NOTEBOOK

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]

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. The Egyptian writer Sonallah Ibrahim has been getting much attention in the U.S. these days. In March, his 1966 novel, That Smell, was published in ... [READ MORE]

Bourbon and Milk features lessons, observations, and conversations by and with writers living out there in one of the most perplexing outposts of the human condition – parenthood. In this monthly series, Contributing Editor Giuseppe Taurino will dive into the dark spaces where parenting sometimes pushes us, and explore 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 ... [READ MORE]

Welcome to American Short Fiction's NFL Preview.  To mark the beginning of the 16-week season, we've asked writers and editors from around the country to comment on the their teams, through the filter of fiction. Follow the links to see who gets the Barry Hannah treatment and which team is more like Joan Didion's later works than her earliest. As you peruse, you'll see we have multiple approaches to the same teams, with a few surprises in store—if you happen to stumble upon Oakland Raiders ... [READ MORE]