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 dives into the dark 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 at ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
Inside the Issue: An Interview with Ryan MacDonald
Ryan MacDonald's American Short(er) Fiction Prize-winning story explores the relationship between a father and his four-year-old daughter with refreshing honesty. The economy and disarming humor of the piece soften the punch of what is actually an unsentimental look at the natural limitations of our love. You can read the story, "The Observable Characteristics of Organisms," here. AR: Tell us a little bit about this story-- how did the idea come to you? Where did it ... [READ MORE]
ASF’s Holiday Gift/Get/Just Go Buy It Guide
'Tis the season: to ask for books and buy books with abandon. So, we've asked our ASF staff to share what books they're gifting to their friends and family, what books they want to be gifted, and what short story collections they think you should just go ahead and get for yourself. Andrew Bales Give: With Maggie Nelson's Bluets, Wave Books has perfected the stocking stuffer. At 99 pages, it's an unassuming book—a faintly cosmic blue cover with a white square on the ... [READ MORE]
Inside the Issue: Rachel Swearingen on Postcards, Nostalgia and History
American Short Fiction's 56th issue contains Rachel Swearingen's jewel of a story, "The Night Between Us," an echoing and lyric meditation on the landscape of fear and isolation. The piece, inspired by a line about eating postcards in Mary Reufle's poem "Like a Daffodil," presents a charming but damaged character afraid to leave her apartment and cede control to a dark, messy world. Melinda Moustakis describes the story as written with "sensuous brevity and beautiful longing." Reading it is an ... [READ MORE]
Inside the Issue: Kevin Wilson reads from “The Horror We Made”
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]
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]