Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story

Us for City Paper's The Year In Books

2011-12-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

I'm excited that City Paper named Us to its Top Ten list for The Year in Books, along with books by some of my favorite writers—Joan Didion, David Foster Wallace, Errol Morris, Lawrence Weschler, etc. City Paper says, in part: "We’re all familiar with the classic boy-meets-girl scenario, but what would happen if the tale kept going? Kimball takes the reader to the end of the love story—the real end—and shows just how crushing it can be. "

Running

2011-11-26T10:52:00.001-08:00

A new piece of fiction called Running up at Housefire. Many thanks to Kira Clark and Robert Duncan Gray.

The Bomb Interview: My Mind Zooming In

2011-11-18T08:12:00.000-08:00

My friend and genius Adam Robinson interviewed me about Us for Bomb. He asks me some impossible questions and I tell him what I'd be doing if I wasn't writing novels.

Us Named a Top Ten Indie by Book Page

2011-11-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

Book Page has named its Top 10 Indie Picks for 2011 and Us tops the list, which also has great titles by Joshua Mohr, Alan Heathcock, Ryan Bradley, Steve Himmer, Adam Mansbach, Lavinia Ludlow, Vanessa Veselka, Franki Elliot, and Ben Tanzer. Many thanks for Lori Hettler.

BIG RAY

2011-11-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

I love this cover -- the presence in the absence, at once beautiful and unsettling. Click on it for a bigger version. Bloomsbury will publish BIG RAY Fall 2012.

Tin House: The Circumstances of My Birth

2011-11-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Tin House is publishing fiction online and I have a new piece there called The Circumstances of My Birth.

Many thanks to Tony Perez.

BIG RAY

2011-11-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

There will probably be some tweaks -- a bigger font size for the title and maybe white for my name and the placement of "a novel" might move -- but I love this cover too much to not show it to everybody already. Bloomsbury will publish BIG RAY Fall 2012.

Matter Press: Compressed Forms

2011-10-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

I have a new piece called Translation #1 up at Matter Press, the Journal of Compressed Arts. Many thanks to the good Randall Brown.

LitLive @ MICA

2011-10-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to be reading with my pal Justin Sirois at MICA. The event is called LitLive and it's happening this Thursday, October 13th, 5pm, at MICA, Bunting Center Room 452, 1401 Mt. Royal Avenue (Corner of Lafayette & Mt. Royal). Thanks to Dan Gutstein for setting everything up and for bringing the cupcakes. I hope to see you there.

#299 Matty Byloos: Absolutely Everything Right Now

2011-09-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Matty Byloos was born in Los Angeles and raised in various parts of the San Fernando Valley (a Valley Boy, if there were such a thing). Matty’s childhood was great and his family was pretty typical of Italian-American families. There was lots of extended family around and everybody played a ton of cards. They all loved baseball and large meals. Everybody had a sarcastic sense of humor, so teasing was prevalent. Then, when Matty was 11, his grandfather, the family patriarch, died and everything fell apart. His immediate family stayed close—Matty and his sister have always been friends and his parents stayed together—but everybody else drifted away. For some reason, as a kid, Matty loved the movie Wall Street. Also, he attended an all-boys, Jesuit high school near the city center of Los Angeles, just a few miles from the LA riots that happened in 1992. The school was shut down for a while and it was like entering a warzone when they went back—entire city blocks reduced to rubble and ash, blackened and charred. That has always stuck with Matty. The other standout thing from high school time was visiting Mabel King during his community service commitment, which he did at the Motion Picture Country Home, a rest home and hospice care facility for anybody involved in show business. She was blind and dying at the time, but also so full of life—a kind of magical grandmother. After high school, Matty attended a Jesuit college where he played rugby on and off and also played bass in a punk band called Vietnun. Once, he was held up at gunpoint and almost killed. Besides that, he studied literature and creative writing and it was great. For his Masters, he studied painting and critical theory. Matty’s girlfriend is also his best friend and she knows more about what is going on in his brain at any given time than anybody else but him. She's divine and a poet. They met through mutual friends and, after some difficult middle years, sorted things out. Matty loves that she'll fight like a hellion and forgive just as fast. They don’t have kids, but do have two cats—Patchen and Parsley (who thinks Matty is her mom—most nights he wakes up with her suckling on the two cherry blossom tattoos on his forearm). Matty always wanted to see Japan and he did in 2005 when the cherry blossoms were in bloom. During the trip, Matty ate apple pie and ice cream in a tiny house after seeing the Buddha statue in Kamakura. Another time, Matty was almost killed again when he was almost hit by a car going 100mph in the wrong direction during a high-speed chase. That combined with the Jesuit life principles of treating every day like it’s your last have made him a workaholic and somebody who tries to do absolutely everything right now. Now Matty does online marketing stuff. He owns and operates a network of websites. He still paints and has been working on a large-scale drawing installation that functions like a novel in pictures—with every single page on display at the same time. Matty is feeling pretty good about writing these days, even more so than painting, which is a big shift after mostly existing in the art world. He’s working on a novel that is built out of independent flash pieces. It's about a motorcycle gang and the apocalypse and Detroit and lots of birds that wear jackets and ponder their own evolution.

Fall for the Book

2011-09-22T10:55:00.001-07:00

I'm excited to be reading from Us tonight at George Mason University's Fall for the Book with the wonderful Amelia Gray and Matt Bell. It's 8pm tonight in the Student Union Building, Rooms 3, 4, & 5.

A Weird Kind of Beauty

2011-09-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

I interview Michael Bible about the weird beauty of Simple Machines, which is just out from Awesome Machine. It's over at Htmlgiant.

What Are Some of the Best Books of the Year?

2011-09-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Penina Roth answers the question at Flavorwire and places Us on the list -- along with books by Blake Butler, Deb Olin Unferth, Emma Straub, Joshua Cohen, Karen Russell, Seth Fried, Stefan Merrill Block, and Teju Cole.

Reading @ Rosemont College, Philadelphia

2011-09-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Philadelphia, I'm excited to be visiting on Wednesday -- looking forward to reading in the evening, 6:15pm @ Rosemont College. Many thanks for Randall Brown for the invitation.

The Fall 510 Readings

2011-09-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

I just posted the Fall 510 Schedule. It's pretty good.

S17: John Brandon, Sandra Beasley, Christine Grillo, Greg Olear.
O15: Laura Ellen Scott, Mark Cugini, John Rowell, Jackie Wang.
N19: Joshua Mohr, Stephanie Barber, Ben Loory, Mike Young.

This Was Pretty Nice

2011-08-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Baltimore Magazine included me on their list of Top Five Writers -- along with John Waters, Laura Lippman, Madison Smartt Bell, and Stephen Dixon. Here's the blurb: "One of the funniest guys around wrote Us, one of the saddest and most poignant books that you'll ever read."

#298 Michael Davidson: How Dangerous He Can Be to Himself

2011-08-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Michael Davidson was born in Miami in 1979. At 2, his parents moved him to Houston and he had a fun childhood there. His parents weren’t over-protective, so he ran around the pool and swam a lot. He rode his bike, walked through the woods, and carved his initials into a gazebo. He climbed onto the roof and leaned against the chimney whenever he was locked out and no one was home. He didn’t read much. He stayed home from school and watched cartoons. He mostly ate grilled cheese sandwiches and mac ‘n cheese. Michael’s first hobby was collecting baseball cards, which he still has, and the stack is a personal reminder of what it means to grow historic. When Michael was 12, his parents moved the family to Barranquilla, on the coast of Colombia, where his mother is from. There, Michael played tennis on red clay courts and Ping-Pong in his sister’s room. He ate arepas and empanadas and deditos. Cheese follows Michael everywhere he goes. In high school, Michael played tennis and did yearbook, which probably helped him get into college, where he studied economics, thinking it would help him get a job. This was a misconception. So far, he hasn’t used his degree for any specific kind of employment. Michael has done remote work for Google, worked as a golf range ball picker, a residential appraiser, and a math tutor. Michael has lived with his wonderful girlfriend Bridget since 2007 and he can’t stop making her smile because he likes seeing her smile so much. Also, Bridget makes home feel like home and he likes it when she plays the piano, which makes him think about how beautiful her mind is. For a while, Michael thought that signing the mortgage to his first home was an important event, but deciding to get out from under the mortgage and start living well again, free from being indentured to the bank, was more important. Here’s a subject change: Michael can only clip his nails outside. Something else: he has a scar between his bottom lip and chin that isn’t small. He got it from the Pacific Ocean, which picked him up when he was body surfing and slammed his face into the seafloor, where he floated around underwater and thought he was going to die. When he surfaced, he felt the sun and laughed, but he couldn’t talk right and part of his mouth was collapsed. Michael didn’t know what kind of person he was until the Pacific Ocean hurt him. He sees the scar in the mirror every day: He sees people staring at the scar when he talks. It’s a reminder of how dangerous he can be to himself. In 2009, Michael’s grandfather died and he hadn’t seen him for nearly a year. He can’t remember exactly what he said or what he looked like the very last time he saw him. In 2010, shortly before his grandmother died, he held her hand in the hospital and said goodbye. This somehow lightened the weight of losing her. Recently, Michael learned how to handpress paperback novels right on his kitchen table and he named the enterprise Tiny TOE Press, which published his first novel, Austin Nights. Michael is happy and healthy and at peace with everyone around him.

