tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22052118648273633222024-03-27T18:53:26.772-05:00Tunneling to the Center of the EarthK. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-73541385156043220822011-08-12T22:51:00.002-05:002011-08-17T23:06:52.903-05:00Book Tour (Birmingham)<div>
<br /></div><div>The day after my reading in Atlanta, I headed out to Birmingham and got there very, very early. I had time to kill before heading over to Alabama Booksmith, so I went to Demetri's BBQ, which I had heard good things about. Demetri's was a pleasant kind of barbecue restaurant where the building looks old and lived-in but it's populated by mostly men wearing dress shirts and ties. I enjoyed the experience because the barbecue was unlike anything I've eaten before. The pork barbecue was served sliced, with a red, tomato-based sauce with Greek spices. It was more like eating a really good pork loin than barbecue (I got very little smoke taste from it). After that, I still had time left over so I drove thirty minutes to get some bubble tea at a shopping mall. I walked around the entire mall before I was informed that the bubble tea stand was gone now. I drove thirty minutes back to Alabama Booksmith. </div><div>The reading was a blast. Jake, the owner, was incredibly kind and really enthusiastic about the book. A good group of people came. I got to see my friend, the poet <a href="http://www.hungermtn.org/visiting-with-adam-vines/">Adam Vines</a>. We had just spent the last two weeks on staff at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, so I was touched that he came to the reading. Also, one of my favorite writer friends, <a href="http://www.kerrymadden.com/">Kerry Madden</a>, who really encouraged me to keep writing when I was just out of college, came to the reading with her awesome and talented daughter Norah, who I last saw when she was a toddler. The reading was fun, I sold a lot of copies, and totally enjoyed meeting all the nice people in Birmingham.</div><div>After this, I start the portion of the book tour where my dad will join me. We start in Memphis, then go through Mississippi.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-46991676139621250042011-08-10T21:01:00.003-05:002011-08-10T21:14:14.064-05:00Book Tour (Chattanooga & Atlanta)Now that The Family Fang has officially been released and getting generally nice reviews from places, I'm starting the book tour. Yesterday, the release date of the novel, I read at the Barnes & Noble in Chattanooga, TN. My mom and dad came with me because they love me a lot. They would come to a four hour ceremony to watch me receive a third place trophy for "Most Comic Book Figurines". We got there and we looked at the Nooks, which look very cool, and then it was time to read. Besides my parents, there were eight people there, which is so much better than the first reading for my last book, when two people showed up. A couple asked my mom and dad if they had read the book and if it was any good and my parents, who were pretending not to be my parents, said it was very good. Then I walked over to them and asked if they could hand me my galley copy of the novel because I was about to read. My mom just stood up and walked off. My dad admitted that he was my dad. It was awkward. I read the prologue from the novel and then answered questions and everyone was really nice and the Barnes & Noble people were incredibly nice and I sold some books and then my parents drove me home.<div>Today, I read in Atlanta, GA. I was ten minutes late to the reading at the Buckhead Barnes & Noble even though I had left my hotel (which was 2.5 miles from the bookstore) 45 minutes before the reading started. I got lost, I got stuck in traffic, I called my wife and cried. Then I got there and ran into the store and read for a nice group of people who had waited for me and answered lots of cool questions and then signed book. My cousin-in-law Chip and his mom, Peggy, came to see me read, which was very nice. And my cousin, Joe, who just moved to Atlanta, came to the reading. And a former student from Sewanee, Will, came to the reading. And Nicole, who is studying creative writing at Vanderbilt and worked with Tony Earley was there. And Vanessa Escobar, who I've talked to several times by email when she was writing an English paper on me, was also there. If every reading was like this, aside from the crying and being ten minutes late, I'd be very, very happy. I was excited to go to The Varsity Junior, an offshoot of The Varsity (one of my favorite food places in the world) and was then informed by a staff member at the bookstore that it had closed. I thought I was going to start crying again.</div><div>I'm reading tomorrow at 4:00 pm at the Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-88798436002626970082011-07-29T21:57:00.004-05:002011-07-30T11:54:45.987-05:00Buster and Annie Fang in Ink<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKoC0S-L3HoV0DInR6XdTZhEkMdXDJG7ygN0E8PQ-X1hFFaZvXV8l3YzslwCJ7w9XKGT58VlAq6bYXdxPFmhAiZnyQLuXPS7iqILt0EpJlYUenHTvafGYjwV5QXeuFsdZZ2kosSRe_uk0/s1600/Child+A+%2526+B.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 245px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKoC0S-L3HoV0DInR6XdTZhEkMdXDJG7ygN0E8PQ-X1hFFaZvXV8l3YzslwCJ7w9XKGT58VlAq6bYXdxPFmhAiZnyQLuXPS7iqILt0EpJlYUenHTvafGYjwV5QXeuFsdZZ2kosSRe_uk0/s400/Child+A+%2526+B.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634974342803282690" /></a>This is slightly weird. I don't even let my closest friends see my bare feet or exposed knees. But I wanted to put up a picture of my latest tattoo, which is on my left arm, of Buster and Annie from the cover of <i>The Family Fang</i>. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TattoosByEmily">Emily Effler-Bond</a> is the amazing tattoo artist who took Julie Morstad's beautiful illustration and dug it into my skin. I can't imagine getting another tattoo from someone other than Emily.<div><br /></div><div>I am hoping the book does not fail spectacularly or else I'll always have a reminder of it on my arm.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have two other tattoos and imagine I'll get quite a few more before I'm done. The other tattoo I have is of a Deth P. Sun image of a weird catlike creature playing a marching band bass drum. Underneath it says, "Please Be Brave". The other one is just some damn ominous blackbird. I very much like tattoos, not because I really want other people to see them (though that is nice), but because it gives me a point of distraction whenever I happen to look at myself in the mirror and see how much older/fatter/sadder I've gotten. It's a way for me, while I'm brushing my teeth before bed, to focus on a cat playing a bass drum or Annie and Buster with their bird masks and not, for example, why my skin always seems to have strange yellow bruises on it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The book comes out on August 9th. I read tomorrow with my best friend Caki Wilkinson at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. I'll read something from the novel.