"You Don't Get to Do This:" New Fiction in BULL Magazine

Hi there. I'm a couple days late posting this, but I have a new short story up in BULL Magazine. It's one of my longer stories (and maybe my longest published story to date? I'm not sure, but it's definitely in the top three). The title is "You Don't Get to Do This," and explores a variety of subjects, from impulses, desire, special needs parenting, and how we react to unhappiness.

You can read the story here.

Thank you to editor Benjamin Drevlow for giving this work a home, and for an enjoyable path from acceptance to a beautiful publication.

This piece is part of my short story collection, which I'm in the processing of editing as we speak. Well, we're not actually speaking; and I'm writing this post, so that means I'm not actually working on my edits. You know what I mean. Don't look at me like that.

I hope you enjoy reading my work. The latest issue of BULL is full of great work, and I'm honored to be a tiny part of that collective.

"Secret Astronauts:" New Fiction in Necessary Fiction

Good evening, y'all, and a happy belated Thanksgiving.

I'm a couple days late posting this, but I have a new short story up and ready to read: my short piece "Secret Astronauts" is now available on Necessary Fiction.

I'm grateful for all of my publication homes, but this one is especially sweet. Necessary Fiction was one of literary websites I fell in love with years ago, when I renewed my commitment to serious reading and fiction writing. I've written a couple book reviews for them, and submitted fiction sporadically over the years. So yeah, keep trying with the places you love. This is a damn honor in many ways.

Thank you to Steve Himmer and the great Lacey N. Dunham, who not only accepted my work, but also made diligent edits to make my work even stronger. The little things she noticed were necessary (no pun, no), and helped so much with continuity and strength. I wouldn't have blamed Lacey for passing on this based on the edits it needed, but they saw something there, were willing to work with me, and are very much responsible for the smoothness here. Thank you, Lacey. Hug your editors, always.

I hope you enjoy reading my work. Huzzah. I'm still thankful.

"Everything Sounds Better on Vinyl:" New Fiction in Gulf Stream Magazine

Good morning, y'all!

I have a new short story up today. You can read "Everything Sounds Better on Vinyl" in the Spring issue of Gulf Stream Magazine.

Thank you to editor T.C. Jones for being such a warm, enthusiastic editor. He and the other editors and readers have put together a wonderful mix of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that I can't wait to spend time with this weekend.

This story means a lot to me because I first drafted it in an undergraduate creative writing course. That first attempt was terrible, and the previous version is either lost in my ancient family computer or typed out in fragments stuck in an old binder I keep under my desk. The story always stayed in my head, and I started over from memory last year, and now it's a complete, published story that I'm very proud of.

Have a great weekend. Happy reading.

"Thy Will Be Done:" New Fiction on Monkeybicycle

Hey y'all, good morning. My latest short story was published today! You can read "Thy Will Be Done" right here.

Thank you to editor James Tate Hill for the amazing work he's published and promoted at Monkeybicycle, and for being so warm, gracious, and enthusiastic about my work. When he sent me the final edits, he included a compliment that I'm too embarrassed to share here, but let's just say it's one of the best remarks I've ever received about my writing. And thank you to Steven Seighman, who I believe posted it, and may be the one who included the perfect image accompaniment. Or it might've been J.T. who did so; either way, they both had hands in this publication, and I couldn't be more pleased.

And a thank you to Alyssa Zaczek, who graciously read this in its early stages when I wasn't sure the story was doing what it was supposed to do. Alyssa and I worked together very briefly in Chicago, and reconnected online. She's a fiercely talented writer and editor, and I'm grateful she took the time to help me. Keep her name bookmarked. Her work is wonderful, and she will be making even more joyful noise in the future.

I hope you enjoy reading this story. Have a great weekend.

TinyLetter: Rising Rejections

I just posted my first TinyLetter, a slightly rambling introduction to what I hope to accomplish with (hopefully) weekly letters and updates.

From now on, I'll just share the URL whenever I do a post, but for this first one, I'll share it here in full.

If you'd like to subscribe, you can do so here: https://tinyletter.com/jyatesLA

Even though I haven't posted here with any frequency, I'll still have original content that I'll update on this blog for the sake of variety. I like using social media in various forms, as in: not excessively cross-posting for one blandly unified collection of feeds.

