For surreal fiction to work, the writer must have confidence. No matter how fantastic the images and situations, it always comes back to confidence. The reader should not sense the author’s doubt in either prose or content. The best works of magical realism flood forward on the page like an endless ribbon being pulled, and this is so apparent in Hong Kong writer Dorothy Tse’s newest short story collection, Snow and Shadow.
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Maya Lang’s first novel, The Sixteenth of June, has been called “incisive and revelatory, a finely-tuned novel of friendship, loss, and self-forgiveness.” In this episode of the Monkeybicycle Podcast, she reads a short
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Mom won a year’s supply of Dr. Pepper. She earned it. After drinking hundreds of liters she managed to save every cap, turned them in to the address on the label, and won. I came home from school
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Name: Mary Beth Wilkinson
o Age: 78
o DOD: 6/1/14
o Obituary: Mary Beth loved shopping at J.C. Penney. With unbridled enthusiasm, she used to say, “I can get a matching set of washer/dryers and stretchy pants with a print boatneck tee, and gifts for everyone in my family!”
He sits at his computer, a brand new MacBook Pro purchased on a Tuesday morning when he would normally be at work but his old laptop has died and since there’s no hope
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The short stories collected in Megan Martin’s Nevers do not seem to want to be short stories. They are probably best called something else; fittingly, the cover announces them as “Fictions,” of which there are
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Dan Morris held his wife, Kathleen, outside their bi-level on the outskirts of State College, PA. Over the past week, the autumnal air had subsided to the harsh, Northern Pennsylvanian winter. A canvas of snow had begun to form.
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In my old bedroom on Orchard Street; I remember the gray wall and the white comforter. Those afternoons and nights spent kissing. His stubble. He was tall, feet dangling off the edge of my bed.
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o Name: Earl Stanrankowski
o Age: 23
o DOD: 5/4/14
o Obituary: Earl wrote his own obituary in the frozen section between Hungry Mans and Lean Cuisines at Walmurt. He was conflicted about his weight.