</div><div><br /></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-61506426900088972892011-06-28T14:52:00.002-05:002011-06-28T14:55:01.924-05:00ALAI was in New Orleans for less than 24 hours this past weekend for the American Library Association Conference. I was on a panel for Southern Literature. I'm going to write more about the panel, but the best part of the trip was the airplane ride back to Nashville, where I sat across the aisle from the country music singer <a href="http://rodneycrowell.com/">Rodney Crowell</a>. He was reading Richard Russo's <i>Empire Falls</i>. I did not bother him.K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-18160297130389902332011-05-30T09:15:00.003-05:002011-05-30T11:53:35.844-05:00YaddoLast week, I went to New York and it was awesome. I was reading for a Yaddo benefit along with Aimee Mann and Jennifer Egan. You are reading that correctly. It was Oscar-nominated, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, and me. I geeked out a lot.<div>Before the reading, right after I got into New York, I ran to <a href="http://www.papabubbleny.com/">Papabubble NYC</a>, a homemade candy shop, and bought a bunch of soda-flavored gourmet candy. Then I went to Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich Deli and bought a huge banh mi for almost no money. I ate that and drank a bubble tea in my closet-sized hotel room and then ate a fistful of hard candy and then realized I was going to be eating dinner at the Yaddo benefit in less than two hours.</div><div>The reading was at Tribeca Rooftop and I got there before my agent and her assistant, so I hid in the dining area while cocktails were being served. I was very nervous. I just walked around the tables and got in the waiters' way and looked at the name cards for the seating arrangements.</div><div>I was reading with Jennifer Egan and Aimee Mann because of Amanda Stern, a novelist who also runs the Happy Ending Reading Series. I got to read for that series in 2009 and I wrote about it <a href="http://wilsonkevin.blogspot.com/2009/04/some-catching-up-to-do.html">here</a>. Amanda is awesome and kind and very funny and she was nice enough to think of me for this reading, which was to announce that Yaddo and the Happy Ending Reading Series were entering into a partnership. I had been to Yaddo in 2008, where I wrote a good portion of a bizarre novel that fell apart, and it had been a really wonderful experience (Yaddo, not the novel falling apart), so it was fun to be a part of this benefit.</div><div>I ate sushi and cheeseburger sliders and talked to lots of neat people and then I got to listen to Aimee Mann play songs, even the really popular songs I thought she might not play, and then I read and then Jennifer Egan read from <i>A Visit From the Goon Squad</i> (the chapter about the PR woman and the dictator), which was amazing, and then Aimee Mann played some more songs, which made me want to cry it was so wonderful, and then my agent and I tried to meet my editor on the roof but we all got kicked out. I went back to my hotel and unwrapped what was left of the banh mi and ate that and then went to sleep. I also ate more of the hard candy. Oh, and Lou Reed was at the Yaddo party. I thought this might have been a dream but I saw a picture of him at the benefit on the internet, so he was definitely there.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-71637087698561355772011-05-16T10:02:00.002-05:002011-05-16T10:10:45.382-05:00Zine-SceneAt AWP, I talked to Richard Mocarski, who runs an excellent literary website called <a href="http://zine-scene.com/">Zine-Scene</a>. He told me that he wanted to do an issue focused on remixing existing works. He asked if I had any interest in doing something like that, and I immediately tried to think of stories that I would like to play with. I decided to pick a story that I thought was perfect and without any need for change, which was Adam Peterson's story "Hope's Dancing Fancy". I first read it in the <i>Southeast Review</i>, and I heard Adam read it at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and I thought it was incredible; I also think everything else Adam writes is incredible. I've searched out nearly every story he's written, and I'm always changed for the better when I finish them. "Hope's Dancing Fancy" was so precise and yet suggested an entire world of weirdness for the characters he introduced.<div>To remix it, I decided that I would completely change the intent of the piece. I would make it sappy, a kind of love story from a parent to a child. So I took the character in Adam's story, Hope, and focused on her parents, who are not in Adam's story. I don't know if it worked, but I liked brushing up against Adam's story for a few weeks. You can read both stories <a href="http://zine-scene.com/?q=issue3/Peterson-Wilson">here</a>. Thanks to Adam for letting me mess around with his work and thanks to Richard for pushing me in this direction.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-24993548855428018212011-05-11T10:59:00.005-05:002011-05-11T11:25:08.011-05:00VIDA<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Just before AWP this year, </span></span><a href="http://vidaweb.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">VIDA</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, an organization that "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">se</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">eks to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women through meaningful conversation and the exchange of ideas among existing and emerging literary communities," released "</span></span><a href="http://vidaweb.org/the-count-2010"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Count 2010</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">" which highlighted the male to female ratio of writers for various magazines and journals. It showed just how underrepresented women were in these magazines, and it was disheartening to see. And I aligned myself with those who wanted to see that ratio improve.</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">However, I started to think about the books I read in 2010 and when I went back over the list, I was shocked to see how much it skewed toward male writers. It was a nearly 4 to 1 ratio. Part of the problem was that I read a ton of Hard Case Crime novels, which has so far published only a single book by a woman. Still, that doesn't explain why I chose so many books by men in literary fiction over female writers.