Hi there, and welcome to my first TinyLetter.

I'm still figuring out how to navigate this space, and while I do have ideas on how I want this to take shape, there may be stumbles and hiccups along the way. So bear with me.

I first mentioned writing a TinyLetter a month or so ago. What I hope to accomplish is straightforward. After a year living in Lafayette, Louisiana, I want to document how my writing has changed after Southern immersion. Do I call myself a "Southern writer?" Is such a label necessary, and if so, what claim do I have? Just because I've eaten a ton of po' boys and I'm a writer, should I worry about how my new environment has shaped me? My last published story ("Love Bugs," Split Lip Magazine, December 2016) was explicitly Southern, and my latest WIP is heavily immersed in a Southern landscape. So am I a Southern writer? I don't know, but that's something I can explore later on. I'm concerned with how using my surroundings in fiction translates into honesty and reality, especially when faced with Southern stereotypes that I had in my head upon the move down here, and when famous Southern writers tend to form a small sect that is influential, both positively and negatively.

For now, as my bio suggests, I want to talk about anxiety, depression, and rejections. I hesitate to describe myself as depressed, because it's the kind of word that can be thrown around easily, and I've never been diagnosed with it, or treated for it. But my last several months were a spiral of negative feelings. After working as an adjunct instructor last fall, the university I worked for wasn't able to offer me any courses. I found myself dangerously unemployed for months, trying to find work in an area that had a) doesn't have a wealth of jobs available, and b) tends to give openings to family and friends in need of work. My girlfriend carried the financial weight, and I applies for dozens and dozens of jobs, with almost no return calls or emails. I was scared, depressed, and didn't know what to do. Between worrying about money and feeling isolated, my motivation to write was nonexistent, which led to even MORE writing anxiety: writers are supposed to write, no matter what. But I felt guilty and nervous carving out writing time when I didn't know what the future was going to hold.

I got damn lucky. A full-time management position was offered to me at the bookstore. I interviewed, got the job, and I'm now on better financial footing. And now I'm trying to get some long-simmer writing projects dusted off. I'm not entirely out of the woods. I still have anxieties and problems. And this is where writerly, geographic labels come back into play. I'm trying to be more brave, to write more openly about my problems. My reluctance to do so is a Midwestern trait (or, given my words above, a stereotype). I keep my fears bottled up.

And this is where this TinyLetter swoops in. I want to be more open, and I genuinely hope my own stumbles are reassuring to other creatives. This is a terribly simple hope, one I'll return to later.

Let's get back to rejections. Here are concrete numbers, presented as accurately as possible. Since January 2017, I've received:

16 short story rejections
14 novel rejections (both agents and presses)
1 fellowship rejection
1 essay rejection
1 poem rejection

I started submitting work back in 2012. I'm fully prepared for this to be the first year since then that I haven't had a single piece published. Of course, I still have many pieces both long and short floating around various journals and presses. These could be future rejections or acceptances. In addition to feeling like I wasn't a writer for most of this year, I've also dealt with the steady onslaught of rejections. Therefore, my anxieties have been twofold: "Writers write (which I struggled to do, given job woes and depression), and "Writers write to write, not to be published." I've struggled to accept this To borrow a phrase from writer Tasha Coryell, I think my post-MFA crisis year is this year, not last year. I had ups and downs last year, but I still ended 2016 with four publications.

I'm not treating this first entry as a full-fledged essay. I'm not going to say I've overcome the aforementioned obstacles, nor am I going to give any sappy notes to anyone who might be reading this, platitudes along the lines of "Hey, our struggles are the same!" We're not the same, you and I. I'm not going to assume that my being fairly open about my issues is going to make someone sit back, slap their forehead, and think "I'm not alone!" The psychology of writers and writing advice deals far too heavily in absolutes. I stop reading when I see phrases like "all writers must" and "real writers to do this." So if my future letters end up being looks at craft and process, I won't present them as set in stone. What works for me might work for you, but most likely not.

