Fall, 2008, the Tin House Political Issue

***********

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Literary Arts just announced the winners of the 2007 Oregon Book Awards and Lee Montgomery, Editorial Director of Tin House Books and Executive Editor of Tin House was the winner of the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction for her memoir The Things Between Us (Free Press).

One of the judges, Lee Gutkind, described Montgomery’s work as “vivid and riveting like cinema” and praised her ability to craft “real-life characters with evocative sensitivity.”

Congratulations to Lee!!

*********** 

See how Stephen King turned his short story, "Memory" from Tin House #28 into a novel

On the Amazon.com page for Stephen King's new novel, Duma Key Chuck Verrill, King's longtime editor, discusses how the story was expanded from what Tin House subscribers read into what will surely be King's next bestseller. Also, you can read the full text of "Memory" alongside the first chapter of the book. Check it out.

********** 

FANTASTIC FANTASY

********** 

TIN HOUSE MAGAZINE WRITERS GUIDELINES ADDITION

Writers' manuscripts must have the page number and the authors' names on each page, starting with the title page, as well as the word “end” on the final page of the submission. Further, on their cover letter, writers must indicate whether the story is fiction or nonfiction.

For more guidelines, check http://www.tinhouse.com/mag/mag_submit.htm.

********** 

O. Henry Winners

Congratulations to three authors whose stories appearing in Tin House have been selected for inclusion in the O. Henry Prize Stories for this year. They are: Anthony Doerr's Village 113,"  Yiyun Li's "Prison," and Alexi Zentner's "Touch." 

The O. Henry Prize Stories is an annual collection of the year's twenty best stories published in U.S. and Canadian magazines, written in the English language.

**********

International Dublin Impac Literary Award

 
Per Petterson's novel Out Stealing Horses, an excerpt of which appeared in Tin House Number 30, received the International Dublin Impac Literary Award.

**********

Best American Nonrequired Reading

Stephen Elliott's essay "Where I Slept" (Tin House Number 30) has been chosen for Best American Nonrequired Reading.

**********

A TIN HOUSE STORY REBORN...

Steve Almond's story, "Soul Molecule" (Tin House Number 11) is now an animated short on YouTube. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbIjr_HEbs 

********** 

Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories

William Gay's story, “Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You?” (Issue Number 26) has been selected for Best American Short Stories, edited by Stephen King, and Best American Mystery Stories, edited by Carl Hiaasen.

********* 

Best American Essays 2007

David Foster Wallace has picked Jo Ann Beard's essay "Werner" from the "Graphic" issue for Best American Essays 2007.

 **********

Best New American Voices 2008

Congratulations to Sharon May whose story, "The Wizard of Khao-I-Dang," was chosen by Richard Bausch for "Best New American Voices 2008." The story first appeared in Tin House issue # 25.

**********

Book Forum reviews Girl Factory, by Jim Krusoe:

As strangely whimsical as it is macabre, this tale could easily have become an on-the-run-from-the-law picaresque or an animal rights satire, but in Krusoe’s spirited hands it humbly fades into the backdrop, as the real story, far more sinister and equally madcap, unfolds...he is never heavy-handed—his writing is too unpretentious, his characters too wonderfully peculiar...We never learn, for instance, who the women are or how they came to be in their tubes. But this, too, underscores one of Krusoe’s themes: that life, unlike most stories, leaves so much unknowable. And this makes Girl Factory the best kind of novel—a wildly imagined tale with its own rules. A word of warning, however: You may never look at your yogurt the same way again. 

Read the full review

"DESPICABLE" says New York Magazine

 The arbiter of taste for all things...New Yorky, has decreed in its Approval Matrix that the cover of Do Me, Tin House Book's anthology of Tales of Sex and Love, is indeed despicable.

That is "Highbrow Depsicable," however, not "Lowbrow." 

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Literary Arts just announced the winners of the 2007 Oregon Book Awards and Lee Montgomery, Editorial Director of Tin House Books and Executive Editor of Tin House was the winner of the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction for her memoir The Things Between Us (Free Press).

One of the judges, Lee Gutkind, described Montgomery’s work as “vivid and riveting like cinema” and praised her ability to craft “real-life characters with evocative sensitivity.”

Congratulations to Lee!