Me and Us on WYPR

2011-08-24T07:07:00.004-07:00

I recorded this segment for WYPR's Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast a couple of months ago and missed it when it aired, but the podcast is available now. Before me, there are segments about crime in Baltimore and a study about news sources, then I'm around the 24-minute mark. Tom Hall is an incredibly generous question-asker.

The Beautiful Sadness of Impermanence

2011-08-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderful review of Us at Word Riot, which says, in part: "In his latest novel, Us, Michael Kimball delivers a gripping, forceful ode to that almost-forgotten lifelong theater of affection and agony between a man and a woman, an impeccably rendered meditation on what the Japanese call mono no ware, the beautiful sadness of impermanence. ... [Kimball] has taken contemporary fiction and turned on the light of a sparsely decorated dark and beautiful room to which it has perhaps never been." Many thanks to Chris Vola and to Jackie Corley.

Franklin Park + InDigest

2011-08-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the wonderful Penina Roth and to everybody who packed the room at Franklin Park. Julie Jackson has a great write-up of the event at Electric Literature, along with a blurry photo of me "kicking ass at the mic."

But if you couldn't come out to Franklin Park, you can still hear me read on a podcast at InDigest. If it's not a great recording, that's my fault or Garage Band's. Many thanks to Dustin Luke Nelson.

Five Lit Things + The Paris Review

2011-08-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

New York Magazine picked the Franklin Park reading I'm doing with Joshua Cohen, Kio Stark, Robert Tumas, and Amy Benfer as one of five literary events to check out next week.

Plus, Sadie Stein at The Paris Review wrote a nice tidbit that calls Us "heartbreakingly lovely" and the writing "a pleasure."

The Kindle Us

2011-08-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Kindle version of Us is now available. Many thanks, as always, to the Tyrant and to Tyrant Books.

Franklin Park Reading Series

2011-08-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to be reading in the Franklin Park Reading Series -- with Joshua Cohen, Kio Stark, Amy Benfer, and Robert Tumas on Monday, August 15th, 8pm. All the details are at the link. Many thanks to the wonderful Penina Roth for putting it all together.

Fiddleback #5

2011-08-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have two short fictions in the new Fiddleback -- "Introduction" from a longer work and a one-off called "Airplanes Turn into Stars at Night." Many thanks to Daniel Long, who also has a great interview with Gary Lutz in the issue. Also, check out the fiction by Michael Hemmingson, Kevin Fenton, Bobby Dixon, and J.A. Tyler.

Welcome to the Golden Age

2011-08-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderful group review -- books by Blake Butler, Scott McClanahan, Joshua Cohen, and me -- in the Charlotte Viewpoint. Jeff Jackson makes an interesting argument -- that "we’re living through a golden age for American literature" -- and then goes on to say nice things about each of our books. Of Us, he says, "this examination of love, grief and family makes these universal themes seem achingly fresh. ... Us delivers a powerful emotional experience."

Freerange Nonfiction

2011-07-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have a new piece called The Life Story of L up at Freerange Nonfiction, along with a piece by Melissa Seley. Many thanks to the good Mira Ptacin.

Rain Taxi, Birdsong, Momentary Melodies

2011-07-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

There's a really nice review of Us in Rain Taxi that says Us is "incredibly raw and unabashedly real ... Kimball wins us over by his impressive emotional authenticity. Us is so authentic that one might mistake it for an autobiography." You can only see it in the print version of Rain Taxi or at Powell's Review-a-Day.

Then there's this five-question, one-minute interview at Birdsong.

And I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but there's a really sweet and thoughtful video review of Us at Momentary Melodies. Thank you, Lauren.

Michael Kimball Will Not Back Down

2011-07-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

My friend Jen Michalski asks me some questions about Big Ray over at JMWW -- for instance, how I wrote it without anybody knowing.

Almost Everyone Is Ready

2011-07-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

I have an interview with Stephanie Barber up at The Faster Times. We talk about her show at the Baltimore Museum of Art, "Jhana and the Rats of James Olds or 31 Days/31 Videos," working under constraints, and how people approach art.

More interviews @ The Faster Times: Gary Lutz, Blake Butler, Laura van den Berg, Brian Evenson, Robert Lopez, Dylan Landis, Padgett Powell, Sam Lipsyte, Dawn Raffel, Kevin Sampsell, Gina Frangello, Evan Lavender-Smith, Ken Sparling, Matt Bell, Ingrid Burrington, Andy Devine, and Jessica Anya Blau, Deb Olin Unferth, Blake Butler, Justin Taylor, and Susan Henderson.

Used Furniture

2011-07-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm interviewed at Used Furniture where we talk about Us, Dear Everybody, sadness and reckoning, euphoria and writing, and writing as something that is rendered.

Anything Could Be a Story

2011-07-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have an interview with Rachel B. Glaster up at the Charlotte Viewpoint. We talk about Pee on Water, how her ideas become stories, and how anything can be a story.

BIG RAY to Bloomsbury

2011-07-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm having a pretty great year so far and I feel really grateful for it. I don't even know how to explain how grateful I feel. I'm so happy to announce that I just sold the world rights to a new novel, BIG RAY. It's the story of a son coming to terms with the sudden death of his obese father. It's told through 500 brief entries, moving back and forth between past and present, the father's death and his life, between an abusive childhood and adult understanding. BIG RAY went to Kathy Belden at Bloomsbury USA, which will publish in Fall 2012, and Michael Fishwick at Bloomsbury UK, which will publish in Winter 2013.

Oprah Says Really Nice Things About Us

2011-07-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Oprah says some really nice things about Us: "The best little novel you haven't heard about, Us ... Kimball's clear-eyed prose unlocks the most vulnerable voice ... creating an emotional link that leaves no reader untouched."

The Playlist for Us at Largehearted Boy

2011-07-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

I've always loved Largehearted Boy and I had a lot of fun listening to everything song on my iPod to make a playlist for Us. There's Beck, Wilderness, Neutral Milk Hotel, Mazzy Star, The Cure, Celebration, and a cover of a Blue Oyster Cult song.

All the Characters Are Versions of Myself

2011-06-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

I have an interview with Justin Taylor up at The Faster Times. We talk about The Gospel of Anarchy, the great stuff he does with third-person close narration, and writing sex scenes, among other things.

More interviews @ The Faster Times: Gary Lutz, Blake Butler, Laura van den Berg, Brian Evenson, Robert Lopez, Dylan Landis, Padgett Powell, Sam Lipsyte, Dawn Raffel, Kevin Sampsell, Gina Frangello, Evan Lavender-Smith, Ken Sparling, Matt Bell, Ingrid Burrington, Andy Devine, and Jessica Anya Blau, Deb Olin Unferth, Blake Butler, and Susan Henderson.

Be Brave on the Page

2011-06-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Caroline Leavitt asked me some smart questions about Us and I did my best to answer them. We talk about the origins for the book, the moment-to-moment structure, and making sentences do many things.

The Book Made It Happen

2011-06-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Amber Sparks wrote a moving and personal review of Us for Big Other that says, in part: "I’ve read review after review of this amazing book that turns back on itself and becomes a sort of self-examination by the reviewer. I think that says more about the brilliance of Kimball’s novel than it does about us readers ... Michael Kimball’s wonderful book ... it fastened itself around my neck as I read, got in my eyes, swam in my bloodstream, infected my brain. The book made it happen. Us became a story about my grandfather, about my husband, about the people I love and the loss I fear."

