3Vote!
<HTMLGIANT> (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
ISO SYLLABUS SUGGESTIONS: In past semesters, I’ve mostly taught conventional short stories to my conservative, non-English major Intro Lit students, thinking they’d be turned off by raw/experimental/genre-bending stuff. But I just taught “Cat N’ Mouse” by Steven Millhauser, and they loved it the most. Also, in another class, my students dug James Tate, though they [...]...
5Vote!
Ivebeenreadinglately (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
Autumnal bread baking has won out over blogging this afternoon, so rather than a proper post I have merely two passages to share. They have no explicit commonalities, but when I read the second this afternoon it called to mind the first. See what you think. The first passage comes from "Little Red's Tango," a strange, elliptical, atmospheric story by Peter Straub (which is collected in a...
4Vote!
Five Branch Tree (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
The mother of a friend of mine waved at me from behind the shady, sun-striped screen of a porch. Against a backboard above a brilliant white garage door a basketball went round and round the orange rim of a basket. It was Sunday afternoon, time of the great boredom. Deep in my chest I felt a yawn begin; it went shuddering through my jaw. On the crosspiece of a sunny telephone pole, a grackle shrieked...
4Vote!
Five Branch Tree (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
David Ulin at the LA Times provides one of the more interesting takes I could find on the internet when reading reviews for Dangerous Laughter : For Millhauser, the key is language, which can bridge the gap between familiar and unfamiliar and draw us in. At the same time, he knows that words can fool us, that language both illuminates and obscures. Nowhere is this made more explicit than in "History...
4Vote!
Five Branch Tree (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
Steven Millhauser writes stories. In the classic sense. In the style of parables with techniques that date back to the oral tradition of storytelling, where the characters are fairly simplistic, without too much dimension, placing the emphasis instead upon the compilation of events that stem from the paths created by the characters. In Millhauser’s case, these creations leading to obsessions...
4Vote!
14theditch (Free subscription) | 09/29/2009
Here's the list of ghost stories left in the comments section of my post the other day about your favorite ghost story . I'm not familiar with all of them. Some that I am, I'm skeptical as to whether I'd consider them ghost stories, but I'm not about to disabuse anyone of their notion as to what makes a ghost story. Big favorites were "Oh, Whistle and I'll come to you, My Lad" by M.R. James,...
Explore : Arthur Machen,
Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
Connie Willis,
Fine Arts,
Francis Marion Crawford,
Fritz Leiber,
George Saunders,
Henry James,
John Cheever,
Neil Gaiman,
Podcasting,
Rudyard Kipling,
Stephen King,
Technology
6Vote!
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn (Free subscription) | 09/13/2009
Borough Hall Courtroom (209 Joralemon Street)—TICKETS REQUIRED 10:00 a.m. The Legacies of John Updike and David Foster Wallace. Two titans of American literature—John Updike and David Foster Wallace—died this past year. This panel of distinguished critics will discuss their work, their deep differences, surprising similarities and enduring influence. Time magazine book critic Lev...
6Vote!
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn (Free subscription) | 09/13/2009
Borough Hall Courtroom (209 Joralemon Street)—TICKETS REQUIRED 10:00 a.m. The Legacies of John Updike and David Foster Wallace. Two titans of American literature—John Updike and David Foster Wallace—died this past year. This panel of distinguished critics will discuss their work, their deep differences, surprising similarities and enduring influence. Time magazine book critic Lev...
7Vote!
SF Signal (Free subscription) | 08/20/2009
Here is the table of contents for the upcoming Tachyon Publications anthology The Secret History of Science Fiction edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, which reprints stories published from 1971-2007 making the case for the convergence of mainstream fiction and literary sf: "Angouleme" by Thomas M. Disch "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin "Ladies...
Explore : Connie Willis,
Don DeLillo,
Fine Arts,
Gene Wolfe,
George Saunders,
James Patrick,
Jonathan Lethem,
Karen Joy Fowler,
Kate Wilhelm,
Margaret Atwood,
Michael Chabon,
Sports,
Thomas M. Disch,
Ursula K. Le Guin
1Vote!
SF Signal (Free subscription) | 08/04/2009
Here are the contents of The Library of America's upcoming anthology, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940's Until Now edited by Peter Straub: "Evening Primrose" by John Collier (1940) "Smoke Ghost" by Fritz Leiber (1941) "Mysteries of the Joy Rio" by Tennessee Williams (1941) "The Refugee" by Jane Rice (1943) "Mr. Lupescu"...
Explore : Anthony Boucher,
Davis Grubb,
Fine Arts,
Fred Chappell,
Fritz Leiber,
Gene Wolfe,
George Saunders,
Isaac Bashevis Singer,
Jack Finney,
John Cheever,
John Crowley,
Jonathan Carroll,
Joyce Carol Oates,
Michael Chabon,
Paul Bowles,
Peter Straub,
Poppy Z. Brite,
Ray Bradbury,
Richard Matheson,
Shirley Jackson,
Stephen King,
Tennessee Williams,
Truman Capote,
Vladimir Nabokov
5Vote!
Miami Herald (Free subscription) | 07/28/2009
``I'll go with Steven Millhauser's latest story collection Dangerous Laughter. Mad, baroque, tantalizing, whimsical. He's an American master and often overlooked because he's been one for nearly forty years.''
5Vote!
Opinionated Catholic (Free subscription) | 06/29/2009
I swear we shall try to make the Louisiana Catholics Blogs Update post more daily this week. I just felt so bad last week I rarely wanted to type. So let me post their entries from the last few days Here we go Ville Platte Catholic Youth Group has “The New Catholic Manliness” at Sancte Pater blog . Oh this is great see Did I become a father at conception? An Intolerable Compliment (who...
4Vote!
MediaBistro.com (Free subscription) | 06/09/2009
Publishing 50 books a year with eight full-time staff members, the Dalkey Archive Press at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has managed to escape the worst effects of the publishing recession. According to the Chicago Tribune 's recent profile of the company, the publisher used to focus mainly on reprints, but now 70 percent of the list are original titles. In addition, the press just...
4Vote!
Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine (Free subscription) | 05/28/2009
Martin Dressler is a kid who works in his father's cigar store. He has big dreams, and when he goes to work as a hotel bellboy, he begins to realize them, moving up first in the hotel's chain of command and then moving out on his own as an owner first of a cigar stand, then restaurants, then grander and grander hotels. The subtitle of this novel is The Tale of an American Dreamer , and reading it is...
3Vote!
Emerging Writers Network (Free subscription) | 05/09/2009
This isn't an All-Time Best short stories mix tape, it's more like a themed mix tape, along fantastical lines. Fantastic Fiction "The Changeling" Chris Adrian "Voodoo Heart" Scott Snyder "In Persuasion Nation" George Saunders "Dangerous Laughter" Steven Millhauser "Quiet Please"...
Videos