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It was strange to me that this was happening, since, if I made a list of my top five or top ten books of all time, there would be more books written by women than men. And if I went back and looked at 2010, the two best books I read would probably be Emma Donoghue's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Room</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and Jennifer Egan's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A Visit from the Goon Squad</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So, for 2011, I decided that I would try to focus my reading list to account for books written by women. It wasn't that I was going to read books by women exclusively, or that I would pick books I didn't want to read, just because they were by women. I just wanted to make sure that I actually read the books by women that perhaps before I would push to the back of my list in favor of male writers. So far this year, I've read 21 books and 13 of them have been written by women. I've even found a great place for pulp novels written by women, the </span></span><a href="http://www.feministpress.org/books/fp-series/femmes-fatales"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Femme Fatales</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> series by The Feminist Press, so I've been picking books from this series instead of the Hard Case series, which is on hiatus right now. I've read books as diverse as </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Hunger Games</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> by Suzanne Collins, the Edgar Award nominated novel </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Black Water Rising</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> by Attica Locke, a pulp spy novel by Dorothy B. Hughes called </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Blackbirder</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, novels by some of my favorite writers like Ann Patchett and Allegra Goodman, and literary novels by newer writers like Hannah Pittard and Tea Obreht and Karen Russell.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It's been a good exercise and one that I hope might lead me to eventually stop having to keep track of the ratio and simply benefit from reading works by both men and women. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Though the numbers were depressing, I am grateful to VIDA for their work in compiling The Count.</span></span></span></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-35513083166183966872011-04-14T14:19:00.003-05:002011-05-11T10:59:42.048-05:00Ramapo and ClemsonLast week, I was in New Jersey and South Carolina for writer stuff. There was a tight timeline, so I was not able to indulge in any barbecue or 2 lb. hamburgers. In Clemson, however, I did eat a Munchie Sub. It was called the "All In" and consisted of chicken strips, onion rings, cheese sticks, french fries, and american cheese "all stuffed into a hoagie roll." I ate this less than thirty minutes before my reading. Why do I do this to myself? I don't know. I have gained enough weight in the last few months that I can't wear my wedding ring because it has left a permanent indention on my finger, a noticeable depression.<div>I went to Ramapo College on the 4th and met with eight of their students to discuss their work. It was fun, though intense, to meet with them and discuss these incredibly diverse stories and novellas. It was nice to see how invested they were in their work. Then I read with the poet Kevin Craft and that was a lot of fun.</div><div>Then I went to Clemson, SC, for the Clemson Literary Festival. My wife and I were both reading, so that was a treat. I also got to see Rhett Iseman Trull, a poet that I have a geeky obsession with. Her work is so amazing. And I got to hear writers I really love, Marcy Dermansky, Oindrila Mukherjee, John McNally, and, of course, Leigh Anne Couch. Jillian Weise, who teaches at Clemson, put the festival together. She wrote a novel, <i>The Colony</i>, that kind of blew me away. It's so bizarre and wonderful.</div><div>More readings to come and so more posts will follow.<br /><div><br /></div></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-27153269711104975362011-02-01T11:15:00.003-06:002011-02-01T11:28:11.373-06:00AWP<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMm-cPHxk5-Q6oaFtCfyrP-EVNGJHpRSPmwQNCIl4HIU1AmxuTQxNbdTeG7P7SEBTXrRBo5x-jR6TVfUvvQG9xplQJCNcefG17k7E9N-LxbrO2slRv31LAsBYjzyxJsXsmOePJKn5oHBg/s1600/flyer+2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMm-cPHxk5-Q6oaFtCfyrP-EVNGJHpRSPmwQNCIl4HIU1AmxuTQxNbdTeG7P7SEBTXrRBo5x-jR6TVfUvvQG9xplQJCNcefG17k7E9N-LxbrO2slRv31LAsBYjzyxJsXsmOePJKn5oHBg/s320/flyer+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568772437905795426" /></a>Weather permitting, I'll be at the AWP conference in Washington DC tomorrow. I'll be working at the bookfair, representing the Sewanee Writers' Conference. I'm also going to be part of an off-site reading, sponsored by three of my favorite literary journals, <i>Cincinnati Review</i>, <i>Mid-American Review</i>, and <i>Ninth Letter</i>. I'm excited to read with the other writers, especially one of my best friends, Lucy Corin.<div>I love the bookfair at AWP and I always have at least one book that I'm dead set on buying. Two years ago, it was <i>Light Boxes</i> by Shane Jones and last year it was <i>A Jello Horse</i> by Matthew Simmons and <i>Call It What You Want</i> by Keith Lee Morris. This year, I am long overdue to buy Amelia Gray's <i>Museum of the Weird</i>, so I hope FC2 has copies at the bookfair. I also like to get a few journal subscriptions. The aforementioned CR/MAR/9thLetter journals have a special deal, a year of all three journals for $33, which is a steal.</div><div><br /><div><br /></div></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-79623048890329581962010-10-12T14:40:00.004-05:002010-10-12T14:53:14.423-05:00Readings in October<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNd7Tm2-T1hFEa9JagWKSROcN-MVqQtuQHL5vsSvHy37QchZ95e4ptPCWuRqOT_HeCHiH8f-EEVkGnMOHVrIsE_EAWbNQ7qTdAP4GvMdMr5jgrHC_LYdMyZNkKz7YiDHkU6GyJvp_Ch9U/s1600/FamilyFang_cover3D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 265px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNd7Tm2-T1hFEa9JagWKSROcN-MVqQtuQHL5vsSvHy37QchZ95e4ptPCWuRqOT_HeCHiH8f-EEVkGnMOHVrIsE_EAWbNQ7qTdAP4GvMdMr5jgrHC_LYdMyZNkKz7YiDHkU6GyJvp_Ch9U/s400/FamilyFang_cover3D.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527246960136163746" /></a><br />I realize now I dragged this out way too long, but here is the cover of the novel. