7/30 Yesterday I finished the copyedits for The Cradle, and will now send it back and wait for a magical galley to appear at my house in a few weeks. The Cradle, by the way, is due out in early March, 2009. A few more excellent things of note: 1) I will have a very, very, very small piece in Esquire sometime this summer, although not a short story. More like a short-short. It had fried food. 2) I've had the tremendous honor of being invited to be the Simon Blattner Visiting Assistant Professor at Northwestern University this coming spring, right on top of the book-release. As far as I know I will be teaching Mule-Packing 281. 3) This September, I'll be returning to Ithaca to give a reading. I haven't been back since I left 3 years ago, and can't wait to see old friends. There may even be a couple aged and wise youngins from my last freshman writing seminar to catch up with. But how will I recognize them with all that facial hair and ennui? 4) I'm off to art-camp for grownups this Friday. While in Vermont, along with playing the banjo, I will be working on my cycle of 2837 post-postmodern premodern erotic haiku. Have a great summer! |
3/31 I participated in a great reading last night at the Hideout--Susannah Felts's book launch party thrown by Featherproof Books. Her new novel, This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record, officially entered the universe amidst a terribly warm-hearted crowd. Would not we all entered the universe in this way... Susannah's book is an artist coming-of-age story; I have to say, this is my favorite sub-genre of coming-of-age stories. Confusion about sex combined with confusion about art. You can't lose. Eileen Favorite and J Adams Oaks also read, and two really, really great Chicago bands played, too--The Pawner's Society and Judson Claiborne. In other news, I just got back from Towson University in Maryland, where I gave a reading and hung out with a group of creative writing students. We talked about point of view, form, time, setting, character, mood, tone, theme, morality, violence, death, parties, things happening, voice, omniscience, love, menace, conflict, and happiness. We may have talked about other things. I saw Kevin Durant's brother. I also got a small tour of Baltimore from a friend, and was a little speechless as my imagination was faced with reconciling itself to the very real row-houses and corners I'd seen represented so frequently on The Wire. Oh yeah, brain said. That all is real.
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1/28 Well, I'll finally be able to justify pulling the cover of Trouble (buy it, buy it, buy it, buy it) off of here and retooling the website to include post-2002 technology. A few weeks back I sold my first novel, The Cradle, to Little, Brown. It'll be out in March, 2009, just in time. The Cradle is the story of a young Wisconsin father out and about in the Midwest, on a mission of sorts. There's another story of a Chicago woman going on in the background...and yes...you guessed correctly...these two stories come together...in triumphant...powerful...denouement. (With some but not total resolution.) It's a slim novel, but one I love dearly. I'll be excited for the next 13 months. Around that time I'll start barfing. Happy day. In other news. I have failed to update this front-page for quite some time. This is due to a personal computer disaster, not a lack of love. Since that time, I've gotten all annoying and luddite on you. Packers lost. I was there. And right around now, Barrelhouse 5 comes out. Notable for you and me because Barrelhouse 5 contains a short story by Patrick Somerville that examines important topics like 1) Hair Loss, 2) Extraterresterial Vaginas, and also references the death of one of my heroes, Kurt Vonnegut. Now that all the hubub has died down about Mr. Vonnegut's death, I can just say...well...you probably know.
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10/31 Happy Halloween. I've got a story in Time Out Chicago this week, and it's so scary you will die if you read it. On Thursday night I'll be reading down in Hyde Park for the U of C's Emerging Writers Series. Then on Friday, I'll be at the New Trier Literary Festival. Busy time in these parts. Sleep is for Saturdays. And finally, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 is out, and it's got a story from Trouble in it. Have a look. It's worth it just for the singles ads. |
8/27 Just returned from a month's stay at the VCCA, also known as art summer camp. What a wonderful experience, truly. While away, I had two short stories appear. The first is a minibook through Featherproof--go ahead, print it out and staple it together. The other is a story called "Easy Love" up at Storyglossia. Also, I got a copy of this interview I gave during the tour. Have a spare 45 minutes? Learn my true feelings concerning hot topics like men, Wisconsin, and basements.
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6/22 I have two new interviews out in the ether this week: one at Bookslut and the other at What to Wear During an Orange Alert. They are not mutually exclusive. |
5/22 My story "Friends from Cincinnati" (careful, that link will take you to a pdf) is now available online at THE2NDHAND, and will be out in its glossed broadsheet real-life format at the end of the week, available from their website or at most indie bookstores in Chicago. Thanks
to the guys at T2H for having such a cool design, and special thanks
to Rob Funderburk, Chicago artist
and champion polo player, for the sketches that accompany the story.
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