In the novels The Huntsman and The King of Kings County, Whitney Terrell tackled politically charged problems like housing segregation and institutional racism. Both novels are set in his hometown of Kansas City, Mo., the near epicenter of the United States, where these issues have erupted on a national stage. Terrell’s third novel, The Good Lieutenant, features a protagonist from the same landscape, Emma Fowler, who attempts to escape it and the burden of family by becoming an officer in the ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
Web Exclusive Interview: Kathryn Savage
Kathryn Savage's "Lesser Missiles" grabbed us from the first, spare, and startling sentences. Whenever this happens, we might cross our fingers and tense up a little, carried away by the momentum of the story but still conscious that we are rooting for the narrative to sustain that opening power, to not let us down. Kathryn's story succeeds beautifully, and its final moments deliver us gently, without apology, to the vastness of our own vulnerabilities. Erin McReynolds: This story has that ... [READ MORE]
Starting with the Problem: An Interview with Sara Majka
Sara Majka’s Cities I’ve Never Lived In is my favorite kind of story collection—one that strikes many, many delicate balances. It’s both comforting and spooky, dreamlike and surprisingly frank, clear-eyed and slyly supernatural, and often all simultaneously. Majka’s stories follow a common narrator—recently divorced and adrift in a reflective, tonal sadness—into new towns and old relationships, through recalled and overheard stories of death and doppelgängers. “Settlers” and “Four Hills,” both ... [READ MORE]
To Be in Love in Brooklyn: An interview with Emma Straub
Emma Straub’s latest novel, Modern Lovers, came out on Tuesday—just in time to top your summer reading lists. The book follows a group of college friends and ex-bandmates as they struggle to come to terms with their middle aged, adult lives in Brooklyn, navigating the difficulties of marriage, parenting, and illegal kombucha production. This book has everything we have come to expect from Straub: a richly imagined story of complex human relationships, layered with her characteristic wit, charm, ... [READ MORE]
Embracing the World, from High to Low: An Interview with Benjamin Hale
In his first story collection, Benjamin Hale introduces us to characters who inhabit the margins of society: an expat outlaw revolutionary trying to find her way home, a dominatrix confronting a new possible role as mother, a performance artists eating himself towards death. What at first may read as absurd becomes meaningful and then moving through Hale’s skillful and playful storytelling. We reached out to Hale to talk about his writing process and his new collection, which was published ... [READ MORE]
Winners of the American Short(er) Fiction Prize
It is time to raise your fruit for the winners of the 2016 American Short(er) Fiction Contest, judged by Amelia Gray! This year we had many wonderful submissions, so thank you to all who submitted to the contest—reading your stories has been an honor and a pleasure, a welcome reminder of the beauty and versatility and promise of the flash-fiction form. The first-place prize goes to Erin Somers, for her story “Canine.” Gray writes, "Funny, eerie and sharp as a bloody tooth, this story shows ... [READ MORE]