A Personal Review (of sorts) of Us

2011-06-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

The good Mel Bosworth wrote a thoughtful, personal review (of sorts) of Us for OWC that says, in part: "Michael Kimball is a rare, rare writer, a writer whose empathy knows no limits. He holds the note of loss and his voice never cracks."

A Breathless Humanity

2011-06-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

The fine Brandon Hobson wrote a beautiful review of Us for The Faster Times that says, in part: "... bold and generous. Its greatest strength is the sensitivity with which Kimball explores the complexities of understanding pain and watching someone you love die. Us is a book that evocatively renders the static of sadness into a breathless humanity."

Time Out New York on Us

2011-06-16T00:43:00.000-07:00

The good Drew Toal wrote a nice, descriptive review of Us for Time Out New York that says, in part: "Kimball is an amazingly empathetic writer."

As If We Are Not Ourselves

2011-06-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

The artist Cynthia Gray has been collecting anonymous love letters for ten years. It's a beautiful and heartbreaking project and I just edited and selected from the most recent batch of love letters here. I also collected some of my own thoughts and questions about love letters in a kind of editor's letter here.

Lily Hoang on Us @ Htmlgiant

2011-06-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

I have always felt grateful whenever I have received a good review. I have always felt grateful when it seems as if somebody gets what I have written. But I feel something beyond that after reading Lily Hoang's piece, A letter to Michael Kimball--a moving and beautiful reading of Us. I can still feel what she says in the middle of my chest. Thank you, Lily.

Don't Give Up

2011-06-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

My wonderful friend Cynthia Gray's wonderful project -- don't give up magnets -- on Oprah.com. I'm a distributor if anybody needs one.

Two Stories @ Bomb

2011-06-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about my two stories at Bomb, which are accompanied by this beautiful Conor Lamb photo and some kind words: "As entertaining as it is intelligent as it is irreverent, Kimball’s prose is that rare creature that devours while being devoured."

Nathan Martin Interviews Me at Room 220

2011-06-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Nathan Martin interviews me about Us at Room 220. He says all kinds of nice things like this: "Michael Kimball's stylistic capacities dwarf those of most contemporary fiction writers." And he asks me all kinds of smart questions that get deep into the craft and thought behind Us. All of this is in anticipation of the Dirty Southern Cross Tour, which ends in New Orleans with a reading at the Antenna Gallery in New Orleans on Thursday, June 9th, 7pm (see two posts down for more).

Us at Creative Loafing

2011-06-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

There's a nice interview about Us, compression, beautiful documentaries, and the reputation of The Tyrant at Creative Loafing -- this in anticipation of the kickoff reading for the Dirty Southern Cross Tour (see immediately below) -- tomorrow, 7pm at the Beep Beep Gallery, with Marc Fitten. Many thanks to Wyatt Williams.

Dirty Southern Cross Tour

2011-06-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of Us stuff coming up. Tomorrow, June 2, I'm reading and doing a Q&A at Atomic Books, 7pm -- plus, there will be adult beverages.

Friday, June 3, I'm looking forward to joining the discussion at #LitChat -- just use the #litchat hash tag.

Saturday, the Tyrant is giving me a break. Sunday, the 5th, is the beginning of the Dirty Southern Cross Tour, at the Beep Beep Gallery.

When I leave Atlanta, I'm taking Blake Butler with me. Monday, the 6th, we'll be reading at Portland Brew East in Nashville.

Tuesday, the 7th, we'll be reading at Square Books in Oxford -- where there will also be a special appearance by William Faulkner.

Wednesday, we'll mostly be gambling at little casinos along the Mississippi River. Thursday, the 9th, we'll be reading at the Antenna Gallery in New Orleans. I hope to see you in any of those places.

New Pages

2011-06-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

There's a nice review of Us in New Pages. Audrey Quinn says, in part: "I sat down with the book and didn’t get up until I finished without realizing that any time had passed. ... The man’s story is heart-wrenching and he holds onto you without letting go, not that you would ever want him to."

Time Out Chicago on Us

2011-05-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

There's a really great 5-star review of Us in Time Out Chicago. The wonderful Jonathan Messinger says, in part: "The sentences and even paragraphs simulate the stunned but dutiful response to the suffering of a loved one: short, raw and somewhat elliptical, wrapping themselves around the small tasks at hand and the larger questions constantly raised. ... Kimball’s short chapters cast such a hypnotic spell, the reader is able to plug directly into the character’s grief. It’s a simply gorgeous and astonishing book, the kind that makes the outside world disappear once you open its pages."

Big Other

2011-05-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Over at Big Other, the poet John Poch writes an attentive review of Us. John says, in part: "Michael Kimball faces mortality directly, confronting the passionate life in the most poetic sentences I’ve read from a fiction writer in a long time. And by poetic, I don’t mean that the prose is prettified with a lot of adjectives and fancy syntactical flourishes. It is poetic in the sense that the sentences seem made, hewn, created by a mind and hand that love the way we think and talk in sentences. ... After having finished one of the saddest books I’ll probably ever read, I was filled with a strange exuberance. ... If death is a sentence, Michael Kimball has found its words."

Laughing Yeti: Where the Sadness and the Love Exist

2011-05-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

The good Shome Dasgupta has a beautiful review of Us up at The Laughing Yeti. He says, in part: "There is this gentility and softness and purity that becomes some kind of being, and this being, by the end of the book, is us. ... There is a gap here in what is actually happening and what is going on in the narrator's head, and it is in this gap where the sadness and the love exist."

Urbanite: When Us Becomes Me

2011-05-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

Cara Ober has a thoughtful review of Us in the Urbanite. She says, in part: "Kimball's naked prose magnifies the poignancy of the situation ... Us is a reminder that we are all tragedies waiting to happen. It makes you aware of the fragility of your own heart, of the dull ache it often carries. Some readers may find Us depressing, but with its awareness comes a gem of appreciation for the life you currently lead, even with its eventual demise. This book shines a laser beam into the deep, dark places in the human soul, and renders them oddly transparent."

Write Up of KGB

2011-05-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

Elka Reads has a funny and strange write up of the launch party for Us at KGB. The room is crowded. There is an open bar and literary football. Sam gets stalked. The Tyrant tells stories. And I read in a haunting tenor.

Flavorpill: Devastingly Sad

2011-05-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

There's a great review of Us at Flavorpill. The thoughtful Russ Marshalek says: "One of the saddest [books], and most compelling, ... is Michael Kimball’s gutting new novel, Us ... We consumed the entire book in one subway ride, and got more than a few strange glances our way as Kimball’s novel caused us to convulse with sobs." The piece goes on to name ten other devastatingly sad books--which includes books by Cormac McCarthy, Emma Donoghue, Ernest Hemingway, Ian McEwan, Joan Didion, Joyce Carol Oates, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Lorrie Moore.

Us Might Break Your Heart, But It's the Good Kind of Break

2011-05-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Jessica Anya Blau interviews me about Us at The Nervous Breakdown. We talk about dying, crying, spiritualism, sadness, and tenderness. Jessica also says, "Us might break your heart, but it's a good kind of break-- the kind that reminds you how nice it is to be alive."

All the Characters Are Versions of Myself

2011-05-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

I have an interview with Justin Taylor up at the Charlotte Viewpoint. We talk about The Gospel of Anarchy, the great stuff he does with third-person close narration, and writing sex scenes, among other things.

An Excerpt from Us in The Collagist

2011-05-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

There's an excerpt from Us in #22 of The Collagist. There's also great work from J.A. Tyler, Sarah Norek, Mathias Svalina, Ofelia Hunt, Johannes Göransson, Russel Swensen, Emilia Phillips, Joseph A. W. Quintela, Kellam Ayres, and Brian Evenson -- and thoughtful reviews from Renée E. D'Aoust, Adam Parker Cogbill, Melanie Page, Gavin Pate, and Anna Clark. Many thanks to Matt Bell.

The Faster Times: Achingly Beautiful

2011-05-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

The goodness that is Lincoln Michel has a super nice announcement about Us at The Faster Times. He calls the novel "tightly written, unflinchingly direct, and achingly beautiful." He says: "The prose is as clean as a surgical incision and Kimball dives directly into the dark waters of love and mortality that most writers only dip their toes into. This is a book you should be reading."

He also mentions the launch party, which will be tomorrow at 7:30pm at KGB, which will include me, Us, Sam Lipsyte, and the Tyrant.

