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]
NOTEBOOK
Online Fiction: Interview with Amelia Gray
This month's online fiction features a story by Amelia Gray, written to accompany a track on White Dresses, the latest album from Portland indy favorites, Loch Lomond. (Head on over to the story to hear the excellent song in question!) Packed into a tight 500 words, "Spray Painted Drums" thrums with all the hope, fervor, chaos, humor, invention, possibility, and lightly carried ferocity of an urban parade. We asked the author about what it was like writing to the beat of your own ... [READ MORE]
Things American: NFL Preview
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]
Online Fiction: Interview with Hannah Pass
This month, we're bringing you a story about an astrological forecaster whose television ratings are falling. Hannah Pass's "Nova" is a world of glitz, glitter, fiber-optic star charts and unsavory old men, a place where networks air shows on adolescent bartending and on hypnotherapy for insomniacs. But at its heart, "Nova" is a story about a mother who wants to do right, set a good example for her thirteen-year-old daughter. We asked Hannah some questions about the story and her writing. (And ... [READ MORE]
ASF Alumni: Jean Thompson
Since Jean Thompson was first published in American Short Fiction in the Winter 1993 issue, her short story collection Who Do You Love was nominated for The National Book Award, and her novel, Wide Blue Yonder, was named a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection. Her newest novel, The Humanity Project (Blue Rider Press, March 2013) beautifully tackles the grand and complicated notion of humanity, while excavating a glimmer of hope in our foreclosed and sometimes ... [READ MORE]
What We’re Reading
At the close of each month, we ask members of our ASF staff to share books that have recently graduated from their to-be-read piles, along with a GIF that relates to their experience of the book, in whatever way. This morning, we learned the sad news that Seamus Heaney had passed away. So we took North off our shelves and stepped into the embrace of his words. ... [READ MORE]