In October's fiction web exclusive, "Choose Your Own," author Jeanne Jones explores a familiarly adult dilemma in a familiar childhood format. She takes you (well, you take yourself) on a labyrinthine journey that's designed to reflect just how existential this whole finding-love thing can be. We talked with Jeanne about interaction; what Julie Otsuka, George Saunders, and Kanye West have in common; and how liquid intake is a sign you're doing a-okay. EM: First of all, I love the interactive ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
THE STARS AT NIGHT 2016 [Please note that this event has passed. Please visit our Stars at Night page for information about this year's event.] Join us on the night of Thursday, November 3rd, for the first annual The Stars at Night, a beer-and-boots gala celebrating ASF's 25th anniversary, our Texas heritage, and our city's writers and those who champion them. Come for the country songs and dancing, and stay for the free cocktails, light snacks, and the bright view of the city skyline. ... [READ MORE]
https://americanshortfiction.org/asf-presents-stars-night-gala/
Web Exclusive Interview: Bryan Washington
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]
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]
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: 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]