I’ve been writing and publishing tiny stories about apocalypses for several years, and they’ll come out as part of a collection from McSweeney’s Books summer 2013 (I could not be more excited about working with McSweeney’s). Part of what is interesting to me about the project is the way editors have chosen to group them along the way. I also rewrite these all the time, so the versions that were first published are often very different from the versions that will be in the book. Below are links to text and video available online.
Me reading a selection of apocalypses for InDigest magazine to honor the most recent end of the world, December, 2012. “Cake” and ”July Fourth” and “Miracles”
Me reading a selection of apocalypses at the Make-Out Room to benefit VIDA, March 29, 2011 San Francisco. Includes “Cycle of Life,” “Barbarians at the Gate” and others.
“Miracles” @ Tin House
“Night and Day,” “Threat,” “Phone,” “Star Chart,” “July Fourth,” “Apocalypse,” and “Mirror” @ Pen America
“Witches,” “Boats,” and “Minions” @ Diagram
“Nostalgia,” “Eye Chart,” “Nice Day,” “Look Inside,” “Parable in Transatlantic,” and “Journalist” @ Devil’s Lake
“Vacation,” “Islands,” “Implosion,” “A More Practical Approach,” and “Fertile Crescent” @ Swink
“Space and Time” @ Wigleaf
“Metaphor,” “Recall,” “Three Sisters,” “The Cycle of Life,” “Dream Girl,” “Time Machine,” Graph,” “Jaguar,” and “What it Was Like Was” @ Caliban (leaf through or ask it to go to page 20)
“Baby,” a collaborative work in Tarpaulin Sky which I later turned into an apocalypse.
ALSO ONLINE
“Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster” at the Massachusetts Review.
“My Mother’s Presence in the Universe” New fiction available at Airplane Reading.
“Madmen” from American Short Fiction, reprinted along with an interview at this virtual symposium from Cultural Anthropology on the intersection of literature and anthropology.
“A Woman with a Gardener” from The Entire Predicament reprinted @ the Lavender Review.
Rumpus essay about fabulism and politics that features an analysis of “The Entire Predicament”
Profile for the American Academy in Rome
Here’s an interview/conversation with poet Rae Gouirand for VIDA.
Little q&a participation at Tin House for the Fantastic Women anthology.
A video interview with RADAR productions from 2012.
“Let Me Tell You What I Got” a story written in 24 hours as part of the “seven rings” collaborative game on Huffington Post.
“Eyes of Dogs” a story on WebConjunctions. You have to scroll down to 5.20.08, and you may get distracted on your way by the all the gorgeous work they have up there. There’s also a free file on itunes of me reading the story at Bread Loaf, listed under Middlebury College, Bread Loaf Summer 2008: Lectures and Readings. This was one of my favorite readings ever, in part because I read with Amaud Jamaul Johnson, and he’s on the file with me. This story is also in My Mother She Killed Me My Father He Ate Me, an anthology of contemporary takes on fairy tales from Penguin Classics, edited by Kate Bernheimer. Here’s its facebook page, which has lovely pictures and excerpts.
Here I am talking about my story collection and music for Large Hearted Boy. I’m hoping I’ll get to do this again for the apocalypses because after being asked by them to construct a little playlist for The Entire Predicament I found myself thinking more actively about the relationship between music and my fiction.
In winter 2010 I collaborated with contemporary dancers and video artist Mary Franck on this LEVY Dance piece called Everyone Intimate Alone Visibly.
“Material”– A craft essay — I hardly ever write non-fiction! — in The Writer’s Notebook.