But here's the thing: you're not alone. Whatever you're dealing with, we all do. Am I being hypocritical? Yes, just as I'm hypocritical with my own creative struggles in the face of life struggles. Writing highs and lows are the same and different for everyone. But if my laying this out here offers you solace, I'm happy to do so. However, the last thing I want this TinyLetter to be is a sad sack diary entry. I want the majority of my messages to be detailed unpackings of current WIPs, readings, and entries on what it means to be Southern when one is a transplant (I plan to propose this as a presentation for next year's Deep South in the Global South conference).

I've been editing this over the last two days, but I'm going to stop for now. Thank you for reading these initial ramblings. And welcome.

-James Yates
August 28, 2017

2016 Readings, 2017 Goals

Happy New Year, y'all. Here's my annual reading recap.

For starters, this is what I wrote last year, when I revisited my 2015 readings: "In 2016, I want to read more classics, more international translations, and spend more money on small press titles. My goals will fluctuate as the year goes on, but I think that's a good starting point."

Back in 2015, I read 93 books. This year, my total went down to 55, but I have good excuses. First, my girlfriend and I moved from Chicago to Lafayette, Louisiana for her PhD candidacy. From packing, to planning, to coordinating the drive down south (helped immensely by my brother and sister-in-law), reading time was taken up by this. I also started teaching English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I highly enjoyed teaching, but was unaccustomed to how time consuming it is. Lesson planning, class readings, assignment preparations, student meetings, grading, and general anxiety about essentially performing four times a week in front of nearly fifty students: I read fewer books from September to December. I started several, but they took over a month to read when they should've taken a week at most.

My goals for 2017 as a reader aren't as detailed as my goals as a writer. I (still) want to spend more money on small press titles, because we as a community need to sustain them. I'm not preaching from a soapbox, because I could have done more to financially support worthy literary organizations. With the Trump administration just weeks away (oh fuck, just typing that makes me angry), small presses will need to to remain voices and homes for the voices that might be silenced or marginalized by the powers that be. I want to remain optimistic about 2017, but deep down, I worry it'll be a shitshow. So, I want to do less talking about supporting diverse demographics and more buying, reading, and promoting of them.

So this means I'll do everything I can to help small presses and literary magazines. I also have an entire shelf of great literary magazine back issues (Hobart, American Short Fiction, Fence, Tin House) that need attention.

I'd love to hear your goals, too. As always, I'm eager for recommendations.

Here's to 2017. As we read and write, don't forget to fight back against the backwards thinking that wants to prevail in our culture. This is a challenge to myself more than anything.

My 2016 readings are listed below:



1.) Mothers, Tell Your Daughters by Bonnie Jo Campbell

2.) Crazy Horse's Girlfriend by Erika T. Wurth

3.) Negroland by Margo Jefferson

4.) Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexual by Patricia Lockwood

5.) Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

6.) Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin

7.) The Unfinished World and Other Stories by Amber Sparks

8.) Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago by Gillian O'Brien

9.) Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen

10.) Elegy/Elk River by Michael Schmeltzer

11.) What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell

12.) The Girl Who Could Only Say 'sex, drugs, and rock & roll' by Kendra Fortmeyer

13.) The Farmacist by Ashley Farmer

14.) The Revelator by Robert Kloss

15.) Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello

16.) Find Me by Laura van den Berg

17.) The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato

18.) The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

19.) Cataclysm Baby by Matt Bell (re-read)

20.) A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

21.) If I Knew the Way, I Would Take You Home by Dave Housley

22.) The Upper Peninsula Misses You by Mark Magoon

23.) A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

24.) Long, Last, Happy: New and Collected Stories by Barry Hannah

25.) The Vegetarian by Han Kang

26.) Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle

27.) The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

28.) Please Don't Be Upset and Other Stories by Brandi Wells

29.) The New York Stories by Ben Tanzer

30.) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

31.) My Only Wife by Jac Jemc (re-read)

32.) Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss

33.) Boys Among Men: How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA by Jonathan Abrams

34.) Beloved by Toni Morrison (re-read)

35.) Chronicle of a Last Summer by Yasmine El Rashidi

36.) Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

37.) Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith

38.) The Tennessee Highway Death Chant by Keegan Jennings Goodman

39.) McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh

40.) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

41.) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks

42.) Dandarians: Poems by Lee Ann Roripaugh

43.) Insurrections: Stories by Rion Amilcar Scott

44.) Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money by Rebecca Curtis

45.) Mesogeios by Steve Karas

46.) Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

47.) How the Post Office Created America: A History by Winifred Gallagher

48.) Sex Object: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti

49.) The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race edited by Jesmyn Ward