Such a Painful Softness

2011-05-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

There's a really thoughtful review of Us by the good Robert Kloss at Red Fez. The review opens like this: "Michael Kimball’s Us is, as much as we may not want to admit it, the story of all of us and what we daily attempt to ignore: that eventually our loved ones, our spouses and significant relations, will either die and leave us or we will die and leave them." Toward the end of the review, there's this phrase -- "such a painful softness" -- that seems to capture the feeling of the novel.

Elliot Feels His Feelings

2011-05-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

This htmlgiant interview may be the most fun that I've ever had on the interviewee side of the interview. The wonderful Matthew Simmons and I talked back and forth about Us as he read it over the course of a few weeks. We talked about the different ways that hearts can break, E.T., blowback, and a bunch of other stuff. Among other things, Matthew says this of Us: ‎"... disarmingly simple, gorgeously structured, and as achingly sad a book as I have ever read. I had to stop a couple of times. I really did. The book’s elderly couple—so painfully aware of the fact that one of them is living the last parts of her life—are drawn so concisely, and the situation is so precisely rendered, it was hard not to spend all my time living in it even when I wasn’t reading the book."

5.10.11 Pub Day for Us

2011-05-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

It's pub day for Us and I couldn't be happier that the novel now officially exists in America. The release party is this Saturday, the 14th, at KGB, which includes me, Us, Sam Lipsyte, an open bar, and the Tyrant. I hope to see you there, if you live near there.

Two Nice Reviews of Us

2011-05-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

The good Erica Spangler gives Us a great review at BookedinChico. My favorite line is where she says, "I even walked to and from school in order to keep reading the novel." She also says, "Us moves you, rattles you, and shakes your spirit as a human ... read this magnificent novel."

Plus, over at Chamber Four, Mike Beeman calls Us "an unflinching account." Then says, "Kimball takes many risks in Us and ... the risks pay off, leading to a conclusion that is as surprising as it is inevitable, and deeply satisfying."

Psychology Today: One True Thing

2011-05-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

At Psychology Today, the wonderful Jennifer Haupt asks me some thoughtful questions and I do my best to answer them. Besides that, she says this about Us: "Be forewarned: when you pick up Us, Michael Kimball's haunting story of love and letting go, you will not be able to put it down."

Nice Review of Us at Corduroy Books

2011-05-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

There's a really nice review of Us at Corduroy Books (along with a review of Andrew Krivak's The Sojourn). The good Weston Cutter says things like this: "Us is such strange magic ... Us brings up something strange and terrifying to consider: that the real beauty and magic of being alive—a long marraige made of compromise and attempting to do right by the person one’s sworn before god to do right by—may not even be able to be communicated by anything more fancy than the simplest, most basic statements (what, after all, is sadder to read than “My wife stopped breathing”? If you can actually connect with those words, can empathize with whatever speaker’s uttered them, can many statements be more devastating?). ... (but there’s plenty more reason to read it, not least is the searching, fumbling, totally humble way Kimball writes himself into the story of his grandparents and tries to understand what it is that’s in between people who’ve spent a lifetime beside each other). It’s a gorgeous book."

Us: Release Party

2011-05-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

The release party for Us is going to be at KGB on May 14, 7:30pm. My friend Sam Lipsyte will read a little something and I will read a little something and then there's going to be an open bar, because that's how my publisher does it. Here's more information on the release party, as well as the rest of the book tour.

Pre-orders are now available at Tyrant Books and at Amazon.

Anonymous Love Letters / Don't Give Up

2011-04-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

The artist Cynthia Gray has been collecting anonymous love letters for ten years. It's a beautiful and heartbreaking project and this June I will edit the next collection. Please feel free to send one in. I'm also a distributor for Cynthia Gray's don't give up magnets. If you need one, please let me know.

#282 Robin Black: Growing Up Unhappy and Becoming Happier in a Way that Makes Unhappy People Feel Like They Can Become Happier Too

2011-04-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

Robin Black was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the youngest of three children. Her parents were legal scholars and she grew up in a great big house that was not a bit fancy. The house had lots of illness around it, which made growing up pretty odd. When Robin was 10, her grandmother who was a paraplegic from spinal tumors moved in with the family. Also, her father’s difficult moods dominated the household and his lack of balance kept everybody off-balance. Robin had ADD (still does) and other learning issues, which made her feel like a failure growing up. She was always the kid with unfinished homework and she missed lots of school because of illnesses, which had their basis in her fear of going to school. When Robin was 16, she asked her parents if she could go into therapy and that probably saved her life. She’s thankful for that instinct to get help when life felt so overwhelming. Robin’s memories of childhood are largely unhappy ones, but she always liked reading and writing, and she loved theater. She was in every school play and some community theater too. Playing a character was a great way to not deal with her own stuff. Robin studied voice too and can sing just about every song written between the two world wars. If she wasn’t going to be an actress, she was going to be a nightclub singer. But she didn’t pursue either, in part, because she was afraid of how sophisticated the other theater kids seemed when she got to college. That paralyzed her and she took German instead, which made no sense at all. During college, Robin took time off to return home and be her grandmother’s caregiver. After college, she became severely agoraphobic and couldn’t leave her house without having crippling anxiety attacks. During this time, Robin also had two difficult pregnancy losses, one late along, and those were shattering experiences. Robin met her wonderful husband Richard at a Public Service Fair when she was in law school, which she was doing so she could support herself and her kids. She was 30ish, had ended her first marriage, and was a mother of two children. Richard has been a full-fledged parent to her two older kids and to the daughter they have together. She’s amazed by how much he can give to other people. Around 40, Robin decided agoraphobia wouldn’t get in her way anymore. It took years of intensely difficult work, but she beat the disease. Most of the decisions Robin made the first 40 years of her life were motivated by fear. Robin’s kids are now 23, 19, 15 (girl, boy, girl) each amazing and amazingly kind. Her daughters are gamer girls and her son is a singer, which makes her super happy. Her youngest has significant learning disabilities and works so hard for things that come easily to most. The learning disabilities concern language processing, so Robin and her daughter are always trying to find the right words, though for very different reasons. Along with her family, Robin also loves her dog Watson, who is so loving back. It's important to have a relationship that doesn't involve words. For now, Robin wants to keep writing, to age well, and have friends who think she’s kind and funny, which she does. She wants to write a book about growing up unhappy and becoming happier that makes unhappy people feel like they can become happier. She also wants to sing more, but not in some corny, metaphorical way. She actually wants to sing more.

Best Man

2011-04-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

I have a new piece of fiction up at The Good Men Project, which is narrated by a man who isn't much of a good man. It was inspired by helping my friend from high school, Stew Rat, write his best man toast for another friend of ours from high school, but the content doesn't really have anything to do with that -- except the part about eating dirt. Many thanks to Matthew Salesses for liking the piece.

Dear Everybody in Korean

2011-04-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

I was surprised when I received the Korean translation of Dear Everybody and it was a hardback. Most translations are paperback. Then I opened it up and saw that it had a two-color interior that picks up the blue from the cover. American publishers don't do that kind of thing with novels. It's a really beautiful book. I wish that I could read it. Which reminds me, if anybody is good with Korean Google, I'd be grateful for a good jpg of the cover or any reviews that may be out there.