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/allisonsaltzmandesign/">Allison Saltzman</a>, who also designed the cover for <i>Tunneling to the Center of the Earth</i>, did the cover design, and the art is by <a href="http://www.juliemorstad.com/">Julie Morstad</a>. I have been a fan of Morstad's work, mostly because of the two children's books she's illustrated, <a href="http://www.juliemorstad.com/books/2.php"><i>When You Were Small</i></a> & <a href="http://www.juliemorstad.com/books/"><i>Where You Came From</i></a>, which are so beautiful, so it was a thrill to see the illustration of the Fang family.<div><br /></div><div>Here's a description of the book, which I did not write:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); line-height: 16px; "><p><em>Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art. Their children called it mischief.<br /></em><br />Performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang dedicated themselves to making great art. But when an artist’s work lies in subverting normality, it can be difficult to raise well-adjusted children. Just ask Buster and Annie Fang. For as along as they can remember, they starred (unwillingly) in their parents’ madcap pieces. But now that they are grown up, the chaos of their childhood has made it difficult to cope with life outside the fishbowl of their parents’ strange world.</p><p>When the lives they’ve built come crashing down, brother and sister have nowhere to go but home, where they discover that Caleb and Camille are planning one last performance—their magnum opus—whether the kids agree to participate or not. Soon, ambition breeds conflict, bringing the Fangs to face the difficult decision about what’s ultimately more important: their family or their art.</p><p>Filled with Kevin Wilson’s endless creativity, vibrant prose, sharp humor, and keen sense of the complex performances that unfold in the relationships of people who love one another, <em>The Family Fang</em> is a masterfully executed tale that is as bizarre as it is touching.</p></span></div><div>I'm also going to be reading in the midwest this month. I'll be reading on Thursday, October 14, with Nami Mun for the University of Cincinnati's <a href="http://www.artsci.uc.edu/collegedepts/english/events/">Emerging Fiction Writers Festival</a>. Holly Goddard Jones and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum. They are all writers I really love, so I'm excited to be hanging out with them.</div><div>The following week, I'll be <a href="http://blogs.umsl.edu/news/2010/10/12/kevinwilson/">reading</a> at the University of Missouri-St. Louis on October 20th. I begged the people at UMSL to take me to <a href="http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/c-k-barbecue-st-louis-mo-63121_30sl050601.html">C&K Barbecue</a>, which is supposed to have incredible pig snoots and ribs.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-44322974958493966322010-09-22T14:04:00.001-05:002010-09-22T14:06:05.593-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgNnMzEhguEG_PTdhV4gRgllOxwAG2ba2m2baU7MwuNwo9-xiTI4AAejWhurr6Bt525M6wOjwtZTuQzlJ_S2d0LHSpOAvhl2Ac7dZjjXW4Uu1Y3bZsMBOeMbbvVYK2Pb8I_3Uk2erIdc/s1600/Fang+Bird+Masks.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 185px; height: 118px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgNnMzEhguEG_PTdhV4gRgllOxwAG2ba2m2baU7MwuNwo9-xiTI4AAejWhurr6Bt525M6wOjwtZTuQzlJ_S2d0LHSpOAvhl2Ac7dZjjXW4Uu1Y3bZsMBOeMbbvVYK2Pb8I_3Uk2erIdc/s400/Fang+Bird+Masks.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519816103148412114" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Annie and Buster Fang</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-20988570113222240682010-09-15T11:33:00.002-05:002010-09-15T11:35:37.908-05:00The Family Fang<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDnFnONTd0VlT0h1l-mFEIFD3PcHbB6VHdejUSbCXvRMJ1MDW7VE0vBXJDHF1lntKvKbz3aIvxipBDNBPdQca8D_Hfya-mNF6_7MilB4zW48pdCS5TsEj4qjfSroU-yE67IjgxnGEMTqo/s1600/The+Family+Fang+teaser.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDnFnONTd0VlT0h1l-mFEIFD3PcHbB6VHdejUSbCXvRMJ1MDW7VE0vBXJDHF1lntKvKbz3aIvxipBDNBPdQca8D_Hfya-mNF6_7MilB4zW48pdCS5TsEj4qjfSroU-yE67IjgxnGEMTqo/s320/The+Family+Fang+teaser.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517179636677740370" /></a><br />Here is a teaser image for my novel, which Ecco is publishing in the summer of 2011. I'm really excited about this book and I'll give more details when it becomes official.<div><br /></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-3182413888670182042010-08-30T15:38:00.005-05:002010-08-30T15:48:31.197-05:00Been a Long TimeI haven't written in a long time. My 9 to 5 job is as the secretary of the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.sewaneewriters.org">Sewanee Writers' Conference</a>. Things get crazy once the summer arrives. I stop sleeping. I get agitated at the slightest thing. I don't update my blog. But I'm clear of it for a little while and back to getting other work done.<div>I had some good news:</div><div>1) I was the co-winner of the <a href="http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2009_winners.php">Shirley Jackson Award</a> for a short story collection. I tied with Robert Shearman; his work is amazing, so I'm really happy to be mentioned alongside him. Shirley Jackson is one of my all-time favorite writers, so this was an amazing thing. <i>We Have Always Lived in the Castle</i> is one of my top five books I've ever read. I got a really cool award with my name on it, as well as a black rock.</div><div>2) A story I wrote, "Housewarming", appeared in the 2010 edition of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Stories-South-2010-Years/dp/1565129865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283201214&sr=8-1">New Stories from the South</a></i>. It's the fourth time I've been in NSFTS. Amy Hempel chose the stories this year and that made me very, very happy.</div><div>3) A story I wrote, "Skin", appeared in <a href="http://www.dzancbooks.org/store/botw2010.html">Best of the Web 2010</a>. My wife was in the first BotW, so I was excited to be included. It's got a ton of amazing writers in it.</div><div>I have two copies of New Stories From the South 2010 and if you want a copy, leave your name in the comments of this post and I'll randomize the names at 12:00 pm on September 6th and send the two winners a copy.</div><div><br /></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-61891269193680151152010-04-29T11:47:00.002-05:002010-04-29T11:59:22.789-05:00I Stole A Line from Suzanne Vega<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31QKW6GjVP6VDIKueldWXfdv2bakpvzf7volcoW8wvbEpeCY9yCQ1C9IVdfhQF-54A6rA4-GIP0Ypxg5Bh6AHdN11qgidmAjhRCOKJ4TlFwk1OamyqVAMss-faWhn8B_X7tpXSrEZDnU/s1600/article5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 295px; height: 247px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31QKW6GjVP6VDIKueldWXfdv2bakpvzf7volcoW8wvbEpeCY9yCQ1C9IVdfhQF-54A6rA4-GIP0Ypxg5Bh6AHdN11qgidmAjhRCOKJ4TlFwk1OamyqVAMss-faWhn8B_X7tpXSrEZDnU/s320/article5.