A few weeks ago, we typed the name “Eva Shelton” into the website of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, looking for an address so that we could send her some exciting news: she’d won The Insider Prize for fiction. Sponsored by American Short Fiction and now in its fourth year, the prize highlights work by incarcerated writers in Texas, whether they live in state or federal prisons, local jails, or immigration detention centers. This time around the guest judge was Mitchell S. Jackson—who … [Read more...] about Announcing the 2021 Winners of The Insider Prize, Selected by Mitchell S. Jackson
Nonfiction
The Very Last Time I Set Out to Stargaze
I’m in Joshua Tree, California, the very last time I set out to stargaze. I’ve come for the month of July to this hallucinogenic desertscape inland of Los Angeles, where my goal is to disconnect from daily life. Oneness with the universe and all that. As a debut author, I’ve been spooked by too much attention, and so I look up and think about how good it is to disappear into these constellations, so far from human concerns. This is one of the last nights I see the stars in California. Two … [Read more...] about The Very Last Time I Set Out to Stargaze
Announcing the 2020 Winners of the Insider Prize
For the last three years, American Short Fiction has sponsored a contest for incarcerated writers in Texas. A group of writers at the Connally Unit, in Kenedy, Texas, came up with the name: The Insider Prize. Each year we get dozens of essays and short stories from men and women in prisons and jails across the state, some handwritten and others produced on typewriters. They tell stories about their lives before prison, about the conditions inside, and about the many places their imaginations … [Read more...] about Announcing the 2020 Winners of the Insider Prize
A Person Who Looks: An Interview with Lacy M. Johnson
Houston-based Lacy M. Johnson’s recent essay collection, The Reckonings, grapples with vital questions: the concept of evil, police killings, the BP oil spill, and the complexity of speaking truth to power. Finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in the category criticism, Johnson’s essays move between the personal and the political with deftness and precision. This interview was conducted via email where we talked about Johnson’s curatorial project, the Houston Flood Museum, … [Read more...] about A Person Who Looks: An Interview with Lacy M. Johnson
Editorial Outtakes: Cutter Wood
Editorial Outtakes is a series in which we publish excerpts from recent books that you won’t find anywhere else because, prior publication, these sections were cut. This installment of Editorial Outtakes features a scene from Cutter Wood's Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime, an account the 2008 murder of Sabine Musil-Buehler. Wood's investigation is augmented by a more personal story about the nature of love and intimacy. What results is a deeply moving work of true … [Read more...] about Editorial Outtakes: Cutter Wood
Editorial Outtakes: Mike Scalise
Editorial Outtakes is a series in which we publish excerpts from recent books that you won’t find anywhere else because, prior the publication, these sections were cut. This installment of Editorial Outtakes features writer Mike Scalise, author of The Brand New Catastrophe, reflecting on some of the particularities of revealing character details in nonfiction. Given that we all grow up (and, presumably, learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us), how does a writer of memoir go about … [Read more...] about Editorial Outtakes: Mike Scalise