I’ll be at Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont at 7:00pm tomorrow (Friday 9/30) talking to Amy Fusselman about her hilarious new book (and first novel!) THE MEAN$ — come on down and say hi! Rare moment I will be outside my house

Composer Nathan Hudson will be premiering a new work entitled “God,” based on my short story of the same name, this coming Monday night, September 26, in the Whitley Auditorium at Elon University in North Carolina. 7:30PM EST. I will be there– if you see me, come say hi!

***FREE ADMISSION***

Program:

Brace Yourselves! – Nathan Hudson

Toil and Trouble – Caber Smith

You Are Free – Sarah Kirkland Snider

God – Nathan Hudson *WORLD PREMIERE*

I’ll be judging the Blue Mesa Review Summer Fiction Contest this year, in case anyone out there has a great story they feel like sending along? There’s a $15 entry fee, the word limit is 6,000, and the deadline is September 30. More info here.

I have a story called “The Ship on the Horizon” up at Air/Light Magazine today. It’s kind of a sister story to “The Ocean Next Door,” which appeared in Tales of Falling and Flying (and the Sewanee Review before that). Many thanks to editor David Ulin! (The issue also contains a great new story by Stephen Graham Jones called “The Joneses,” so be sure to check that out while you’re there!)

My story “The Frog and the Bird” (from Tales of Falling and Flying) will be part of the Amy Tan BIRD STORIES event at Selected Shorts in New York on Wednesday, May 18. Tickets available here (there’s also a livestream option).

And also in New York, a new work called UNBEKNOWNST by Gabrielle Lamb of Pigeonwing Dance–inspired by my story “The Rope and the Sea” (from Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day)–will be performed at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn on May 21 & 22. Tickets available here.

I have a story called “Dandelions” out today in Small Odysseys, the first-ever anthology from Selected Shorts! Published by Algonquin Books, edited by Hannah Tinti, & with a foreword by Neil Gaiman, it features 35 new stories by writers including Aimee Bender, Etgar Keret, Lauren Groff, Edwidge Danticat, Michael Cunningham, Carmen Maria Machado, Victor LaValle, Maile Meloy, Dave Eggers, and many more (including me!). Available at your nearest bookstore, or find it online.

Also! There will be an all-day performance of the 35 stories from the book at Symphony Space in New York on March 26—WALL TO WALL SELECTED SHORTS—which you can attend in person or watch via the FREE LIVESTREAM. Learn more & sign up via the Symphony Space website.

(My “Dandelions” story will be read during the 9pm – 11pm portion of the show, and will be accompanied by an animated short inspired by the story.)

Delighted to find my collection Tales of Falling and Flying included on this Esquire Magazine list of the 50 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. It’s an honor to be mentioned alongside some of my very favorite books and writers (Jeffrey Ford! Octavia Butler! Some guy named Tolkien!). And while I can’t help wondering where Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser books are (including Swords Against Death, which I have been reveling in on audio for the past couple months), on the other hand I now have a huge TBR pile to look forward to! Many thanks to Adam Morgan for the mention— I’ve always loved Esquire, its name reminds me of knights.

I’ll be helping to judge the Berkeley Fiction Review Sudden Fiction Contest this year; if you have a story under 1,000 words, send it along by March 5! Contest rules here.

I’ll also be mentoring two high school writers through the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program again this year, so if you are or know of any high school-age writers, here’s all the information. This will be my third year with the program and it’s always a great time. The deadline is March 15, though, so you better get on it!

I have a little story called “Bear” up in Craft Literary today; it’s about a bear who doesn’t do very well in school. There’s also an author’s note where I yammer on about my writing process again (I gotta stop talking about my writing process). Many thanks to the kind folks at Craft Literary, who are a delight to work with and put together a beautiful publication.

I have a story called “The Wheelbarrow” out now in the Winter 2022 Issue of the Sewanee Review, alongside work by Jane Delury, Megan Mayhew Bergman, Sarah Matsui, and Sigrid Nunez, among others. It’s about two boys and a wheelbarrow and nighttime and an old barn.

While you can only access the story if you have a subscription (note: subscriptions available here!), there’s also a 3-Question Interview with me up right now on the Sewanee Review blog. which you can read for absolutely nothing at all.