Publisher's Weekly reviews Saving Angelfish, by Michele Matheson:

Matheson's promising debut, a gritty novel from Tin House Books' New Voice Series, tells the bleak story of a wayward L.A. junkie named Max. Virtually disowned by her dysfunctional parents, out of a job, sickeningly underweight, months behind on rent and unable to kick her debilitating heroin habit, Max flits from day to depressing day in a constant state of decrepitude. When she's not shooting up, she's snorting coke, and when she's not doing that she's thinking about her next fix. Despite her spiraling decline and a number of near-death experiences, nothing really changes for Max throughout her story. Her dealers (Grandpops, her crusty, repulsive landlord; and Carlotta, a beastly legless woman) and fellow junkies (Wolf and a roller-skating waif named Tutu) share Max's single-minded pursuit of getting high. Though initially mesmerizing, the drug-centric plot begins to ware a little thin; the crux of the book can be found in Max's unchanging attitude toward her life: "The goal is not to think-about anything. She winds up places, and that's fine." Nonetheless, Matheson's sharp, highly detailed prose thrusts readers in the driver's seat of an out-of-control life.

********* 

LOS ANGELES TIMES NEW DISCOVERIES!

Food & Booze:
Essays and Recipes Edited by Michelle Wildgen, illustrated by Nicole J. Georges, Tin House Books: 226 pp., $16.95

“MOSTLY booze. Thank God. Maybe it's coming back. Or maybe it's just that, as Chris Offut writes in his contribution to this marvelous essay collection, "[t]here are two kinds of writers, you will hear people say, the ones who drink and the ones who quit." Then again, Offut's recipe is for baked possum; who wouldn't rather have a drink? Elissa Schappell, in "Ode to a Martini," quotes Dorothy Parker: "I like to have a martini / Two at the very most / After three I'm under the table, / After four I'm under my host." Lydia Davis, in "Eating Fish Alone" (one imagines a raccoon washing its paws in the river and looking anxiously about), provides a recipe for a smelly sardine sandwich. Sara Perry's essay on the apple is a walk in the park that begins with Eve, moves through Alice B. Toklas and ends with an uplifting recipe for pâte brisée and several versions of pie. "My first loaf sucks," reports Matthew Batt in "The Path of Righteousness," on his efforts at sourdough bread ("a Quonset-shaped loaf of despair"). "I feel like a soiled, unfaithful, pathetic man" ˜ this after having attempted a "nice brown sauce," inspired by Julia Child. These essays are pure fun, pure joy, every last honey-colored, 80-proof, diet-be-damned one of them ˜ and excellent attitude training for the coming holidays.”

********** 

Faculty, Applications!

We are happy to say that our faculty for 2008 has, for the most part, been posted on our site. We will be joined by guests Frank Bidart and Denis Johnson, whom we heartily congratulate for winning the National Book Award this year. This year sees many returning faces, with the welcome additions of Andrea Barrett, Walter Kirn, David Shields, Eileen Myles, Mary Jo Bang, and more to come. We'll stress again here the importance of applying early to insure you get to study with your first choice. We work on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

Applications. The new forms have been posted, and we will begin accepting them via snail mail January 1, 2008. 

                                            **********************

September 2007 News

PAULA WHYMAN (07, Karen Shepard) has been awarded a fellowship with VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts) and has been asked to contribute a story to an anthology edited by Richard Peabody, founder and editor of Gargoyle magazine. She will also have a story, "Driver's Education," included in a forthcoming anthology from The Hudson Review. She also received a 2008 Individual Artist Award for “artistic excellence from the Maryland State Arts Council.

TOBI COGSWELL (04, 05, 06, 07) will have her poem "I Know" published in the 07 issue of Eclipse and "New Year Tale" will appear in the Fall 07 issue of Spot Lit(erary) Mag(azine). She also has three poems ("Reckless Abandon," "Red Sequined Monkeys," and "Poste Restante") online at Verbsap. The 2007 issue of The Los Angeles Review features her poem, "The Dirty Joke." Her poem "After the Reception" is forthcoming in Sage Trail, and her poems "All She Can Do" and "How to Vanish" are forthcoming from Spot Lit(erary) (Mag)azine. Her poem, "World Cup Distance," will be forthcoming from Newport Review. Her poem "Nighttime Daytime" won honorable mention and "Just Once" won second prize in the Mona O'Connor Memorial Poetry contest by Southwest Manuscripters. Her poem, "Surrealist, Mon Amour," is in the SLEEPOVER issue of Prism Review, in honor of National Poetry Month. "Sad Kings and Sideways Fishes" has been accepted for the 2008 issue of Penumbra, and "Nighttime Daytime" and "Untitled" have been accepted for the Spring/Summer issue of the Homestead Review. Her poems "Try My Life", "Falling From the Sky" and "A Slice of Alice (page 1)" are forthcoming from Bellowing Ark.