#293 Brian Allen Carr: The Best Things Are Happening Now

2011-04-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

Brian Allen Carr was born in Austin, TX in 1979. His father was a preacher, his mother a nurse. His childhood was pretty good except that there was often tension in the house and usually yelling. It was weird having an angry father who would preach peace and love in public, but screamed and broke furniture at home. Brian lost a certain respect for authority figures, but his father was always getting bigger churches so the family moved around a lot—different cities in Texas. Brian wasn’t a big fan of school, but he liked the library and skipped classes so he could read books there. He was a terrible student, always trying to drop out of high school, but his mother wouldn't let him. Eventually, Brian graduated high school and his father got fired from the church. After that, Brian went to Austin Community College for a few years, taking classes here and there. He started writing for a magazine called Salt For Slugs and decided to get a degree in journalism. When Brian was 21, his older brother died, which was terrible. They were pretty close. His brother had gone missing, then his car was found on fire and somebody wasn’t alive inside it. They had to match the teeth and then they cremated the rest of him. After that, Brian got really good at school for a few semesters. Then he moved to a new school and got really bad at caring about anything. Brian was in a band for a while and then culinary school in Vermont for a while. During that time, Brian got married for the first time. It was a good marriage, but it wasn’t a life-long thing. They are still friends and they high-fived each other when they signed their divorce papers. Brian only has one kidney, but that’s all he needs. He’s also got this condition called Chiari malformation that throws his perception off sometimes and makes things look taller or shorter or bigger or smaller. It’s fine most of the time, but being in public can be difficult sometimes. When he was 25, Brian moved back down to Texas and finished up college while working as a line cook. After Brian got his BA degree, he worked as a special needs teacher at a high school. He had 20 students and 12 assistants. It was a really fun job, except for the violent students (most of the students were the sweetest). While doing that, Brian got his MFA. He started sending out fiction and getting published. He published a book of stories, Short Bus, which made him really happy, and now he is an English instructor at South Texas College, where he is proud to work with the students and staff. Brian is also really proud of the books that he’s worked on at Boulevard and at Dark Sky—also, that he taught himself to juggle last summer. The best things are the things that are happening now. Brian’s happily married now. He met his second wife in a biker bar when she punched him so hard that he saw a bit of light. She kicks ass. A bit after the punch, they were holding hands. Also, she understands him. They have a two-year-old girl named Georgia who is perfect—and they have two dogs and two cats (Boo, Tyke, Wilson, Lola)—and Brian is really proud of having a family. He’s really proud that he can be proud of these things, because for 26 years he was a fucking mess.

Writers in Baltimore Schools

2011-04-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a benefit reading for Writers in Baltimore Schools. It's on Wednesday, April 20th, @ 6pm in Mudd Hall at Johns Hopkins University. It's with Alice McDermott, Ron Tanner, Danielle Evans, Jean McGarry, and Elissa Weissman. And it's, you know, for a good cause.

[Click on the photo for more details.]

The Animation of Us

2011-04-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

Us from Michael Kimball on Vimeo.

Luca Dipierro's beautiful and heartbreaking animation -- based on a single sentence from Us. Preorders are open at Tyrant Books.

#290 Catherine Lacey: She Fit Right In Once She Got There

2011-04-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Catherine Lacey was born in 1985 and grew up in Mississippi, which generally confuses people. She doesn't have an accent, though she did as a child. She was a weird kid and knew she was weird. The other kids often had no idea what she was talking about. In the South, one way to be seen as normal is through the church, so she clung to that—and to community theater, where many southern weirdos end up. At church, she sang in the choir, including a few solos, which felt important. For a while, Catherine felt like she was a favorite of God's and that it would be good if she contracted a sudden illness and died so she could go to Heaven. For high school, her grandfather sent her to boarding school, but not because she was a bad kid. She had more freedom there and a worldview that included church-less Sundays seemed pretty radical, but she still felt as if she would be metaphysically punished if she did some of the things that the other kids were doing. That fall, Catherine’s parents split up and, when she came home for Thanksgiving, everything was different. Her little sister moved down the street with her mom, but Catherine and her brother visited their dad's house. Catherine grew up and stopped being religious. At some point, she had an atheist or agnostic boyfriend. At Loyola University in New Orleans, Catherine double majored in English and visual art. She was living there when Katrina happened, and was going to stay through the whole thing, but evacuated at the last minute. She ended up in Chicago for a semester and slept on box springs in a sunroom with a space heater. She coped with the relocation by becoming a workaholic. At the end of 2005, Catherine moved back to New Orleans, which was so strange post-Katrina. Her apartment had been destroyed and her new apartment was in a neighborhood where barely anybody lived. She got a job in the kitchen at Whole Foods despite having no qualifications because there were very few people back in town. At Loyola the next semester, Catherine had a professor who encouraged her to write creative nonfiction and to apply to graduate schools. Besides, writing fiction in post-Katrina New Orleans seemed impossible. After that, Catherine did a nonfiction MFA at Columbia on a fellowship, which meant moving to New York, which was something she never wanted to do, but she fit right in once she got there. Catherine’s first apartment was a semi-legal sublet in the East Village from a famous artist, which was cheap and awesome. The next year, she moved in with some Italian jazz musicians in Crown Heights. Catherine loved Columbia and wrote a book about growing up in the Protestant South, but it sucked so she threw it away and wrote it again. Around this time, Catherine kind of lost her mind and went to New Zealand for a few months. It didn't seem crazy at the time, but going to New Zealand as soon as possible for as long as possible seemed really important, so she went. She financed the trip by donating her eggs twice, which was pretty weird. It made her hysterically emotional and she cried on the subway a lot. She felt like she was everybody’s mother. In New Zealand, Catherine hitchhiked and worked on farms. When Catherine went back to NYC, she moved into a house in downtown Brooklyn, started renovating it with friends, and opened a bed and breakfast there. The people she lives with have become a kind of family to her and she now has a boyfriend who is a photographer. Catherine plans to keep writing and figuring stuff out as she goes.

The 1-Hour MFA (in fiction)

2011-04-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

I'm doing my 1-Hour MFA (in fiction) talk at Conversations and Connections: Practical Advice on Writing, which is in DC on April 16. My talk is at 3:45, but there's a whole day of great people talking about writing--including Steve Almond, Rae Bryant, Matt Bell, Amber Sparks, Tara Laskowski, Adam Robinson, Mike Young, Susan Muaddi-Darraj, Lalita Noronha, Eugenia Kim, Marita Golden, Dan Brady, Will Grofic, Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson, Cathy Alter, Matt Kirkpatrick, Randall Brown, Steve Himmer, Dylan Landis, Eric Goodman, Janice Shapiro, Robin Black, Leslie Pietrzyk, Mark Drew, Mark Cugini, Reb Livingson, Kim Kupperman, Dan Cafaro, Molly Gaudry, Erin Fitzgerald, Susan McCallum Smith, and Dave Housley.

Us @ The Next Best Book Club

2011-04-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

There's a really nice early review of Us at The Next Best Book Club. The good Lori Hettler says, "Michael Kimball has blown me away with his upcoming release Us -- a beautiful, heart-wrenching novel." Plus, she pulled one of my favorite bits as an excerpt.

Preorders are open at Tyrant Books.

#288 Stephen Graham Jones: He Lived and Died by Def Leppard

2011-04-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

Stephen Graham Jones was born in Midland, Texas in 1972. As an infant, he got knocked out by a ceiling when a family friend threw him too high into the air and, before he was even one, he had more than 100 stitches in his face. Another time, the fire department had to be called to get his head unstuck from the highchair. It’s so easy to get hurt. When Stephen was 4, he got lost in Carlsbad Caverns and was found by this blond woman who said she could be his mom if he wanted. Before and after that, his childhood was dry and loud—with lots of pecans and lots of dogs and more stitches. The family was always moving—always different houses and different schools and different situations. In school, teachers were always after him for something—the way he wore his t-shirts, the way his boots smelled from feeding, the way he smiled, sometimes his long hair. When Stephen was maybe 12, his dad came through town and dropped off a Remington 870, Stephen’s first gun. For days, he stood out in a cotton field trying to figure out how to shoot it. Around this time, his 7th grade teacher died—the last teacher to believe in him—and there weren't any others after that. By that point, Stephen was ready to blow holes in the world. Once, he had to have his tongue sewn back into his mouth. Another time, Stephen ate 14 hamburgers in a single sitting, but now he can't remember the last time he ate one. He used to drink tall glasses of water before meals just to feel full. One year, he grew 13 inches. In high school, Stephen only wanted to play basketball, but he got kicked off a team that went on to be state champions. He didn't study anything or do any homework. He doesn’t remember taking any tests. One semester, he had 81 truancies. Once, he just sat on top of the school all day, but usually he played pool or worked on his truck or a friend's car. He raced his truck a lot. Sometimes, he went out shooting things. He lived and died by Def Leppard. Louis L’amour saved his life by giving him something to read and Hacky Sack saved his life by giving him something to focus on (and he still plays whenever he can). Eventually, Stephen received his diploma from an alternative school. Then he went to college even though he wasn’t supposed to. That’s where he met his wife, freshman year, at the edge of a parking lot, which changed his life. She was just who he’d been looking for and he still finds her every day. In 1991, Stephen ran a 5-minute mile while carrying a snake. For graduate school, he flipped a coin—philosophy or English. In 1994, in a jail cell, a guy named TJ saved his life. Stephen ended up with some brain damage to his visual cortex, but he’s all rewired now. Stephen started writing a month or two after that, when he could. In 1996, he saw Scream and that reminded him of everything that he'd loved growing up and it made him realize that it could be that way again. Horror movies are worlds that make sense, contained systems where bad acts are punished and good acts rewarded. Now, Stephen and his wife have a couple of kids. His wife doesn’t need to read his books because she sees right through them to him. He still has a lot of dogs and he has a lot of knives. Stephen has always trusted knives (but not guns) and he cuts himself a few times with each new knife so they can get to know each other. Stephen likes to wear boots, probably too much, and he likes to get lost. He likes his bikes, which he rides because basketball trashed his knees. Stephen wishes that he could meet his wife again for the first time and that he had every single moment of his kids' lives on a better Rolodex in his head.

