Climbing Fifty-Two Stories
This weekend, I spent some time catching up with the Fifty-Two Stories website produced by HarperPerennial. Complaining about the lack of outlets for short stories has, unfortunately, become a favorite pasttime for literary folks lately. More and more of the major magazines are cutting back on their fiction slots and the tough economic times have…
continue readingWhy Won’t a Publishing Book Work?
Recently, the New York Observer wondered if there is any glamour left in publishing. The article generated a healthy amount of discussion amongst the book blogs and I didn’t initially think I had anything else to offer on the subject. But some of the ideas expressed in this article have really been festering away for…
continue readingFunny Line
In a piece about Wallace Stegner’s birthday, Timothy Egan recalls a hilarious interaction between an irritated author and an editor. Here’s the bit: Norman Maclean, the Montana native whose gin-clear prose makes “A River Runs Through It” an American treasure, certainly carried some of the Stegnarian chip on his western shoulder. After the success of…
continue readingWhat We Can Learn from a Commercial for Cleats
My old man was a pretty serious high school football player in south Georgia. Ohio, Texas, and Florida are now hotbeds of high school football player. But back in those days, small rural Georgia towns were as serious about ball as anyone. Naturally, I figured I would follow in my father’s footsteps. But I was…
continue readingAmazon Launches New Kindle
Slushpile.net overlord John Biggs was at the press conference today for Amazon’s launch of a new Kindle. Check out his live-blogging of the festivities here.
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