50.) Him, Me, Muhammad Ali by Randa Jarrar

51.) No Man's Wild Laura by Beth Gilstrap

52.) The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai

53.) Sing the Song by Meredith Alling

54.) Swing Time by Zadie Smith

55.) You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

"Love Bugs," Split Lip Magazine

With all the horrible things happening in the world to wrap up a terrible 2016, I feel silly promoting myself, but my latest flash fiction, titled "Love Bugs," is now live at the great Split Lip Magazine. You can read my story here, but I'd prefer if you'd check out the other voices in this issue. Click here.

Thank you to Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice, Split Lip's wonderful flash fiction editor. And a thank you to Amanda Miska, Editor in Chief, who's been such a wonderful fixture in the literary community, both as a writer and champion of others. She's essential, and I think her words in the introduction to this issue are best to close out this year. Let's all keep reading, creating, writing, and fighting the terrible, looming administration.

"This time of year can be hard. Holidays and darkness and cold and anxiety about what will come in 2017. I am choosing to be hopeful--it's a choice I have to make daily, because it's not my natural inclination. I am choosing to keep writing and publishing writing because I think Art matters and can change the world. It's not the only thing, but it's one thing. I am choosing to get out of bed every morning and try, which is all we can really ask of anyone." -Amanda Miska

"Empire State Building" at matchbook literary magazine

I'm normally more punctual here. Last Monday, my latest short story went up at one of my favorite literary journals: matchbook literary magazine.

My story, titled "Empire State Building," is a piece of flash fiction about family tall tales, infrastructures, and a weird, mysterious possibility. It went through many drafts, and thanks to some terrific editing and assistance on the part of R.B. Pillay, it made its way into this new, final form.

You can read my piece here. Thank you to R.B. and Brian Mihok for their care and time with my work, and for allowing me to have space next to some of my favorite writers.

"Among the Wild Mulattos" Review: The Collagist

Happy Friday, y'all.

I have a new review up: the great folks at The Collagist published my review of Among the Wild Mulattos, a sometimes hilarious, sometimes fantastically philosophical collection of stories about race, identity, and various searches.

You can read my review here. And check out the rest of the issue here. I've never read a bad piece in this journal. Thanks to Gabriel Blackwell and Matthew Olzmann for their hard work in putting out such a great collection of fiction, essays, and reviews every single month, like clockwork.

And if you're so inclined, you can pick up Tom's book here, too. (Not to be all soapbox about this, but avoid Amazon when you can. Shop local, both online and in reality.)

"America, This Is You" Now Up on Hobart

Happy 2016 (again), y'all.

I'm a few days late, but last Friday, the wonderful people of Hobart published a small piece of mine, titled "America, This Is You."

It's a section from my novel manuscript, but I'm not sure if it will remain in the final draft, or will just be this weird little piece of fiction on its own.

So if you like stories about Americana, families, game shows, and chaos, I think this will be up your alley. You can read the piece here.

Again, I love the people behind Hobart. They publish stellar work every week, and founder Aaron Burch has put a lot of my work into the world. And he took the perfect photo that accompanies my piece.

"The Cookie Sun:" Vol. 1 Brooklyn Sunday Stories

This should be a great week. I'm starting my final (!!) semester of my MFA on Tuesday, and thesis is rolling along. I always fail to meet timetables, but I hope to have a draft of my novel done by mid or late September. Exciting times. Overwhelming, exhausting, scary, but exciting.

Also, I have a new short story published! I'm thrilled to be this week's Sunday Story at Vol. 1 Brooklyn, a phenomenal literary website that has published work by some of my favorite writers. It's still weird to see my name there.

My story is called "The Cookie Sun." You can read it here.

I wrote my first draft of this back in 2009, not long after I moved back to Chicago from the suburbs of Seattle. While the first drafts sucked, it was part of my breakout, my transition from unmotivated writing to taking my work much more seriously. Last fall, I workshopped it for one of my creative writing classes, and I finally got it into the draft you can read above.

