I don’t make it a point to celebrate my birthday, usually, because birthdays just make me feel older and closer to death, and I love life. But this year, because I’m doing this writer-in-residence, I’m celebrating. I’m posting a story of my own, on this, the day of my birth. And that story is a…

It will perhaps be evident upon reading this that Matt DeBenedictis was once a preacher. I guess God’s call for Matt, though, was writing stories. + He said it was important, that it had to be now. He had to leave before the kids rustled from their slumber, before they began the morning processions to…

Reading like a series of short notes penned by a deranged fan to a message board on Ke$ha’s Family, taken individually, these pieces might read more like prose poems than flash fictions. But taken together, a character emerges, one far more interesting, even, than Ke$ha. Not only are these paragraphs funny, inventive, and full of…

This story by Matt Sailor is at once painful and hilarious, as it alternates from realtime realism detailing the beating, healing, and attempting to move on of a hate crime victim, and pseudo-academic analysis of The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire. You can never really get that image of Rob Lowe “playing” the saxophone…

I first accepted a story by Anna Schachner close to ten years ago, when I was fiction editor of a now-defunct print literary magazine out of Atlanta. I was impressed by Anna’s ability to distill a character within a situation by a simple gesture. Obviously, her powers haven’t just maintained but grown, as is obvious…

Everyone knows that there’s long been a tradition of great fiction coming out of the South. William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, etcetera. When most think of Southern fiction, I imagine they picture the white oak hollows of Yoknapatawpha County, and not the clogged freeways or crumbling surface streets of Atlanta. But here…

My month as writer-in-residence is coming to a close. I’ve very much enjoyed sharing some of my thoughts and concerns about global fiction as well as introducing the work of other global-minded writers to this magazine. I want to end with a bang, however, and so I’ve enlisted a wonderful Nigerian talent to address global…

I began my exploration of global fiction this month by posting the prologue to my novel-in-progress MIGRATORY ANIMALS, where we meet Flannery (and her fiancé Kunle) in Nigeria before she is forced to return to the United States. The below excerpt is from later in the book. After being dropped off at her East Austin…

This month, I’ve been presenting examples of global fiction—concerning Nigeria, Egypt, Afghanistan—as well as exploring the philosophical and practical challenges that come with writing it. These pieces have brought a lot to the table, in my opinion, but not too many laughs. Is there a role for humor in global fiction? For example, what might…

Today I want to look at the idea of “global fiction” from a more domestic angle, with an excerpt from the amazing Charlotte Gullick’s ONE–MAN RESERVATION. Her novel is set entirely in the United States, and yet because of the subject matter, it also explores how domestic events and decisions are interconnected with and affect…

Today I am so pleased to present an interview with the amazing Sarah Bird. She is a rare writer, one whose work is as popular as it is literary, as dark and insightful as it is laugh-out-loud funny. Find out more about her novels here: http://sarahbirdbooks.com. Bird’s ninth novel, Above The East China Sea (to…