Book Contributors
Steve Almond is the author of two story collections, My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow, the novel Which Brings Me to You (with Julianna Baggott), and the non-fiction book Candyfreak. His new book is a collection of essays, (Not That You Asked). He lives outside Boston with his wife and daughter Josephine, who can now make the noises of seven different farm animals. His on-line home is stevenalmond.com.
Aimee Bender is the author of 3 books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, An Invisible Sign of My Own, and Willful Creatures. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, Harper's, Tin House, The Paris Review and more, as well as heard on This American Life. She lives in L.A.
Kate Bernheimer is the author of two novels, The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold and The Complete Tales of Merry Gold. She has published a children's book called The Girl in The Castle inside The Museum and has edited two anthologies, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales and Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales. She edits the journal Fairy Tale Review.
Ryan Boudinot is the author of The Littlest Hitler and a novel forthcoming in the fall of 2009 from Grove Press. He teaches at Goddard College's MFA program in Port Townsend, Washington and lives in Seattle.
Judy Budnitz is the author of two story collections, Flying Leap and Nice Big American Baby, and a novel, If I Told You Once. Her stories have appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Prize Stories 2000: The O. Henry Awards, and elsewhere. She has received grants from the NEA and the Lannan Foundation, and has taught creative writing at Brown, Columbia, and Princeton.
Dan Chaon is the author of the novel You Remind Me of Me, a national bestseller, as well as two collections of short stories: Fitting Ends and Among the Missing, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award. A new novel, Await Your Reply, is forthcoming in 2009. Chaon's stories have appeared in many journals and anthologies including Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and the O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Cleveland, and teaches at Oberlin College.
Brock Clarke is the author of two novels (An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England and The Ordinary White Boy) and two short story collections (Carrying the Torch and What We Won’t Do). He has twice been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction. His fiction and essays have appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, One Story, Southern Review, Georgia Review, The New York Times, and New England Review; in the Pushcart Prize and New Stories from the South annual anthologies; and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. He is a 2008 NEA Fellow in Fiction, and teaches at the University of Cincinnati.
Michael Czyzniejewski grew up in and around Chicago. He received a BA from the University of Illinois and an MFA from Bowling Green State University, where he currently teaches and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Mid-American Review. Over fifty of his stories have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Southern Review, StoryQuarterly, American Short Fiction, and The Puschart Prize XXXI: Best of the Small Presses. His debut collection, Elephants in Our Bedroom, appeared earlier this year from Dzanc Books. He lives in Bowling Green with his wife and son.
Stuart Dybek is the author of three books of fiction: I Sailed With Magellan, The Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods. Both I Sailed With Magellan and The Coast of Chicago were New York Times Notable Books, and The Coast of Chicago was a One Book One Chicago selection. His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, The Atlantic, Poetry, Tin House, and many other magazines, and have been widely anthologized, including work in both Best American Fiction and Best American Poetry.
Michael Martone was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Antonya Nelson is the author of nine books of fiction, including Nothing Right (Bloomsbury; 2009). She teaches creative writing at the University of Houston and is married to fiction writer Robert Boswell.
Peter Orner was born in Chicago and is the author of the novel The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo and the short story collection Esther's Stories. His fiction has been published in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, McSweeney's, The Southern Review, among others.
Jack Pendarvis has written two books of short stories and a novel, the latter of which is titled Awesome.
Benjamin Percy is the author of a novel, The Wilding (Graywolf, 2009), and two books of short stories, Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf, 2007) and The Language of Elk (Carnegie Mellon, 2006). His fiction and nonfiction appear in Esquire, Men’s Journal, Paris Review, Chicago Tribune, Glimmer Train, and Best American Short Stories, among other publications. His honors include a Pushcart Prize and the Plimpton Prize. He teaches in the MFA program at Iowa State.
Andrew Porter is the author of the short story collection, The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. A graduate of the Iowa Writer's workshop, he is the recipient of fellowships from the James Michener/Copernicus Society of American and the W.K. Rose Foundation. His fiction has appeared in One Story, Epoch, the Pushcart Prize anthology and on NPR's Selected Shorts. Currently, he teaches at Trinity University in San Antonio.