If you do read it, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Tobias Carroll and Jason Diamond of Vol. 1 Brooklyn for being astounding writers and literary citizens, and for giving my work a new home.

The Debut of HOBART HANDBOOKS

Aaron Burch and Jensen Beach have launched a new division of Hobart: Another Literary Journal: HOBART HANDBOOKS. I can't describe it properly, so I'll copy and paste from the "About" page:

"Envisioned as a kind of mash-up of all things Hobart-related (website, print issues, book division, goofy ideas), Hobart Handbooks will publish 2-3 books/year, likely alternating themed anthologies (focused on reprinting some of the best from the Hobart archives, as well as new work and art and design) with single author books, and possibly occasional special projects. Of course, like all things Hobart, it’s still a project in motion and, while we have some exciting ideas, we’re making it up as we go. But we’re excited to see where it goes."

The first-ever Hobart Handbook is a best of the annual online Hobart baseball issue, and I'm honored that "Hands of Grace," my first ever publication, is included, therefore making this my first ever print publication. Thank you to Aaron and Jensen for including my work. I've used the word "honor" a lot in promoting this collection, but I'm not using it lightly. It's an honor to have my work in this new project, and to have my fiction sharing space with some stunning writers, including (but even close to being limited to): Jill Talbot, Justin St. Germain, Ben Lyon, Jim Ruland, and Elizabeth Ellen, to name a few.

Want to buy a copy: click here. Until July 16th (tomorrow), the book is available for a donation. The minimum is $4 to cover shipping, the maximum is up to how generous you want to be.

The Hobart Handbooks website is here. There's a bundle option, so you can receive the baseball book, a forthcoming book by Micah Ling, and the third book in the Handbook series.

Again, I'm thrilled to be included in this kickoff. Read, donate, support!

Flutterfucked: Reading Snapshots

In order to devote more time to writing my novel, I've taken an extended break from social media. I haven't posted on Twitter and Facebook in two weeks. But that's not to say I'm completely off the grid: I'll admit to scrolling from time to time, and I've been more active on Instagram (it's an outlet and a pleasant distraction, but one that, for me, doesn't lend itself to endless, mindless staring).

I'm sure I'll have the occasional post in the next couple weeks; this isn't an endless break, just a small one, because I found myself thinking of all the time I spend gazing at a screen without any engagement. Of course, I'm still wasting time online, but it's easier to blink when browsing, say, ESPN or NPR for long stretches.

Being off social media means I haven't liked or shared my reading activity. I'm writing this to showcase some of the things I read this week that stuck with me.

1.) I finally read Juliet Escoria's BLACK CLOUD, a stunning collection of stories (with a linked theme of depression, addiction, and loneliness) published last year by Civil Coping Mechanisms. I've followed Juliet online for awhile, and the book had been on my to-read list ever since it came out. I snagged a copy at AWP and finally devoured it. Some highlights:

"The train comes but it has the wrong number on the front and I move myself to the middle of the platform, because suddenly I realize how beautiful it would be to jump. If there were swords in stones with the pricks facing outwards, I would surely hurl my heart at one, just to try it, just to say that I did. To see what it feels like to have something slice me open (85)."

"I wanted to stop speaking now, but I had already treaded too far. The words tumbled out of my mouth in ribbons, bitter and curling. I watched his eyes glaze over as I spoke. I watched his pupils turn into flat disks, dull and dry as paper (103)."

2.) The spring issue of Wyvern Lit was published this week. There are so many literary magazines out there, and Wyvern Editor-in-Chief Brent Rydin has done a stellar job of making each issue kill. Click here to browse the spring issue (including their first-ever inclusion of poetry!)

I made the story "Other Gods" by Emily Carpenter the Longform Fiction Pick of the Week. It's a stunningly crafted examination of weather, religion, and combinations thereof that lead to unexpected catastrophes:

"On the tenth of April, Our Heavenly Father sent a tornado that wiped out practically the whole town of Rosewood. Every family lost their home. The Murphys, Engels, Hillyers, Rathbuns, Randalls, Wyatts. Everybody. The grocery and the hardware store were smashed to pieces. The post office, the school, and the fire station—all gone too.

The only buildings left standing were the church, the armory, and my house. My house, praise the Lord, with me in it."