PAMELA CROW's (07, Marie Howe) book of poems, "Inside This House," will be published by Main Street Rag press this month. It can be ordered online from their bookstore.

Andrew Roe (03, Peter Rock) has had fiction recently published in Glimmer Train, The Cincinnati Review, Salt Flats Annua, Avery Anthology and Failbetter.

Julie Dearborn (07, Abigail Thomas) will have essays on two online journals this fall, Somerset Review and Narrative.  

ALICIA GIFFORD ('03. '04, '06, '07) has a story entitled "At the Bar" in the current (Fall/Winter 2007) issue of Alaska Quarterly Review, and has an upcoming spoken word performance of four of her short stories (including two workshopped at Tin House Summer Workshops), produced by The New Short Fiction Series on May 9, 2007 at the Beverly Hills Library. Her short story (workshopped in '03 with JIM SHEPARD), "Toggling the Switch", originally published by Narrative Magazine and winning "The Million Writers Award" for Best Online Short Story of 2004, has been included in an ESL Textbook, Open Road Skills, 2nd Edition, published by Pearson-Longman in Canada, 2007. Her short story "Surviving Darwin" (originally published by The Barcelona Review) will be included in the 15th anniversary (and final) edition of The Best of Best of American Erotica 2008.

ALEX LEMON's ('05) second book of poems, Hallelujah Blackout, was just published. An excerpt of the title poem was selected by Charles Wright to be included in Best American Poetry 2008.

BENJAMIN PARZYBOK's ('05) novel, Couch, was picked up by Small Beer Press (run by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant www.lcrw.net). Here is the blurb: " Benjamin Parzybok's COUCH, in which three guys carry a couch across the
country in an exuberant and humorous debut reminiscent of The Life of Pi and Then We Came to the End, an episode of furniture moving gone awry becomes an impromptu quest of self-discovery, secret histories, and
unexpected revelations."

PAIGE CHANT ('07) has been accepted to the University of Washington's MFA program where she will begin her degree in the fall of '08.  

EILEEN CRONIN ('07) will have an excerpt from a longer work of nonfiction in Willard & Maple. A story of hers, too, recently appeared in the GW Review. Another excerpt of her memoir will also appear in the Bellevue Literary Review.    

JAN ELLISON ('06) has been recognized by the following for her work: 2007 O.Henry Prize for my first published story, The Company of Men; Special Mention, Fiction, 2008 Pushcart Prize anthology; 100 Distinguished stories list, appendix to Best American 2007 (edited by Stephen King).

TAREK CHEMALY's ('06) poem "the colors of wisdom" won the "Med Poets Society" juried show in February '08, and my blog Beirut/NTSC (Never Twice Same City) [www.beirutntsc.blogspot.com] was elected as one of the most influential in the Middle East by ArabAd magazine (www.arabadmag.com) in January '08.

SARA KIRSCHENBAUM (06. 07) has two poems, "900 Day Siege" and "Housewife," in Kalliope - a Journal of
Women's Literature and Art  Vol. XXIX No. 1. She also has a piece of creative nonfiction, "Blue Refuge," forthcoming from Poetica Magazine.

LAURA VAN DEN BERG (07) has a collection of stories, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, forthcoming from Dzanc Books in 2009. Also, the title story was recently picked up by One Story.

LIZ PRATO (06, 07) had her story "He Never Gave It to You Straight" chosen as a runner up for the Juked Fiction Prize by Frederick Bartheleme, and will be published in Issue #5. She currently has an essay in Subtropics, #4, and an interview with her on the Subtropics website. She has work forthcoming in Iron Horse Literary Review, Gertrude Press, and Massage & Bodywork Magazine.

GRETCHEN MCCULLOUGH (07, Steve Almond) has two stories up at Storysouth this issue. "The Best of Bad Luck" and "A Little Honey and a Little Sunlight."