Chad Simpson lives in Galesburg, Illinois, where he teaches fiction writing and literature classes at Knox College. His stories have appeared in several magazines, including McSweeney's, Sycamore Review, The Rambler, and The Sun, and has received awards from the Illinois Arts Council, The Atlantic Monthly, and the Sewanee and Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences.
George Singleton has published four story collections, including The Half-Mammals of Dixie, and two novels, Novel and Work Shirts for Madmen. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's, Playboy, Zoetrope, and The Georgia Review, among others. He has published one book of writing advice, of sorts, titled Pep Talks, Warnings and Screeds.
Brady Udall received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His widely anthologized stories and nonfiction have been published in journals and magazines such as Esquire, Gentleman’s Quarterly and The Paris Review. He is the author of a short story collection, Letting Loose the Hounds, and a novel, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, which was an international bestseller and has been translated into twenty
Laura van den Berg recently completed her MFA at Emerson College. Her stories have or will soon appear in One Story, StoryQuarterly, The Literary Review, American Short Fiction, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008, among others, and has received awards from Glimmer Train, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and Press 53. The recipient of the 2007 Dzanc Prize, Laura's first collection of stories, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, will be published by Dzanc Books in 2009.
Ryan Van Meter's work has been published in The Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, The Iowa Review, Colorado Review, River Teeth and Quarterly West, among others. An essay was also selected for Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to Present. He is an MFA candidate in the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa.
Web Contributors
Victoria Barrett's stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Confrontation, The Massachusetts Review, and Puerto del Sol. She is a two-time Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Award winner, and was awarded a grant by Ball State University, where she teaches writing, in support of her novel, Four Points Gin. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband, Andrew Scott, where the pair edits FreightStories.com
See Victoria's story here: Streaker.
Lauren Becker lives in Oakland, California. She edits Corium Magazine and is a contributor at The Nervous Breakdown. Her work has appeared in Pedestal Magazine, Annalemma, Wigleaf, Opium Magazine, Monkeybicycle and elsewhere.
Her story We All Fall Down is published here.
Matt Bell is the author of two chapbooks, The Collectors and How the Broken Lead the Blind, and a forthcoming fiction collection, How They Were Found, which will be published by Keyhole in the fall of 2010. His fiction has appeared or is upcoming in magazines such as Conjunctions, Willow Springs, Meridian, Gulf Coast, Caketrain, Hayden's Ferry Review, Hobart, Barrelhouse, Monkeybicycle, and Gargoyle. Visit: mdbell.com
See Matt's story here: A Certain Number of Bedrooms, A Certain Number of Baths.
Sarah Blackman is the fiction editor for DIAGRAM and the Director of Creative
Writing at the Fine Arts Center, a public arts high school in Greenville, South
Carolina. Her most recent prose has been published or is forthcoming in The
Gettysburg Review, American Fiction, Southeast Review and Fairy Tale Review. Her fiction chapbook Such A Thing As America is forthcoming from the Burnside Review.
See Sarah's story here: We Can Be Jack and Sally.
Jon Chopan's writing has appeared in journals such as Glimmer Train, Redivider,Hotel Amerika, and Drunken Boat, and he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Jon is currently trying to win his second Stanley Cup in NHL 2010 and when he isn’t doing that he is teaching, reading, and grading comp. papers. Jon's first collection (genre undetermined) will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2011.
His story Strange Currents is published here.
William Lusk Coppage attends the MFA program at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in DecomP, Blue Earth Review, Mikrokosmos, and Word Riot.
See William Lusk's story here: A Mile Off The Highway.
Iris Cushing comes from the farmland around Davis, California. She has received the Suzanne Tito Prize for Poetry, the Frederick and Frances Sommer Fellowship for Literature, and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry and nonfiction has appeared in Alligator Juniper. She lives in New York, where she is an MFA candidate in Poetry at Columbia University.
See Iris' story here: Hair Receiver.
Gabe Durham attends the MFA program at UMass, Amherst where he interns at the Massachusetts Review. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Mid-American Review, Hobart, Fourteen Hills, Thieves Jargon and elsewhere.
Checkout his story: Ash Mounds.
Kate Flaherty, an associate editor at Ploughshares, has published stories and essays in Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Fourth Genre, Prairie Schooner and elsewhere. “Fast Forward” is part of her manuscript, My Brief History of Sex Education, which is currently in circulation; her other writing and ranting can be found on her blog “Fact or Fiction” at kateflaherty.wordpress.com.