3.) I'm leaning toward making July a month devoted exclusively to my stack of literary magazines, but I started Issue 22.1 of Yemassee, co-edited by the stellar writer/reader Matt Fogarty. A poem by Rachel Mindell caught my eye right away with a terrific use of what is now my favorite word: "flutterfucked:"

...There's this good spot. We could just get
in any car. The miles would part their legs
for us headscarves all flutterfucked.
As it stands, I possess a near doctorate...

4.) And finally, something I should have written about a couple months ago. I'm super excited that Steve Karas' debut story collection, Kinda Sorta American Dream, is being published this fall by Tailwinds Press. I had the fortune to read this collection awhile back, and I'm thrilled it has found a home. Steve is one of the best short story writers and literary citizens around, and I can't wait to hold the book in its physical form. I'll update once there's a set publication date.

I'll do more updates, especially when I do my literary magazine project. I'm eager to read new and old journals that I've been collecting, and I'm sure there are plenty of brilliant pieces by writers with whom I'm unfamiliar, waiting to be discovered. Can't wait. And thank you for reading.

Hobart: Photo Credits

Preface: my Instagram account includes this disclaimer: apologies to actual photographers. I know people do some stellar work with cell phone cameras, but personally, I don't think clicking a few snapshots on my phone allows me to even look at the word "photographer."

Onward.

The literary magazine Hobart did its annual online baseball issue in April. I contributed stories in 2013 and 2014. Awhile back, editor Aaron Burch put out a request for baseball photos and artwork to accompany this year's fiction, poetry, and essays. When I saw this request, I realized I had several baseball-themed photos on my phone. I e-mailed them his way, and I'm really pleased with how the images paired with some stellar writing.

Frankly, I don't care if someone reads the writing and doesn't think twice about the images. The emphasis SHOULD be on the writing here, but anyway, here are my first "official" photo credits:

2015 baseball predictions by Andrew Ervin (a concourse shot from U.S. Cellular Field)

A pitching guide by Emily Nemens (a game shot from a Tigers-White Sox game in August)

Little League memories from Dylan Fisher (I took a walk by a baseball field early one morning and saw this solitary Yankees cap on a post)

A short story by Chad Schuster (my glove and a battered ball)


I'm honored that my images are paired with some terrific writers.


To close, the Hobart baseball issue also included a terrific short story by one of my favorite Chicago writers/lit citizens. Enjoy "Pop Up" by the great Wyl Villacres.

"Mythos:" WhiskeyPaper Story of the Week

I've been running around like a crazy person this week--in my novel writing workshop, we're starting massive manuscript edits, and in my Women's Literature course, I had to prepare and give an in-class presentation. And there's this writing conference I'm heading to today. AW...something.

So I'm using a rare 20 minutes of downtime for a cool announcement: On Sunday, Mythos, a piece of my flash fiction, was published as the story of the week at the great journal WhiskeyPaper.

I've been reading WhiskeyPaper for years, and they've published work by a staggering lineup of my favorite writers: Wendy C. Ortiz, Ben Tanzer, Amanda Miska, Sean H. Doyle, and many others. There's no way to say this and not have it sound obvious or trite, but seeing my work in the same place as these people is a fucking honor.

WhiskeyPaper is edited and run by the wonderful wife and husband team of Leesa Cross-Smith and Loran Smith. They edit and maintain such a wonderful literary home, and Leesa is easily one of the top five nicest, kindest writers you can ever care to meet.

The link to my story is here.

WhiskeyPaper recently published their first chapbook, a stunning, beautiful collection of stories by Robert James Russell titled DON'T ASK ME TO SPELL IT OUT. It's for sale here, as well as a delightfully awesome WhiskeyPaper koozie. There's photo evidence below:

We all love to share and support independent literature. But an even better way to support is with dollars. Keep indie presses alive.

See you at AWP!

"Chinatown" Now Live at Luna Luna Magazine

I'm really thrilled for my first publication of 2015. It's a short story called "Chinatown," published by the fine people at Luna Luna Magazine.