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465605115852375954" /></a><br />I have this story in Hobart called "<a href="http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/october/wilson.html">My Hand, Dead Tissue, Severed at the Wrist</a>". There's a line in there that reads, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I bloodied a nose and kicked one girl so hard in the gut that she made a sound like two babies had fallen out of her." I had been thinking about this line, having read it somewhere as a teenager, for many, many years, just waiting for the chance to use it.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Just recently, I was trying to remember where I'd stolen that line, where it had come from. And I found it. Suzanne Vega wrote it for an article in Details Magazine. It's an awesome essay, called "<a href="http://www.suzannevega.com/fighting-by-suzanne-vega/">Fighting</a>". It's basically a child's list of rules for fighting. Holy god, tell me this section isn't amazing:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Girls are crazy and mean. They don't fight fair. Fighting fair means hard, tight fists and regular punches. But girls will slap, bit, pinch, pull your hair, rip the buttons off your shirt and the earrings out of your ears. There are no rules in fights with girls. Just hurting.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The one exception was the fight with Carla W., when she challenged me. We never even touched each other. I just stood there staring at her as she wound herself down, and she eventually began speaking nonsense. "I'll kick you in the guts and two babies will fall out!" Eventually the crowd around us began to laugh, and I won.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In high schol, I read <i>Details</i> all the time because I was obsessed with how to comb my hair and I liked looking at men wearing suits, which seemed like the strangest attire in the world at the time. Now, I can clearly remember reading this essay, and I can clearly remember wanting to marry Suzanne Vega. So, sorry for taking that line, Suzanne, but I could not help myself.</span></span></span></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-15764987728953169682010-04-15T14:01:00.007-05:002010-04-15T14:50:11.230-05:00Shirley Jackson Awards<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I just found out that I am nominated for a </span></span><a href="http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2009_nominees.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Shirley Jackson Award</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. The awards are given </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">for "outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic," and I'm nominated in</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> the category for Single-Author Collection. I'm up against Brian Evenson, Paul Witcover, Robert Shearman, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, and Otsuichi. What I'm saying is, I'm not going to win.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">But I'm really excited because I love Shirley Jackson's work. "The Lottery" was a story I read when I was in sixth grade and it, along with reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find" in fifth grade (a teacher at my Catholic grade school read that story to us. She introduced it by saying, "This is a Catholic writer."), really shaped my idea of short stories long before I ever thought of writing any. I love, love, love </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">We Have Always Lived in the Castle</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Haunting of Hill House</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. So this is a good day.</span></span></div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-58696023033177724562010-03-10T22:34:00.003-06:002010-03-10T23:03:42.538-06:00Scott McClanahan<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRC06Xf_XRLUoVqh0X5IzyY_r2llO_1acEEl4aUDS02PNmulYEr_931bikg32hJkOObz7798Gi6i_PtxEvzopLyRKCIltRTzEf4yjKsXi_nwwSJ37PMPI00TjSx4ANwZdxBLWUfZe3_II/s1600-h/StoriesII.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRC06Xf_XRLUoVqh0X5IzyY_r2llO_1acEEl4aUDS02PNmulYEr_931bikg32hJkOObz7798Gi6i_PtxEvzopLyRKCIltRTzEf4yjKsXi_nwwSJ37PMPI00TjSx4ANwZdxBLWUfZe3_II/s400/StoriesII.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447237024796351682" /></a><br />Back at the end of January, I saw a <a href="http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2010/01/4-books-i-read-recently-and-loved-sam.html">post</a> on Dennis Cooper's blog about a book called <i>Stories II</i> by a writer named <a href="http://hollerpresents.com/scottstories.html">Scott McClanahan</a>. It sounded like a book I would really like and I made a mental note to grab it. Then, somehow, thankfully, Scott wrote me out of nowhere and sent me a copy of the book. So I got it last week, read it, and was amazed. I was so moved by the stories, felt a kind of electric appreciation for the world, or the world which Scott created in his stories. It made me want to cry a lot without totally understanding why. <div>Right after I finished the book, I ordered his first book, <i>Stories</i>, and I just got finished reading it and it did all those same things to me, but even more intensely. I love these two books so much. I'll try, though I won't do a good job, to explain why.</div><div>There is a simplicity to the writing that feels very much like traditional storytelling, like a conversation, the easy way the character allows you to come into his life for a little while to hear what he wants you to hear. Despite the humor, which sneaks up on you and floors you, the stories are bleak; almost all of them are set in West Virginia and the propects for most of the characters in the stories are not good. There is sadness everywhere in these stories. And what I'm going to say next is why I think I love these stories so much. Amidst the sadness, the ways in which everyone fails each other, there is such an amazing tenderness that lifts these stories up. I felt very tightly connected to these characters and was grateful for having been around their stories, because, even as awful things were happening, and sometimes they were totally responsible for the awful things, I felt like I understood them so clearly. Scott knows about ruined landscapes and he knows the people who inhabit these places intimately. And his love for these people, for these places, as complicated as it might be, did something magical to me.</div><div>I am not being very clear, I'm afraid. What I can say is that these stories are wonderful and I can't wait to read every single thing that Scott McClanahan writes from here on out. There are so many memorable lines, so many memorable images, that I can't stop thinking about the stories and wishing I had made them.