SEAN CARMAN (07, Jim Shepard) has been blogging for Huffington Post and its sister political humor site 23/6 (www.236.com). My 23/6 blog can be found here: http://www.236.com/contributors/sean_carman/

PAUL AUSTIN (07, Abigail Thomas) has a memoir coming out in September of 2008. The working title is Something for the Pain: An ER Doctor's Story. The publisher is W.W. Norton.

DEBORAH LOTT (07) will have her story, "Looking for an Angle," published by the Alaska Quarterly Review in 2008.

CANDY SHUE (06, Matthea Harvey) has two poems, "I Could Google" and "Seven Year Itch" on poemeleon.com. Her "Advice for Travelers" appears on ToastedCheese.com. And Verbsap published her essay, "The Goldfish Farm."

                                        *****************************
 

September 2006 The latest from Tin House participants:

MONICA DRAKE (Anthony Swofford, '06) has a novel coming out with HAWTHORNE BOOKS this month! Her novel, CLOWN GIRL, is already selling like hotcakes so to get your copy (with an intro by Chuck Palahniuk) go to HAWTHORNEBOOKS.COM.

CATHERINE ALDEN's (Ron Carlson, '05) story "Sickness Can Do that to a Man" won the CHAUTAQUA LITERARY JOURNAL's short story contest due out in its April issue.

The first story from JANET FERENCE's (Whitney Otto, '05)novel has now come out in the Winter 2007 edition of FOLIO: A Literary Journal at American University, and a second is due to be published this year by TALKING RIVER.

After six years of working on her collection of stories, KATIE CROUCH (Karen Karbo, '06) signed a two book deal with LITTLE BROWN. Her first book, GIRLS IN TRUCKS, will hit the stores August 2007.

SCOTT DALGARNO’s (’06) poem “Mea Culpa Mea” is in the Summer 2006 issue of THE ANTIOCH REVIEW; also, The poem he workshopped with Matthea Harvey was just taken by YALE REVIEW. The poem is called, "Jesus Turns Up In Van Nuys, But His Number Is Still Unlisted."

JANET GILSDORF’s (’06) memoir, "Inside/Outside: A Physician's Journey with Breast Cancer" will be published by the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS in September, 06.Visit this site for details.

MYFANWY COLLINS (’06) has an essay in CREAM CITY REVIEW in Spring 2007 and a short story in THE KENYON REVIEW in Summer 2007.

PIA ERHARDT (’06) currently has a memoir piece up at narrativemagazine.com , as well as a piece in the Norton Anthology –NEW SUDDEN FICTION: SHORT-SHORT STORIES FROM AMERICA AND BEYOND. Her short story collection, FAMOUS FATHERS, will be published by MacAdam/Cage in Spring 2007; her novel, SPEEDING IN THE DRIVEWAY (also MacAdam/Cage) will be published in 2008.

EVELYN SHARENOV (’06) has been chosen as the Nonfiction Editor for the OREGON LITERARY REVIEW. She’s also reviewing a new book by Ursula Le Guin for THE OREGONIAN.

In May of 2006, the LOS ANGELES TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE, now called WEST, published a memoir piece of MONA GABLE’s (’05) that she’d workshopped last summer with Nick Flynn. The piece was called "Growth." She is also blogging now for THE HUFFINGTON POST, which won this year's Webby for best political blog. In the coming months her work will appear in WEST and http://salon.com.

UJUN EBERLEIN’s (’06) nonfiction piece, "A Hundred Years at 15," is now up on DRAGONFIRE in their current issue.

TOBI COGSWELL’s (’05, ’06) poems—“Precision Excision,” “Pantoum Gone Wrong,” “A Quiet Kiss,” “Lapses and Absences,” and “Saturday Afternoon” are in the Autumn issue of Hot Metal Press.

********** 

If you'd like to learn a little more about our Workshop Leaders, check out these sites: Aimee Bender: http://www.flammableskirt.com

Steve Almond: http://www.stevenalmond.com

D A Powell: http://www.poetryflash.org/archive.284.Witt.html

Dorothy Allison: http://www.salon.com/books/int/1998/03/cov_si_31intb.html

Jim Shepard: http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum146.php

Charles D'Ambrosio: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040614fa_fact4

Charles D'Ambrosio: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040614fa_fact4