Kate's story Fast Forward is published here.
Bryan Furuness' stories have appeared in Ninth Letter, Southeast Review, Sycamore Review, Barrelhouse, Hobart, and elsewhere. He teaches at Butler University, where he also serves as the associate editor for Booth. On Earth As it Is, an anthology of prayer narratives he's curating, will come out in 2011.
Read Bryan's story: Bible Bowl.
Roxane Gay's writing appears or is forthcoming in Monkeybicycle, Wigleaf, Storyglossia, mud luscious, Necessary Fiction, and others. She is the associate editor of PANKmagazine.com You can visit her online at roxanegay.com
See her story here: Perfect Like Practice.
Jamey Genna teaches writing in the Bay area of San Francisco. She received her
Masters in Writing from the University of San Francisco. Her short stories have
been published in many fine literary magazines such as The Iowa Review, Georgetown Review, Cutthroat, Dislocate, and Storyglossia.
Checkout her story: Yeah, But Nobody Hates Their Dad.
Cyn Kitchen is the author of a short story collection, Ten Tongues, due out in the Fall '10. Her stories have appeared in The Louisville Review, The Minnetonka Review, Opium and Ars Medica. In 2009, she was a top ten finalist for the storySouth Million Writers Award. Cyn lives in Galesburg, IL and teaches at Knox College.
Checkout Cyn's story: Prosthesis.
Michael Larkin's fiction and essays have appeared in literary journals
such as Kitchen Sink, Cimarron Review, Other Voices, and Natural Bridge.
He teaches writing at UC Berkeley.
See Michael's story here: The Character Who Came To Life.
O. Lindsey's writing has appeared in Fourteen Hills, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, The Yalobusha Review, and Ink.
Checkout his story: They.
Kristin Joi Lockridge was raised in Helena Arkansas, attended Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois and received her BA in Fiction Writing in 2007. She is currently a student in the MFA program at University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a concentration in fiction. Her short story, "Something About Home" was published with the SN Review. She spends the majority of her time devoted to the practice of yoga, reading and writing.
Checkout her story: I Know Your Face.
Sam Martone is 5'9", which is about average for his age. He does not remember ever being turned away from a ride due to his height, but then again, people dressed as cartoon characters terrified him, so he didn't want to go to theme parks all that often. He currently attends Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, but still calls Alabama home. His stories have appeared virtually nowhere.
See his story here: In Which Sam Martone Attempts His Father's Exercise.
Steven J. McDermott is the author of the story collection Winter of Different Directions. His short fiction has appeared in journals such as Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature, Carve, Passages North, Word Riot, Mud Luscious, SmokeLong Quarterly, Keyhole, Night Train, DOGZPLOT, Necessary Fiction, and many others. He's the editor of Storyglossia.com
See Steven J.'s story here: Night School.
Margaret McMullan is the author of six novels including In My Mother's House, When I Crossed No-Bob and How I Found the Strong. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Glamour, the Chicago Tribune, Southern Accents,TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Greensboro Review, The Southern California Anthology, Other Voices, Boulevard, Ploughshares, and The Sun among others.
Her story Place Value is published here.
LaTanya McQueen is currently in the MFA program at Emerson College. A Glimmer Train and Robert Olen Butler prize finalist, she has been published in The North American Review, The Potomac Review, Monkeybicycle, and The Best of the Web Anthology by Dzanc Press.
LaTanya's story The History of Adolescence As Told Through Made-For-Television is published here.
Christina Murphy's writing has been published or will appear in a number of journals including A cappella Zoo, ABJECTIVE, Splash of Red, Counterexample Poetics, and Blue Fifth Review. Her work has received an Editor’s Choice Award and Special Mention for a Pushcart Prize.
See Christina's story here: Accidental Falls.
Clare Marie Myers is a San Francisco-based fiction writer and poet. Her work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Boxcar Poetry Review, Ghoti and 971MENU. She is an MFA candidate in Fiction at San Francisco State University.
Clare Marie's story Missing is published here.
JoAnna Novak received her MFA at the University of Washington in St. Louis and is the editor of Tammy.
