison
Jan Ellison’s debut novel, A Small Indiscretion, came out in paperback this spring. The book takes readers across decades and continents—from Berkeley to London and back again—to show us what happens to a happily married mother of three when the mistakes and youthful transgressions of years past unexpectedly turn up to meddle with the present. As with her O. Henry Prize-winning story, "The Company of Men," Ellison demonstrates her ability to render without apology the not-so-nice sides of her ... [READ MORE]
Bourbon and Milk: Slow but Steady-ish
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 [at] americanshortfiction.org. — I confess, I get a little impatient when I hear graduate students with teaching assistantships—that is, students who not only aren’t paying tuition but who are being ... [READ MORE]