[Note: More Stephen Graham Jones.]

My Brain Kept Going in the Machine: Blake Butler

2011-04-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

I have an interview with Blake Butler up at The Faster Times. We talk about There Is No Year, the space on the page, being receptive, doubling, and a possible sequel.

More interviews @ The Faster Times: Gary Lutz, Blake Butler, Laura van den Berg, Brian Evenson, Robert Lopez, Dylan Landis, Padgett Powell, Sam Lipsyte, Dawn Raffel, Kevin Sampsell, Gina Frangello, Evan Lavender-Smith, Ken Sparling, Matt Bell, Ingrid Burrington, Andy Devine, and Jessica Anya Blau, Deb Olin Unferth, and Susan Henderson.

A Devastatingly Beautiful Portrait

2011-03-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderful early review of Us by the good Michael Goroff at the Barn Owl Review in which he calls the novel a "devastatingly beautiful portrait of a human being losing the person who matters to him most." Many thanks to Michael and to Mary Biddinger.

There's also an except from Us called Home Things up in the first anniversary issue of Corium. Many thanks to Lauren Becker.

Preorders are open at Tyrant Books.

Us

2011-03-17T11:11:00.001-07:00

I think that I love this book more than any of my other books. I had more fun writing Dear Everybody, but writing Us changed me in fundamental way. The novel was first published in the UK, South Africa, and Australia in 2005. The Spanish translation came out last fall and there is an Italian translation in the works. I couldn't be happier that it is now getting its American release with Tyrant Books, where pre-orders are now open. Thank you, Gian.

The Fear that You're Broken in Some Way

2011-03-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have an interview with Susan Henderson up at The Faster Times. We talk about Up from the Blue, frame stories, writing from a child's perspective, and writing about depression.

More interviews @ The Faster Times: Gary Lutz, Blake Butler, Laura van den Berg, Brian Evenson, Robert Lopez, Dylan Landis, Padgett Powell, Sam Lipsyte, Dawn Raffel, Kevin Sampsell, Gina Frangello, Evan Lavender-Smith, Ken Sparling, Matt Bell, Ingrid Burrington, Andy Devine, Jessica Anya Blau, and Deb Olin Unferth.

Αγαπητέ όλοι

2011-02-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

I'm very excited about this one, Αγαπητέ όλοι, the Greek translation of Dear Everybody.

#280 Brin-Jonathan Butler: Boxing and Happiness

2011-02-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

Brin-Jonathan Butler was born in Vancouver, the son of a Gypsy mom from Budapest and Dutch lawyer dad. He was a really happy kid until he was about 11 years old. That was when a group of kids tricked him into going to the woods to see a fight. He didn’t realize he was about to be beaten up and swarmed by a huge crowd of kids. He just remembers a lot of feet coming at him and a hailstorm of phlegm. That attack left him afraid to leave his house for 3 years. When he was 13, Brin started riding the school bus with one girl even though he lived a block from school. He was afraid to talk to her, but he watched her read her book everyday. That was about the only thing that kept him going for a few years. Later on, Brin wrote his first book about that bullying incident and the girl he stalked on the bus. A decade after he last saw the girl on the bus, she found him on Facebook and asked for a copy of the book. After reading it, she flew over from Europe and wanted to get married. That was weird. When Brin was 15, he caught a Mike Tyson interview on TV where he talked about being bullied growing up and the books he was reading in solitary confinement. The next day, Brin went two places he'd never been: a library and a boxing gym. He read about Tyson's life and how he'd been serially picked on for being a sensitive kid (and, 15 years later, Brin sat in Mike Tyson's living room thanking him for saving his life by introducing him to boxing and books). Brin’s first day in a boxing ring, he was knocked unconscious, but it was less scary than showing up to the gym in the first place so he went back. Boxing taught him that cowards and heroes feel the same, but act differently with those feelings. At 20, Brin became obsessed with Cuba, a place where books and boxing meant more than anywhere else. He trained under Olympic coaches in Cuba and boxed as an amateur light-heavyweight. For a couple of summers, he hustled speed chess in the park (Bobby Fischer was always a hero of his) before teaching boxing to support writing fiction and making films. Brin met his wife on Facebook and propositioned her the moment he saw her photo on a friend's page. She had on a furry ski hat and a strange in-between expression. He asked her to fly to Vancouver and when she didn't write back he called her in Manhattan and asked what time he was picking her up at the airport. They spoke for an hour and he called back the next day. 3 days later she flew over. In 2000, Brin visited Cuba and discovered a haunting and beautiful place. Brin has spent the last 11 years going back as often as he could and he knows less about it now than when he first visited. Right now, he’s directing a film about a Cuban boxer who left his home and family to shipwreck into the America Dream and working on a memoir about his time in Cuba. He’s happy and excited to find out what happens next in New York City.

[You can read about Brin’s meeting with Mike Tyson and other writings here, as well as more about his documentary at Hero, Traitor, Madness. You can find out about taking boxing lessons with Brin here.]

You Must Use a Filter!

2011-02-07T09:37:00.001-08:00

I have an interview with Deb Olin Unferth up at The Faster Times. We talk about Revolution, writing fiction versus writer memoir, earnestness, irony, running, and the necessity of using a filter.

More interviews @ The Faster Times: Gary Lutz, Blake Butler, Laura van den Berg, Brian Evenson, Robert Lopez, Dylan Landis, Padgett Powell, Sam Lipsyte, Dawn Raffel, Kevin Sampsell, Gina Frangello, Evan Lavender-Smith, Ken Sparling, Matt Bell, Ingrid Burrington, Andy Devine, and Jessica Anya Blau.

The Zoo Reading

2011-02-02T10:35:00.001-08:00

I'm reading at an AWP off-site event at the ZOO -- Friday, February 4, 2pm. It's with Stephanie Barber & Matt Bell & Blake Butler & Amelia Gray & Alec Niedenthal & Alexis Orgera & Timothy Sanders & Deb Olin Unferth & Colin Winnette & Joseph Young. It's with Tigers and Polar Bears and Gorillas. Come see the animals. Come hear the stories.

Pear Noir!

2011-01-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

I have a new piece called "Overdosing on Aspirin" from the new novel that I've been working on in the new Pear Noir!, #5, along with a bunch of other good folks: Caren Beilin, Rosebud Ben-Oni, B.J. Best, Crispin Best, Sarah Bridgins, Sean Burke, Jordan Castro, Kevin Catalano, Kim Chinquee, Heather Cox, Laura E. Davis, Stephanie Dickinson, Jacqueline Doyle, Corey Eastwood, Gabe Durham, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Sheila Heti, Katie Inlander, Peter Kispert, Peter Tieryas Liu, Steve McGouldrick, Jen Michalski, Kevin Moffett, M.V. Montgomery, Dolan Morgan, Jon Mueller, Matt Siegel, Zack Strait, J. Erin Sweeney, Abigail Templeton-Greene, Richard Thomas, and Jasmine Dreame Wagner. Many thanks to the good Daniel Casebeer.

A Realist Who Exaggerates a Little

2011-01-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have an interview with Jessica Anya Blau up at The Faster Times. We talk about undercover cops, Christmas letters, using families for fiction, and Drinking Closer to Home, etc.

More interviews @ The Faster Times: Gary Lutz, Blake Butler, Laura van den Berg, Brian Evenson, Robert Lopez, Dylan Landis, Padgett Powell, Sam Lipsyte, Dawn Raffel, Kevin Sampsell, Gina Frangello, Evan Lavender-Smith, Ken Sparling, Matt Bell, Ingrid Burrington, and Andy Devine.

