The Fiction Issue 2009
Pete Dexter
Besides writing hard-edged, blackly funny, and beautifully observed novels, Pete Dexter has spent a lot of time boxing, and he once got beaten so badly by an angry mob in Philadelphia that his back was broken.
Annie Proulx
I have to admit that when they first hit the store shelves of the world, I skipped over Annie Proulx’s books. Maybe it was the titles—Heartsongs and Other Stories, Postcards. I just figured it for melancholic sepia-toned lady lit.
“Lost Limbs”
Most people know Arthur Bradford as the creator of How’s Your News?, a documentary series that has been featured on HBO and MTV.
Wands And Swords, Pentangles And Cups
For W.B. Yeats, the ordinary world would fade away, and he would walk and talk in a spiritual realm that he believed truly existed around and outside the physical world.
Eileen Myles & Jonathan Galassi Talk About Poetry
Jonathan Galassi is a poet, a translator, an editor, and the president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, which happens to be our favorite publishing house.
Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone
In 1982, childhood friends and über-nerds Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone started selling Brits the first ever Dungeons & Dragons game from a tiny flat in west London.
“The Faecalosaurus”
John Moore’s first brush with notoriety came at a tender age as a drummer for the Jesus and Mary Chain. The story he contributed to this issue is all about fecal matter, and it has made his mother extremely proud.
“little Red Riding Hood And Blind Boy Willy The Pirate”
When Eric Dando’s first novel, Snail, came out in Australia in 1996, he was the youngest author to ever have been published by Penguin.
“The Hunter and His Dogs”
Saah Millimono is the chief fiction writer at the Daily Observer, Liberia’s most popular newspaper. Each week, the Observer publishes one of Saah’s stories. They primarily deal with sorcery, witchcraft, deception, and the hardship of life.
William H. Gass
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, William H. Gass played one part in a wide-ranging debate with the novelist John Gardner. It was an examination into the nature of art, theirs and everybody else’s.
Rhinestone Tiger
I don't get expensive hair cuts anymore. But that isn't through lack of vanity. I once spent two-thirds of my monthly pay packet on a long coat that suited neither winter nor summer.
“Wild Geese”
Matthias Connor, aka Wolfboy, is a London-based writer who publishes fanzines that he gives to people for free. He has been doing this for more than 20 years.