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-53190855294743600992010-03-02T09:32:00.003-06:002010-03-02T13:01:49.152-06:00Barry HannahBarry Hannah died yesterday. His fiction was some of the first stuff that really blew me away, that made me want to dig into weirdness and see what would come out of it. I read <i>Airships</i> in an undergraduate class at Vanderbilt and just went nuts for a couple of years, reading everything he had written, always being amazed at how much wildness he could allow into his fiction while still controlling it without any visible effort. <div>Barry came to the Sewanee Writers' Conference for many years and his readings were always the highlight of the conference for me. I heard him read "Testimony of Pilot". I heard him read "Constant Pain in Tuscaloosa." I heard him read "That's True". I made tapes of these readings and would listen to them in my car over and over.</div><div>One of the first years I was on staff at the conference, I got to read and, right after I finished my story, I walked off the stage and Barry made a beeline for me, a super-intense look on his face. I went numb because I thought, "Barry Hannah is coming up to me to tell me that I am a good writer and to keep it up." Barry walked up to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "Tony, I have broken my glasses and I would really appreciate it if you could find me a little piece of copper wire so I can fix them." So I got Barry Hannah a little piece of copper wire. "You're a saint, Tony" he said when I gave it to him.</div><div>When we found out that Leigh Anne was pregnant, she said that I could pick out the name. My two choices were Captain America Wilson ("We'll call him Cap," I told her) and Geronimo Rex Wilson ("We'll call him Rex," I told her). Leigh Anne then told me that she would pick the first name and I'd pick the middle name. That worked out, but, damn, I wish I'd stayed with Geronimo Rex Wilson.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-16444825623736957582010-01-18T10:09:00.003-06:002010-01-18T10:17:17.680-06:00Alex AwardsI just found out that <i>Tunneling to the Center of the Earth</i> received an <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2010/january2010/ymawrap2010.cfm">Alex Award</a> for "the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences". I'd heard about this award last year because Hannah Tinti's novel <i>The Good Thief</i> had been selected, so it's really cool to get picked and I hope tons and tons of teenagers read the stories now. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start making little gold Alex Award stickers and going to bookstores to put them on copies of my book.K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-33525671680858587802010-01-18T10:03:00.002-06:002010-01-18T10:09:02.449-06:00Cynthia Schad<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>A few years ago, I found an issue of <i>Ploughshares</i><span style="font-style:normal"> from 1988, a special issue titled “Fiction Discoveries” that was edited by George Garrett.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Established writers such as Fred Chappell, Andre Dubus, James Alan McPherson, and Pamela Painter nominated emerging writers who had yet to publish a book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While it was interesting to read early work from Noy Holland, Susan Straight, and Josip Novakovich, the most intriguing and memorable story in the issue was by a writer I had never heard of, Cynthia Schad.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style:normal">Richard Yates provided the nomination for Schad, then a twenty-one-year-old graduate of Emerson College.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The story, “Close to Autumn”, is a an impressive piece, a brief portrait of a young girl, Edie, who lives alone with her devoted father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Edie finds the outside world to be a suspicious, sometimes terrifying, place, and her fear is the engine that drives this story into uneasy places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>School makes her nervous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At church, the sudden sound of the organ startles her so much that she begins to scream and her father has to carry her out of the building.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And when, at a Dairy Queen, she is forced to walk past a group of laughing teenagers on her way to the bathroom, she becomes so paralyzed with fear that she wets her pants.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In short, simple lines, Schad conjures up an exaggerated world that, through Edie’s eyes, hums with potential danger.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">Teenagers hung out at the Dairy Queen, loud kids who smoked and chewed gum at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They sat on top of the booths and put their black boots on the seats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They took up three or four booths in the back of the Dairy Queen and they never ate any ice cream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They kept cans of beer tucked between their legs that they’d tip to their mouths when no one was looking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The boys wore black leather jackets and white T-shirts, except for one boy who never had a shirt on under his coat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The few girls seemed just like the boys, smooth, hard, and unbreakable…She was in the middle of their booths now and their laughter swarmed around her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their voices lowered to mutters and her eyes crept up to the table next to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The boy with no shirt slid from the top of the booth to the seat and leaned toward her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Hey baby,” he whispered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He smirked with one side of his mouth and greasy sweat dotted across his nose and under his eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He leaned closer and for a moment she was afraid he’d touch her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He reached out his hand and someone behind him snickered.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">Her father, who has recently started dating a woman with whom Edie connects, seems to have his own issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He accosts, with startling violence, those same teenagers in the Dairy Queen after the incident with his daughter and then, on his 30<sup>th</sup> birthday, reacts to the sight of his girlfriend with a cake she has baked for him by shouting, “Get that thing away from me,” and hiding in the kitchen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In short, Edie and her father seem wounded by circumstances just beyond the edges of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yates addresses the story in his introduction by saying that “almost nothing is explained to the reader, but then, explanations have little value in the dynamics of the heart.