#226 Greg Santos: A Romantic and a Traditional Gentleman

2011-01-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Greg Santos was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1981. His birth parents were Cambodian, but he was adopted when he was 4 months old by his Spanish Mom and Portuguese Dad. Greg was an only child and had a happy childhood. His parents gave him so much love and support. The family lived on a cul-de-sac, had bonfires, ate s'mores, played hide-and-seek, and built snow forts. Greg traveled a lot with his parents when he was younger—Scotland, Egypt, Martinique, Spain, Portugal, England, France, Mexico, Italy, Greece—but he doesn’t remember as much about those places as he wishes. Also, Greg owned a pet rock, had Sea Monkeys, and an imaginary flea circus. As a teenager, after watching The X-Files, Greg wanted to be a paranormal investigator in the worst way. Once, Greg saw a UFO (he swears). After that, he started The Bureau for the Investigation of the Unexplained and made his hair look like David Duchovny's. When Greg was 16, his father died. That Halloween, Greg dressed up in white face paint and a black trench coat like The Crow. He went to school that way because he didn't know what else to do. He still misses his dad. Eventually, though, Greg found solace in art, music, poetry, and, especially, theater. The idea that he could be somebody else was comforting. In college, he majored in drama and minored in English. In college, Greg also met Maryn (he was sick at the time and she gave him tea). After that, they dated for 7 years. Greg is a romantic and a traditional gentleman (for instance, he makes an effort to wear shirts with collars). Greg loved acting, but, eventually, he realized that he didn't want to speak somebody else's words. So Greg went back to school for a second degree in creative writing, which is how he caught the poetry bug, which is what took him to The New School for his MFA. Poetry allows Greg to write down thoughts he wouldn’t say out loud and make them into art. Once, he took lessons on how to be a clown and a stuntman. Also, Greg collects wind-up toys, antique books, small erasers that look like things, and nearly anything to do with elephants. Greg knows the professional wrestling isn’t real, but he still watches it, which his wife doesn’t understand. That is, Greg and Maryn are married. She is brilliant and makes him laugh. She is a classical beauty and his best friend. Greg is the poetry editor of pax americana and works for the New Haven Reads Community Book Bank, which provides free books and free after school tutoring. It makes Greg happy that he gets to spread the gospel of poetry—writing, teaching, and editing. He loves his life and his Maryn.

[Update: Last summer, Greg Santos and his wife welcomed their first child, Rosemary, to the world. In the fall, they all moved to Paris, France, where Greg joined the editorial staff of the Paris-based literary journal, Upstairs at Duroc. The other great news is that Greg's debut poetry collection, The Emperor's Sofa, is now out from DC Books. You can also read his ebook, Thinking Things Through, which was published by Pangur Ban Party in 2009.]

Vouched

2011-01-11T14:36:00.001-08:00

The good Christopher Newgent did an awful interview with Andy Devine, which is how they do interviews at Vouched. So there's that. Also, Andy will be reading in the Vouched Presents reading series on January 15th with a killer lineup--Sean Lovelace, Aaron Burch, and Matt Bell. This announcement is brought to you as part of Being Andy Devine.

Flow

2011-01-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

Joe Brainard on writing his great book, I Remember: "I am way, way up these days over a piece I'm writing ... I feel like I'm not really writing it but it is because of me that it is being written. I also feel that it is about everybody else as much as it is about me. And that pleases me. I mean, I feel like I am everybody. And it's a nice feeling." That's how I'm feeling these days. I hope you are too.

It Was a Good Year

2010-12-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here is my year in words, by the numbers.

44 publications in magazines and anthologies.
20 interviews of other writers.
16 readings.
12 readings by my pseudonym, Andy Devine.
11 screenings of films.
10 interviews of me.
2 translations: Dear Everybody in Korean, How Much of Us There Was in Spanish.
1 documentary, 60 Writers/60 Places.
1 paperback, Dear Everybody.
1 book under a pseudonym, Andy Devine's Words.

Andy Devine Does Teleportal

2010-12-13T22:06:00.000-08:00

After reading in two places at once on November 14th (Champaign and NYC), Andy Devine needed a little recovery time, but Being Andy Devine, the national book tour for WORDS, just passed through Austin, Texas for the Teleportal Readings, which was part of the Indie Lit Roadshow. Many thanks to the wonderful Jess Sauer for organizing, and, as always, to brilliant Andy Devine for being Andy Devine. Here is Andy's reading from Teleportal, which had to be recorded in a van outside the venue because of legal reasons.

Andy Devine Does Teleportal... from Monofonus Press on Vimeo.

The National Indie Lit Roadshow

2010-12-09T10:36:00.001-08:00

The Baltimore wing of the National Indie Lit Roadshow is an open house thingy that is sponsored by Monumental People and Publishing Genius and JMWW and probably some other book people. It's running at 24 East Mount Vernon Place between 11 and 8. There will be great book shopping, drinky drinks, cash money poker, and a couple reading samplers (at 2pm and 7pm). I'll be reading something brand new as part of the 2pm sampler and then running the poker game. Click on the flyer for bigger details.

Devine Remix

2010-12-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, below, Robert Kloss is doing a series of remixes at Necessary Fiction this month. Up today is the Andy Devine story, Plots, which is from WORDS, which Publishing Genius published earlier this year.

Being Andy Devine

2010-12-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

After reading in two places at once on November 14th (Champaign and NYC), Andy Devine needed a little recovery time, but Being Andy Devine, the national book tour for WORDS, continues in Portland on December 9th at the Smalldoggies Reading Series--along with Tom De Beauchamp, Jackie Treiber, Michael Roberts, and musical guest Antique Summer. Thanks to Matty Byloos and Carrie Seitzinger for organizing and hosting.

#141 The Great Abundance of Steve Katz

2010-12-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

Steve Katz was born in the Bronx in 1935 and grew up in Washington Heights. It was a classic NYC childhood—playing ball, chewing Double Bubble, and hanging out in the park. When he was 9, Steve says that he took his sled to the park across the street and noticed everybody looking up into the sky at a bright lozenge of light. He says that he became transfixed by it too and was transported up into that lozenge of light. He says that that 9-year-old boy is still up there in the light (quite content that he never grew old) and that the Steve Katz who is talking to me is the alias Steve Katz, who has written some books and screenplays. After that, Steve attended Cornell University where he met his wife who was beautiful, the rodeo queen of Winnemucca, and a great sculptor. In 1957, he worked for the forestry service as a lookout with his wife, the result of which was their first child. They lived in Italy in the late 50’s and early 60’s with their 3 sons until Steve felt like he was losing his language. (Language is an imperfect medium for representing whatever you think of as reality.) The family moved back to the US and Steve took a teaching job at Cornell. They were married 14 years and Steve’s girlfriend, after the separation helped with the divorce papers. Steve never liked going to school, but taught creative writing and literature at a number of universities until he retired from the University of Colorado in 2003. What else? One great thing he was happy he did was buy a place in Cape Breton in 1971, which was gorgeous and peaceful; he lived there in a tee-pee for many years until he built a cabin in 1988. Also, Steve says that your body gets ridiculous as you get older, but its self-destruction puts you closer to your spirit. Further, Steve was one of the founders of Fiction Collective. And the books? Steve has written and published continuously since the self-published novella, THE LESTRIAD in 1962—including THE EXAGGGERATIONS OF PETER PRINCE (3 g's intentional), SAW, WIER & POUCE, SWANNY’S WAYS, ANTONELLO’S LION, and KISSSSSS: A MISCELLANY. The critic, Jerome Klinkowitz, says he “…pushed innovation farther than any of his contemporaries.” Steve currently lives in Denver, Colorado, where he is working on his MEMOIRRHOIDS (pain in the ass memories), of which there will be 137 (which physicists call god’s number, the fine structure constant, as it appears in all transactions between matter and light), which includes an unresolved decimal.

[Update: Steve Katz just published Time's Wallet (Counterpath Press), a memoir written in 137 discrete pieces alled memoirrhoids.]

Necessary Fiction: Remix

2010-12-03T11:20:00.001-08:00

Robert Kloss is doing a series of remixes at Necessary Fiction this month. Up today is my story -- "The Birds, the Light, Eating Breakfast, Getting Dressed, and How I Tried to Make It More of a Morning for My Wife" (which originally appeared in Open City #20 and is actually an except from HOW MUCH OF US THERE WAS, which Tyrant Books is bringing out in the spring) -- and then Robert's remix, which removes the context to create a different tone. I remix one of his later this month.

