When I first heard about Brian McGreevy’s newest novel, The Lights (out now from Rare Bird Books), I was told it was a book about a woman in an MFA program. Immediately, I had my ideas about what this book might be about, what I might find in this book. Scenes that take place in workshop, definitely. Discussions of the publishing industry, probably. Maybe some talk about agents and debut novels. But when I sat down to read The Lights, […]
Narrative Evolves and Narrative Blurs: An Interview with Darcie Wilder
About three months after my ex-boyfriend broke up with me, he came up to me at a party and said, ‘It’s really cool that the Twitter with all the threes and the four follows you. I didn’t realize that. That’s, like, the greatest Twitter account.” I asked if that fact was enough to make him want to get back together. It wasn’t. The account he was talking about was @333333333433333, and belongs to Darcie Wilder, whose debut novel, literally show […]
Arguments, Aphorisms, and Influence: An Interview With Sarah Manguso
300 Arguments, the most recent book by poet and essayist Sarah Manguso, is marketed as a collection of essays, but that genre isn’t quite accurate. Neither, though, is poetry or fiction. Some reviews have referred to the book as a collection of “fragments,” another wrong word. Manguso has written, just as the title suggests, 300 arguments that, despite their length—often no more than two or three sentences—are complete cases. Originally, the book included seven sections, with the seven section titles […]
“I Wanted to Capture That Aspect of Loneliness”: An Interview With Zoey Leigh Peterson
Zoey Leigh Peterson’s debut novel Next Year For Sure tells the story of longtime romantic partners Kathryn and Chris, who have what appears to be the ideal relationship. Chris brings Kathryn’s night guard for her when she’s gone to bed without it. They know one another’s flaws and understand how to navigate around and through them. They literally speak their own language, making up shorthand for different daily activities and sexual positions. Still, a sort of loneliness looms over their […]
“I’m Very Concerned With the Poetry of Them”: Meredith Alling on Writing “Sing the Song”
Meredith Alling’s debut story collection, Sing the Song (available this month from Future Tense Books) is a powerful debut. LitHub named it one of its 16 Books You Should Read This November, and for good reason. The collection is unique, yes, (an ancient ham rolls out from a sewer to tell fortunes in one of the book’s most memorable stories), but it’s Alling’s lyrical, dream-like language that makes Sing the Song a stand out collection. The book is imaginative, odd, and surreal, while still managing to make profound commentary on our everyday world. I spoke with Meredith over email about her writing process, sentence structure, and what we can expect next from this debut.
“The Final Order of Things Came From Intuition”: An Interview With Chelsea Martin
Chelsea Martin’s novella Mickey opens with a lyric from Matchbox 20’s “3AM,” a song that seems like its about a break-up, but is in fact about Rob Thomas’s relationship with his mom. Similarly, Mickey might seem like its about a break-up—the first scene is, after all, the unnamed protagonist breaking up with her boyfriend, Mickey—but there’s something else happening below the surface. Through a series of vignettes, the book unfolds to be about a young woman’s relationship with her estranged […]