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">Since reading this story, I have searched for more work by Cynthia Schad but have come up empty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I think that she might have published a story in the literary magazine <i>Witness</i><span style="font-style:normal"> in the same year as her </span><i>Ploughshares</i><span style="font-style:normal"> publication, but have been unable to find a copy of the particular issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I can find no books attributed to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And perhaps she never wrote again, but the amazing promise of “Close to Autumn” makes me wish I had the chance to discover more of her work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Schad, in her contributors note in </span><i>Ploughshares</i><span style="font-style:normal">, says, after attributing the shape of the story to “repeated playings of a record album by Tom Waits,” that “I don’t really think of writing as a career; it’s just what I am.”</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-style:normal">Having spent a good portion of my life feeling like I am a failure if I don’t write, that if I don’t produce stories then I’m just this lazy guy who reads comic books and argues about different kinds of barbecue, I feel a strange joy at the idea of someone, twenty-one years old, writing a nearly perfect story and moving on, doing something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If there will never be any other stories by Cynthia Schad, there is “Close to Autumn”, and I am happy for that.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-style:normal">If I learn from one of you that Cynthia Schad got married, took her husband’s last name, and subsequently published dozens of books, I am going to feel very happy that I have the chance to read more of her work and, also, very stupid that I wrote this entry.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-58582755347104561192010-01-04T09:47:00.003-06:002010-01-04T09:57:00.959-06:00CellStories and X-mas Loot<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCTWTAxDjH0qC4NEJf-Y5e75maNwAOPk0beM59w4pslU65yCSYXUoDXwyX2U3uud8xA3EPrFG_wvz6e9Wy21C4Mj3Y3wA9VZ0tmzM7GXbqLJ_zWlvevl2Y9WGSKZsCtwVQ4d40GFFqf0/s1600-h/pleger0008.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCTWTAxDjH0qC4NEJf-Y5e75maNwAOPk0beM59w4pslU65yCSYXUoDXwyX2U3uud8xA3EPrFG_wvz6e9Wy21C4Mj3Y3wA9VZ0tmzM7GXbqLJ_zWlvevl2Y9WGSKZsCtwVQ4d40GFFqf0/s400/pleger0008.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422914128906271698" /></a>"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D." is the story of the day at <a href="http://www.cellstories.net/welcome.html">CellStories</a>, "a daily story delivered straight to your iPhone. iPod Touch, or other mobile device." This feels like the 25th century.<div><br /></div><div>My Christmas haul included a lucha libre mask from <a href="http://www.corazonfairtrade.com/maskluchalibre1.html">Corazon Fair Trade</a> (to replace my previous Batman mask for particularly rough writing days), the complete set of the new Hammer of Thor Heroclix, and <a href="http://www.thumbtackpress.com/browse/product_info.php?cPath=106&products_id=1258&osCsid=34e04be70d86602c1eaab1a40dde9e92">this print</a> by Patrick Leger to go with <a href="http://www.thumbtackpress.com/browse/product_info.php?cPath=106&products_id=826&osCsid=34e04be70d86602c1eaab1a40dde9e92">this print</a> by Patrick Leger that I already have in my office. I find it helps put my students at ease to have them walk in and see a print of a man punching another man in the face so hard that his head seems to have exploded. I may be wrong about this, but I don't think so. </div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-3266185383842449942009-12-30T11:35:00.004-06:002009-12-30T14:38:59.384-06:00Good Books in 2009<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHGNE_rQqPk8H7idPVd6K4ddYCvjw1v7-wV9f68P-kyWIYvmynVW1euYNsRWEkuzA0eGi7gU34EMLu359jIcQQQIOSlbHFHMDT81cv47sE3nfnTcuLSmgRS7nq9zrmXzQOjCd2rvQ8uoU/s1600-h/better_angel.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHGNE_rQqPk8H7idPVd6K4ddYCvjw1v7-wV9f68P-kyWIYvmynVW1euYNsRWEkuzA0eGi7gU34EMLu359jIcQQQIOSlbHFHMDT81cv47sE3nfnTcuLSmgRS7nq9zrmXzQOjCd2rvQ8uoU/s320/better_angel.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421091556338535458" /></a><br />I am not good at writing about fiction. I generally use the word "awesome" over and over again. But I did read some awesome books this year and thought I'd mention some of them that I especially loved. <div><br /></div><div>It was a good year for short story collections. I loved Cliff Garstang's <i>In An Uncharted Country</i>, Paul Yoon's <i>Once the Shore</i>, Lydia Peelle's <i>Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing</i>, Holly Goddard Jones's <i>Girl Trouble</i>, Skip Horack's <i>The Southern Cross</i>, and Laura van den Berg's <i>What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Two of my favorite books of the year were written by Blake Butler and Shane Jones. <i>Scorch Atlas</i> was mesmerizing, thrilling, and scary as hell. <i>Light Boxes</i> felt like a perfect fairy tale that twisted and expanded into something even more amazing. These are two books that would not leave my brain.</div><div><br /></div><div>Josh Weil's <i>The New Valley</i>, a collection of three novellas, was such a wonderful, tightly-written book, one of the few books that I managed to read more than once.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jedidiah Berry and Paul Tremblay wrote two amazing novels (<i>The Manual of Detection</i> and <i>The Little Sleep</i>) that happened to have private detectives as the main character. I can't recommend these two books enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>My three favorite books that I read this year were, in order of my liking them:</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Padgett Powell's <i>The Interrogative Mood</i>: I read this in manuscript form a while back and sometimes a student would come to my office to talk about Padgett's story from the Ben Marcus anthology and I would bring up the word document for this book and read paragraphs from it to them. It never failed to blow people away, even if they couldn't figure out what the hell it was all about. I could read pieces of this book everyday for the rest of my life and be happy. I wish someone would give Colonel Powell a television show called <i>The Interrogative Mood</i> and simply let him read questions for thirty minutes. Or, even better, give him one of the Late Night slots and let him interview celebrities in the same manner as the questions in this book.