This is now my favorite volume of the many, many Akashic Noir series. It’s a high quality collection without a dud in the bunch. A few things struck me. Three that I’ll talk about here. First, I was surprised to find so little crime in Mississippi Noir, edited by Tom Franklin. Does an actual crime have to take place for a story to be considered … Continue reading Mississippi Noir is for Lovers
Strike one up for the barbarian. So often, you just need the right story at the right time. I first read Cordwainer Smith last year and loved him. He’s excellent. However, the two I read for this round just didn’t do the trick. For some reason, Conan the Barbarian, did. The two by Robert E. Howard that I read for this round, “The God in … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories: Robert E. Howard vs. Cordwainer Smith
I’ve devoted this round of my tournament of short stories to science fiction and fantasy tales. I’ve just enough anthologies to make it interesting, though I’m going to stretch the genre to include magical realism and people who included some SF/F in their books. It may be a challenge, but it should be fun. Science fiction and fantasy, even at their darkest, are fun. For … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories SF/F Edition: Ted Chiang vs. The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Vol. VII
I know it’s a cop-out, but I can’t really pick a best this time. Raymond Carver and Elizabeth Hardwick are both masters of the short story. Anyone who loves the short story should read them both, read as much of them as you can. For this round I read “A Season’s Romance” and “The Oak and the Axe” by Elizabeth Hardwick and “Where I’m Calling From” and “The Train” by Raymond Carver. … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories II: Elizabeth Hardwick vs. Raymond Carver
I hope Kelly Link won’t be mad at me. Kelly Link has had several stories featured on my favorite short story podcast, Podcastle. If you’re a fan of fantasy/science fiction or just a fan of good, entertaining stories, you should be subscribing to Podcastle. I loved her featured zombie stories “The Hortlak” and “Some Zombie Contingencies Plans” neither of which is really about zombies. So when I … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories: Kelly Link vs. Raymond Carver
I never thought it would come to this. It’s not like I don’t still love Haruki Murakami. I do. Maybe not like I once did– maybe the honeymoon is finally over, though it lasted many years. Many, many terrific writers essentially write the same story over and over again. Some put the same narrator into slightly different situations but basically repeat themselves each time they … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories II–Murakami vs. Hardwick or “Goodbye, Haruki!”
Sometimes, it’s just not fair. I picked up a copy of Prize Stories 1995 from The O. Henry Awards somewhere, I don’t recall, probably a library book sale, thinking it would be fun to add a random assortment of good stories to my tournament. O. Henry Award winners, I thought, they’re probably all good.” So far they are. I read two for this round: “The Women … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories: Randall Jerrell’s Book of Stories vs. The O. Henry Awards 1995.
Last spring I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference in Los Angeles where I was very impressed by the quantity and the quality of small literary journals in the exhibit hall. There’s far more of them out there than you probably suspect. I had nearly no money to spend, no cash that is, and very few of the small presses … Continue reading The Santa Monica Review vs. The Pinch: A Tournament of Short Stories II Post
Two young men arrive at the home of a peasant woman. We hear you know many stories, they say. Will you tell them to us for the book we are writing. What follows is a wonderful collection of four stories, each perfect for the Brothers Grimm. Stories left out of their collected tales you might say. Two are set in places that seem very like … Continue reading Mother Tongues by Theodora Ziolkowski
How someone who is not really part of your life can be such a large part of your life. Francis Wyndham won the latest round in my little tournament of short stories, defeating two stories from African Writing Today. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to get around to writing this post–I’ve forgotten the African stories completely. I do remember that I liked them, … Continue reading “Jack” and “Ursula” by Francis Wyndham
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra is a linked collection of short stories set in less glamorous parts of Russia. I’m not exactly sure where, someplace far from Moscow, around Chechnya, I think. One of those cities built by Stalin to hold political exiles and their families. Enough people moved in and stayed long enough to bring about a semblance of home, … Continue reading The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
If you’re one of the many people out there hesitating before you try a Haruki Murakami novel, After the Quake may be just the book for you. Every so often, I read a comment from someone wondering where to start with Haruki Murakami. Wind-up Bird Chronicle or Kafka on the Shore? Both are fairly hefty novels which can intimidate people nervous about magical realism. The six stories weighing in … Continue reading Murakami for Beginners: After the Quake by Haruki Murakami
May Contain Spoilers 