Postst by "thetara" — Page 19

My Etiquette Collection is DONE–Now It Just Needs a Publisher…

I finally finished my manuscript of ‘etiquette’ stories. Tentative title: MODERN MANNERS FOR YOUR INNER DEMONS. I have ten of these babies now, and Matt Bell was kind enough to just publish “The Etiquette of Arson in The Collagist. You can check out some others here: “The Etiquette of Infertility” in FRiGG, “The Etiquette of Adultery” in Necessary Fiction and “The Etiquette of Homicide” (annotated!) in Barrelhouse.

I’m currently looking for a publisher for the collection. It’s a strange little book–on the larger side for a chapbook, but not quite long enough for a full-length short story collection. If anyone out there has any ideas or interest, please please let me know!

Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

My story “Dendrochronology,” which originally appeared in The Northville Review, won second place in Press 53’s 2011 Open Awards Series and will appear in the Open Awards anthology in October 2011.

My story “The Etiquette of Dementia,” originally published in The Mid-American Review, was a finalist in the short-short story category.

Thanks to Kevin Watson and all the folks at Press 53. Looking forward to the awards ceremony on October 22!

Contributing to Stripped anthology

The lovely Nicole Monaghan has accepted a story of mine for her enticing anthology, Stripped: A Collection of Anonymous Flash Fiction. The anthology will have the authors’ names and bios, but they won’t be matched up to the stories in the collection. So, yeah, I can’t tell you which story of mine was accepted. For more on the anthology and the thoughts behind it, visit Nicole’s blog.

SCORE POTS & SMOKE Reading a Success!

SmokeLong Quarterly’s off-site reading with Corium and Prick of the Spindle during the Association for Writers and Writing Programs’ annual conference, held this year in D.C., was a smashing success. Nine brilliant readers gave us their best at The Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan in D.C. on February 4, 2011. You can check out the Facebook photo album for shots of the fun. SmokeLong’s readers — Michael Czyzniejewski, Randall Brown and Steve Almond — really rocked the house.

Steve Almond reads for SmokeLong.

Reading at 5ive:ten Readings Feb. 19

Thanks to Jen Michalski, who asked me to read at Baltimore’s 5ive:ten Readings this month. I’ll be reading with Jessica Anya Blau, Nik Korpon and Pat King, all who have way more impressive bios than I do. Here’s more information about the series.

First Place in the Santa Fe Writers Project Lit Awards

My short story collection-in-progress, Black Diamond City, won first place in the Santa Fe Writers Project 2010 Literary Awards, judged by Robert Olen Butler.

Thanks much to Andrew Gifford and the folks at SFWP for all their hard work. Thanks also to Mr. Butler, whose work I highly admire. I am very honored to have been chosen for this award.

Black Diamond City is a collection of very short stories set in or inspired by my hometown of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. You may notice if you click on my novel page that BDC is the title of that as well. I have decided to condense that novel significantly (from 500 pages to 25!) and try something completely different. Fingers crossed it works.

Short List News

My story “Only a Number,” published by decomP in September 2009, was noted on Wigleaf‘s Short List for their Top 50 of 2009. Also, my short story “Like Everyone Else” made storySouth‘s list of Notable Online Stories of 2009. Sweet!

March Publications

I was lucky enough to have three new stories published in March. The lovely and talented Laura Ellen Scott was guest editor of Everyday Genius this month and published my prose poem “Day 72” there.

I was also honored to be in the amazing all-flash issue of JMWW for my story “Small Craft Warning.” And honestly, if you haven’t read the issue yet, you need to. Kick ass stories from Erin Fitzgerald, Sheldon Lee Compton, Matt Bell, Meg Pokrass, Scott Garson, Robert Swartwood and others.

Third, I was extremely excited to have my etiquette story, “The Etiquette of Adultery,” published over at Necessary Fiction. This is the first in what I hope is a series of ‘etiquette of atrocities’ stories if I can pull them off.