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. Nami Mun's <i>Miles From Nowhere</i>: This is such an awesome book. There are elements of <i>Jesus' Son</i> in it, but it's more than that. She writes with such precision about incredibly grim events and then, as if by magic, turns it all into something you don't ever want to forget.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Chris Adrian's <i>A Better Angel</i>: I love Chris Adrian's work. <i>Gob's Grief</i> is one of my favorite books of all time and this collection highlights why I think he is such an amazing writer. The stories are heartbreaking, bizarre, and yet the way that Adrian handles these characters, in the midst of such pain, is so beautiful and affirming to me. If there was one book this year that rearranged the precise machinery inside of me, it was this one.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-59979712140866995142009-12-09T10:21:00.002-06:002009-12-09T10:30:24.945-06:00Roaring 20'sI just finished up my Beginning Fiction Workshop and had the chance to read some great, strange stories from the students. There was animal sacrifice, a son watching his dad put baby powder on his thighs in order to slip into a pair of tight leather pants, a girl trying to trick her sister into eating deer feces, and organ harvesting. <div>For the second half of the semester, I always use the Ben Marcus anthology, <i>The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories</i>, which I think is fantastic. It has stuff from George Saunders, Aimee Bender, Christine Schutt, Padgett Powell, and Jhumpa Lahiri. It's weird and funny and the students generally struggle with it at first but ultimately come around on the anthology. But I've been thinking about adding some other stories to the class, ones that deal with people their age, dealing with the ramifications of impending adulthood. So I was hoping to appeal to the two or three people who read this blog and see if you had any recommendations for great short stories that involve people in college. I've tried to think of some and haven't had much luck. I can find all kinds of amazing stories about teenagers dealing with the horrors of high school, but not much about college. Any help would be appreciated.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-75909361805897893142009-10-28T13:38:00.002-05:002009-10-28T13:49:43.566-05:00American Vampire<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-9brGEdnCVNM3uHjhmHoo_ASj5lli11eWrtDO9Lu1COYzPf6EV-Nop0L3oubicuLpJTzwPb1fRvSg8Gp-6szyMRXXyysD0CjNBPaL8DXqeIEVWdwKcDoU3l5jdcqI-zJ-W289WjCAaw/s1600-h/1256576153.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 282px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-9brGEdnCVNM3uHjhmHoo_ASj5lli11eWrtDO9Lu1COYzPf6EV-Nop0L3oubicuLpJTzwPb1fRvSg8Gp-6szyMRXXyysD0CjNBPaL8DXqeIEVWdwKcDoU3l5jdcqI-zJ-W289WjCAaw/s320/1256576153.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397724753708638754" /></a><br />I promised myself that I wouldn't write another post about comic books after I made a <a href="http://wilsonkevin.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-epic-doesnt-need-any-hard-sell.html">pathetic request</a> for a comic-book-pal and netted not a single response. My wife said that it was brutal to read the post and she felt very bad for me.<div>However, I wanted to mention that an amazing fiction writer, Scott Snyder, has landed a ongoing series with Vertigo called <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23452">American Vampire</a>. Snyder wrote the really, really awesome story collection <a href="http://www.voodooheart.com/">Voodoo Heart</a> and when I started my subscription to One Story back in 2002, the first story I got was Snyder's story "<a href="http://www.one-story.com/index.php?page=story&story_id=14">Happy Fish, Plus Coin</a>" which is still one of my favorite stories from that journal. </div><div>Snyder wrote a Human Torch one-shot for Marvel, and is doing some work on an X-Men series, but this American Vampire series is going to be a huge deal. Stephen King is co-writing the first five issues. So, yes, this is going to be big. </div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-74109922479886435102009-10-19T13:49:00.004-05:002009-10-19T13:55:59.179-05:00NBAThe <a href="http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2009_test.html">National Book Award Finalists</a> were announced last week and when I met with my students on Thursday, I read them the first paragraphs of each book and had them vote on their favorite. We're going to see if, based on just the first few sentences, we can predict the winner. <div><br /></div><div>The winner was Marcel Theroux's <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/books/review/VanderMeer-t.html">Far North</a></i>. The first few lines for that book are:</div><div><br /></div><div>Every day I buckle on my guns and go out to patrol this dingy city.</div><div>I've been doing it so long that I'm shaped to it, like a hand that's been carrying buckets in the cold.</div><div>The winters are the worst, struggling up out of a haunted sleep, fumbling for my boots in the dark. Summer is better. The place feels almost drunk on the endless light and time skids by for a week or two. We don't get much spring or fall to speak of. Up here, for ten months a year, the weather has teeth in it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Two books tied for second with my students, <a href="http://www.bonniejocampbell.com/"><i>American Salvage</i></a> by Bonnie Jo Campbell and <a href="http://www.colummccann.com/"><i>Let the Great World Spin</i></a> by Colum McCann.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2205211864827363322.post-56282101803042324722009-10-15T15:41:00.003-05:002009-10-15T15:50:34.208-05:00Louisiana Book Festival<div style="text-align: left;">If you live in Louisiana, near Baton Rouge, or if you were thinking of heading that way this weekend, I'm going to be at the <a href="http://www.louisianabookfestival.org/">Louisiana Book Festival</a>. On Saturday morning, I'm on a panel with Juyanne James and Geoff Wyss about <i>New Stories From the South 2009</i> and then I'm giving a reading at 1:00 pm by myself. And I have a real concern that I will be reading by myself, that not a single person will be there. And then I'd have to walk to the signing pavilion and sit there for thirty minutes. While I am there, I plan to eat many, many roast beef and gravy po' boys. And there's a place near my hotel that has boudin pizza. Oh, yes.</div>K. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00332313551939998244noreply@blogger.com3