#155 Jason Stumpf Loves It All

2010-11-30T11:38:00.000-08:00

Jason Stumpf was born in Cookeville, Tennessee. When Jason was 6, his father died, which was as hard as one might think and it shaped, consciously and unconsciously, all of his relationships and his sense of who he is. Jason’s mother did a wonderful job raising his sister and him. She tried to make sure that whatever limitations she faced did not keep Jason from being himself and pursuing his interests. The family house was not a sad place. It was very ordinary, which was all due to his mother. At 10, he began studying music—classical guitar and renaissance lute. Music seemed like a kind of magic, a secret language with its own form of writing. For high school, Jason went to McCallie, a boarding school on a scholarship, an all-male school that offered Jason incredible academic opportunities. He’s really grateful for that. It was a very different social atmosphere than what Jason came from. Kids were socially and politically very conservative and they had a lot of money. Within this environment, Jason had to figure out who he was. Being at McCallie forced him to grow up some. Jason started writing in high school and was immediately taken by the idea of writing as a process. In college, he realized that he was better suited to writing than music (writing is a creative process; musical performance doesn’t offer the same opportunities for revision). After college, Jason worked a variety of jobs: graveyard-shift employee at a Russell Stover’s factory (2 days), library assistant in a music library (1 year), library assistant in a rare book and manuscript collection (a little more than 1 year), graduate student at an MFA program (2 years), and adjunct professor of English at Providence College (4 years). In 2001, while Jason was working in the rare books collection, the library put on an exhibition to celebrate the release of James Merrill’s collected poems. Graduate students wrote catalogue articles for the exhibition and Margaret Avery Funkhouser co-wrote a piece on some wallpaper that Merrill had designed. Very soon after, Jason and Margaret both realized that they might be in love. One day, Jason kissed Margaret and they have been together ever since. Margaret is an incredibly serious person, but also goofy, creative, caring, talented, quiet, and spirited. Jason loves that Margaret is so many things. Being around her, he has fun. He learns a lot. Now Jason teaches English at the Walnut Hill School, an arts high school outside of Boston that is almost nothing like the boarding school he attended growing up. He feels fortunate to be teaching there. He feels fortunate to be the father of his one-year-old son, Jonas (an anagram of Jason). Everything about being a father is really tough, but Jason loves it all, even how hard it is.

[Update: Jason Stumpf just published his first book, A Cloud of Witnesses, which "is a verse-novel that is not in verse and isn't a novel."]

Kim Chinquee Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard): #248 Shya Scanlon

2010-11-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

Shya Scanlon was born on July 29, 1975 in Augusta, Maine, and spent the first ten years of his life on a rural commune. This was the happiest time of his life: sheltered, idyllic, with nothing but fond memories. When he was ten, his family moved to Seattle, which was surreal and shocking, and he wasn’t prepared for the reality; he felt betrayed, and began to take it out on his brother Colin, these acts becoming his biggest regret. He was always very physical, until a mountain bike accident at 15, when he suffered a concussion and tests found a birth defect in his vertebrae. Surgery failed to correct the problem, and he wore a neck brace. He became more bookish, falling into an alternative crowd and writing, reading, doing drugs and smoking, petty crime: leading to a path of self-destruction. He felt above-the-law and kept spiraling. He dropped out of high school at the beginning of junior year, and when his parents were away on vacation, he broke into their car and drove to San Francisco, bought drugs, then drove to Rhode Island to sell them and make enough to fix the car, the excursion landing him in a juvenile detention center in Wisconsin. His parents’ response was a wake up call—Shya wasn’t in trouble, and he realized the impact he had on people he cared about, especially his brother, and he wanted to turn himself around. He eventually attended an alternative school, which provided him with the kind of opportunity he needed. He attended college in Indiana, but felt isolated and moved back to Seattle, where he studied German. He spent six months in Germany, but felt depressed and isolated, so eventually went back to Indiana and finished his degree at Earlham College. He picked up writing to be part of a girlfriend’s world, mostly poetry. At the end of college, he moved back to Seattle, stopped writing, then quit his job to write a book. He decided to move to New York, which meant for him a commitment to writing. He applied to Brown, lived in NY for a while, then met his girlfriend, Erin, who worked for Jane magazine. He was accepted to Brown, moved to Providence, and when Jane folded, Erin moved to Providence with him. He couldn’t deny the truth: her “amazing force of good,” her joy, and the vitality in everything she does. He lives with her now, and in NY again, where he writes and does freelance editing. He’s most proud of his decision to reorient his life path, and of his book Forecast, and hopes to someday make a living from his writing.

[Update: Shya Scanlon’s book of poems, In this alone impulse, is now available from Noemi Press and his first novel, Forecast, has officially launched. Plus, Shya is now co-editing Monkeybicycle and is the Fiction Reviews Editor at The Nervous Breakdown. Also, here's his YouTube channel.]

[Note: You can read Kim Chinquee's postcard life story here.]

Smile Politely, Andy Devine

2010-11-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

There's a nice conversation with and around Andy Devine and his national tour, Being Andy Devine, at Smile Politely. It includes his publisher, Adam Robinson, his editor (me), as well as writer Aaron Burch, the host of Stories & Beer, where Andy Devine will be reading on November 14th. At the same time on the same day, November 14th, Andy Devine will also be reading at the Soda Series in NYC, with Mairéad Byrne, Daniel Groves, Stephanie Barber, and Adam Robinson.

Plus, there's a really nice post by Tom DeBeauchamp about reading Andy Devine's novel, Apartment City, over at Htmlgiant.

Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story

Us for City Paper's The Year In Books

Running

The Bomb Interview: My Mind Zooming In

Us Named a Top Ten Indie by Book Page

BIG RAY

Tin House: The Circumstances of My Birth

BIG RAY

Matter Press: Compressed Forms

LitLive @ MICA

#299 Matty Byloos: Absolutely Everything Right Now

Fall for the Book

A Weird Kind of Beauty

What Are Some of the Best Books of the Year?

Reading @ Rosemont College, Philadelphia

The Fall 510 Readings

This Was Pretty Nice

#298 Michael Davidson: How Dangerous He Can Be to Himself

Me and Us on WYPR

The Beautiful Sadness of Impermanence

Franklin Park + InDigest

Five Lit Things + The Paris Review

The Kindle Us

Franklin Park Reading Series

Fiddleback #5

Welcome to the Golden Age

Freerange Nonfiction

Rain Taxi, Birdsong, Momentary Melodies

Michael Kimball Will Not Back Down

Almost Everyone Is Ready

Used Furniture

Anything Could Be a Story

BIG RAY to Bloomsbury

Oprah Says Really Nice Things About Us

The Playlist for Us at Largehearted Boy

All the Characters Are Versions of Myself

Be Brave on the Page

The Book Made It Happen

A Personal Review (of sorts) of Us

A Breathless Humanity

Time Out New York on Us

As If We Are Not Ourselves

Lily Hoang on Us @ Htmlgiant

Don't Give Up

Two Stories @ Bomb

Nathan Martin Interviews Me at Room 220

Us at Creative Loafing

Dirty Southern Cross Tour

New Pages

Top 10 Best Modern Literary Love Stories

Time Out Chicago on Us

Big Other

Laughing Yeti: Where the Sadness and the Love Exist

Urbanite: When Us Becomes Me

Write Up of KGB

Flavorpill: Devastingly Sad

Us Might Break Your Heart, But It's the Good Kind of Break

All the Characters Are Versions of Myself

An Excerpt from Us in The Collagist

The Faster Times: Achingly Beautiful

Such a Painful Softness

Elliot Feels His Feelings

5.10.11 Pub Day for Us

Two Nice Reviews of Us

Psychology Today: One True Thing

Nice Review of Us at Corduroy Books

Us: Release Party

Anonymous Love Letters / Don't Give Up

#282 Robin Black: Growing Up Unhappy and Becoming Happier in a Way that Makes Unhappy People Feel Like They Can Become Happier Too

Best Man

Dear Everybody in Korean

#293 Brian Allen Carr: The Best Things Are Happening Now

Writers in Baltimore Schools

The Animation of Us

#290 Catherine Lacey: She Fit Right In Once She Got There

The 1-Hour MFA (in fiction)

Us @ The Next Best Book Club

#288 Stephen Graham Jones: He Lived and Died by Def Leppard

My Brain Kept Going in the Machine: Blake Butler

A Devastatingly Beautiful Portrait