Read JoAnna's story: Two By Novak: "Tuggle" and "Live For Sugar".
Brian Oliu (brianoliu.com) is originally from New Jersey and currently lives in Alabama. His work has been featured in New Ohio Review, Ninth Letter, DIAGRAM, Brevity, 3:AM Magazine, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2, and others. This is an automated message.
Brian's story Before We Begin is published here.
Pete Pazmino is a graduate of the MA in Writing (fiction) program at Johns Hopkins university, where he was nominated by the fiction faculty for
inclusion in the 2008 "Best New American Voices" anthology. He was a finalist in both the 2007 fiction contest hosted by the Black Warrior Review and the 2006 competition hosted by the Iowa Review, and was nominated for the 2009 storySouth Million Writers Award. His work has previously been published in Monkeybicycle, JMWW, Menda City Review, A Cappella Zoo, Sunsets and Silencers, and elsewhere. His short story "Snake" has just been nominated for Dzanc Book's Best of the Web
09 anthology. Check out his website: petepazmino.com
See his story here: Uncle Daddy.
Ryan Ridge shares a birthday with Johnny Carson and Weird Al. He has
work in or coming from The Collagist, decomP, DIAGRAM, elimae, PANK, The
Los Angeles Review, Juked, The Mississippi Review, Salt Hill, Wigleaf, and
others. He lives in Orange County with his cat Karate.
Checkout his story: Pussy (An Explanation).
Andrew Roe's fiction has appeared in Tin House, One Story, Glimmer Train, The Cincinnati Review and other publications. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he lives in Oceanside, California. More can be found at andrewroe.blogspot.com
Read his story: What I Say To Myself.
J.C. Simpson is a university lecturer and nonfiction essayist. Her work has appeared in print or online at Creative Nonfiction, Utne Reader, Urbanite, and Style Magazine, as well as the book collections Letters to J.D. Salinger (University of Wisconsin Press) and Signs of Life in the USA (Bedford/St. Martin’s 2009).
See J.C.'s story here: The Letter.
Rob McClure Smith lives in Galesburg, Illinois. His fiction has appeared in Fugue, Barrelhouse, Barcelona Review, Chapman, Versal and many other literary magazines. He was winner of the Scotsman Orange Short Story prize.
See Rob McClure's story here: The Burn.
Lucas Southworth's stories are forthcoming or have recently appeared in Mid-American Review, CutBank, Harpur Palate, Willow Springs, Web Conjunctions, and others. He is a recent graduate of the MFA program at Alabama and a former fiction editor of the Black Warrior Review.
Read Lucas' story: Under The Lights.
J. A. Tyler is the author of Someone, Somewhere (ghost road press, 2009)
and In Love With A Ghost (willows wept press, 2010) as well as the chapbooks Our US; We (greying ghost), Zoo: The Tropic House (sunnyoutside), Everyone In This Is Either Dying Or Will Die Or Is Thinking Of Death (achilles), and The Girl In The Black Sweater (trainwreck press) . He is also founding editor of mud luscious / ml press. Visit: aboutjatyler.com.
J.A.'s story Jimmy, how he wants a piece of sun folded in his hands is published here.
Anne Valente's stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Monkeybicycle,
Necessary Fiction, Pank and Keyhole, among others. She is the assistant
editor of Storyglossia.
Anne's story Something Calming, Something Necessary is published here.
Chris Wiewiora, a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida, is the assistant editor of The Florida Review. This year, his writing has appeared in Bateau, A cappella Zoo, Main Street Rag, the Auorean, as well as on EmpriseReview.com and is forthcoming on SwinkMag.com and FrostWriting.com and in Now & Then and the Unauorean. He works at a pizza place called Lazy Moon. Read more: acappellazoo.com/teethofthecogs and emprisereview.com/2010/lists/lit-snobs/
His story From This is published here.
John Dermot Woods is the author of the novel The Complete Collection of people, places & things (Blazevox, 2009) and comic chapbook The Remains (Doublecross, 2009). His fiction and comics have been published in The Indiana Review, Hobart, 3rd Bed, American Letters & Commentary, No Colony and many other journals. He edits the arts journal actionyes.org, and organizes the online reading series apostrophecast.com. He is a professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY.
Checkout his story: Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault.
