Fiction
Jerry Stahl Is Not the Father of a Mutant Child
Although Jerry Stahl became famous for Permanent Midnight, his junkie memoir, he now lives a sedate life with his wife and kid. Luckily for us, normalcy hasn't stopped Jerry from writing Happy Mutant Baby Pills, a novel about a woman who...
'Thank You' - A Short Story by Alejandro Zambra
Alejandro Zambra is one of our favorite living writers. His first book, Bonsai, won the Chilean Critics’ Award for Best Novel of the Year in 2006. We first read his work when Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Ways of Going Home in 2013.
Attending a Crime-Writing Convention: "New York State of Crime"
Last year’s crime-fiction convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio. This year’s convention was hosted in Albany, New York, which is fitting: compared with the rest of the US, the crime rate here is more than double.
Instructions for Funeral
David Means is considered by many to be the short-story writer of the moment. Here is a new story about his fictitious (or at least we think so) funeral arrangements. We liked it a lot and so will you.
Now That Dave Eggers Has Been Accused of Plagiarism, We Finally Have Something in Common
Authors accusing and being accused of plagiarism is nothing new, and to the world outside of publishing, it’s a minor scandal. There’s nothing Miley about a white nerd calling out another white nerd.
Summer/Autumn - New Fiction by Ben Brooks
Ben Brooks is one of the best young British writers, so we asked him for a piece of fiction. Ben sent this story, which is about a 21-year-old in London who has a cocaine-fueled affair with a 42-year-old woman he met via iChat. Ben told us it's 10...
Alienable - New Fiction by Yuko Sakata
This story by Yuko Sakata was supposed to appear in the Guccione Archives Issue, but it didn't because that issue is all about Bob Guccione, and this story doesn't mention him at all. But she has such a...
Aiding and Abetting
I show the fugitive some hospitality. That's just the way it is with empty-nesters. We give strangers too much credit, or sometimes, not enough.
Windows That Lead to More Windows: An Interview with Gary Lutz
Gary Lutz is one of those talents who can write about anything he wants—office supplies, men’s rooms, skin—and still be able to keep you ruminating on any single phrase for hours at a time. His 2007 book Partial List of People to Bleach has just...
Russian Roller-Coaster
They say: you made up the everywhere God or read it in books. But actually they think I’m an idiot and made it up so I could tell them about it. How clever. But how am I making it up when I take the phone and there’s God and he hears me?
What We Talk About When We Talk About a Couple of Carver's Short Stories
Yesterday I got roasted for a Comedy Central program that will air on Labor Day. Naturally, that made me think of Raymond Carver, the American short story writer who's regarded as one of the masters of the form, even though he isn't all that funny.
Deep Thoughts on Jack Handey's Days Writing for 'SNL' and His New Novel, 'The Stench of Honolulu'
Jack Handey—who is indeed a real person, despite common misconception—is best known for his series of hilarious faux aphorisms, Deep Thoughts. Handey is also the writer of many of SNL’s best sketches from the 80s and 90s. For the past decade...