The piece is set in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood and explores cultural awareness, loneliness, and fear. I wrote a first draft about three years ago. I submitted it to a literary magazine, and while it was declined, I received my very first personalized rejection letter. After including it in my MFA applications, I sat on it, dusted it off some more, and it received a lovely response from Amanda Miska, who's now the Editor-In-Chief of Split Lip Magazine. Amanda is a wonderful friend and editor, and I'm grateful she gave this work a home. It's one of my personal favorites, and I hope you'll give it a read.

Here's the link.

"The Heart is the Size of a Fist" Now Live on CHEAP POP

I'm a couple days late, but I have a new story online. It's a piece of micro fiction titled "The Heart is the Size of a Fist," available via the awesome new literary journal CHEAP POP.

My story is here.

The editors of CHEAP POP (Robert James Russell and Elizabeth Schmuhl) post new stories every Tuesday and Thursday. And, for a journal that's only been around since January, they've published some staggering work by some seriously talented artists. Matt Bell, Amanda Miska, Leesa Cross-Smith, Jared Yates Sexton, and others.

I'm proud to have my work available with them, and I'm really, fantastically humbled to have my words in such great company. Thanks, Rob and Elizabeth!

"Until the Light is Off" Now Live on Hobart

Oops, I'm two days late, but I have a new short story publication: Hobart, the home of my first publication last year, graciously published a new fiction installment for their annual baseball series. My piece is called "Until the Light is Off," a short about family, looming loss, and time as filtered through a batting cage. So as one typically says about a baseball story: it's about more than baseball, so if the idea of the game makes you fall asleep, I hope my piece does the opposite.

Thanks a ton to Aaron Burch (his latest story collection will be published in June) and the rest of the stellar Hobart editors and writers for giving my work a home, again. Click here for "Until the Light is Off."

I have another story being published in just under two weeks, plus I'm working on a couple book reviews that I'm hoping will be published in the not too distant future. I'm so grateful for these opportunities to create my own work and reflect on the creativity of others.

My semester is nearly finished, so, while I don't make specific promises, I'll be updating here more frequently over the summer.

Happy writing, all.

"Praying Drunk" Review at Necessary Fiction; Forthcoming Fiction (!)

Whoops, I'm a couple days late: the fine folks at Necessary Fiction published my review of Praying Drunk, Kyle Minor's astounding collection. I also had the good fortune of meeting him tonight as part of Roosevelt University's spring reading series. His rendition of "There Is Nothing But Sadness in Nashville" was complex and moving. It's one of my favorite pieces in the book, and I was grateful to hear it and experience it in a different form. And he provided some good feedback and suggestions on one of my essays. So, good night all around, I'd say.

Oh yeah: to read my review, click here.

I'm also proud to announce that I have a piece of flash fiction forthcoming from CHEAP POP this May; my first fiction publication of 2014! CHEAP POP is a (relatively) new online literary journal specializing in flash fiction and essays. Robert James Russell and Elizabeth Schmuhl have published some terrific pieces from established and beginning writers. To have my work alongside people like Leesa Cross-Smith, Amanda Miska, and Jared Yates Sexton is humbling and exciting. I don't want to get too ahead of myself: "The Heart Is the Size Of a Fist" is tentatively scheduled to be published at the beginning of May. Thank you, Robert and Elizabeth! I hope people respond to my work half as much as I've responded to CHEAP POP's art thus far.

Check them out here. Read some great work.

That's all for now. Happy reading/writing.

(Belated) Halloween Flash Fiction

Hi there.

This is a little delayed, but I'm pleased to share this short story I wrote. The Gentleman won the annual Flash Fiction Contest sponsored by the Roosevelt University writing center. You can read the story here.

Included is a story titled Incredulous, penned by my fellow creative writing candidate Ryan Johnson. Ryan and I also gave our first public fiction readings in the writing center during their Halloween party. I was glad to give my first reading for a tiny audience. At some point, I'll be reading for larger groups, but getting my feet wet with seven or eight polite people was a good start. I didn't do any Mitch Hedberg-esque "reading with my back turned," but I do need to work on eye contact and not being so married to the page in front of me. It's a learning process. This is my first semester. I'm not worried.

And here's a gratuitous photograph of me clutching my winning Barnes & Noble gift card. It was used to picked up Notes From No Man's Land by Eula Biss and Hill William by Scott McClanahan. Rock.