I want to tell you, because maybe it’s four in the morning and you’re googling “how to know when to give up on a novel.” How you are supposed to know? I’ve wondered this many times myself over twenty-three months, through a hundred and fifty thousand words, dozens of chapters, three false starts, and too many conversations to count. Then—in a moment—I came to the answer and I gave up on the book. I’ve written three books that came easily. The novel I walked away from was not one of those. The … [Read more...] about Things American: On Quitting the (not so) Great American Novel
Politics
Web Exclusive Interview: Siân Griffiths
In our January web exclusive story "The Key Bearer's Parents," a pair of loving parents (clowns, by trade) explain how they raised their son in order to try and make sense of his very troubling decision—a decision whose implications seem to depend entirely on the reader's point of view. It's a story that prompts an endless number of questions, so we were thrilled to have the chance to ask them of author Siân Griffiths. Erin McReynolds: This story supposes an alternate present—or a plausible … [Read more...] about Web Exclusive Interview: Siân Griffiths
Nota Bene: Nat Baldwin Has Been Feeling the Bern Since, like, 2002
Nat Baldwin's been writing, performing, and recording music for virtually all of his adult life. In addition to playing bass in Dirty Projectors, Baldwin has recorded half a dozen solo records that put his upright bass and his vocal range on full and incredible display. Baldwin's also a fiction writer, and in the past two years, he's published stories in PANK, Timber, Alice Blue, and Sleepingfish, among other journals. Like his music, his stories present a complicated world populated by … [Read more...] about Nota Bene: Nat Baldwin Has Been Feeling the Bern Since, like, 2002