It was a thrill this morning to see my debut novel listed alongside literary heavyweights Michael Chabon, Stewart O’Nan, and Hilary Masters.

If you’re a Steelers Fan, you should check out Laurie Koozer Icano’s What Happens on Sunday. As someone who lived in Squirrel Hill for years, I also have a soft spot in my heart for Ellen Litman’s collection The Last Chicken in America.

Special thanks to Elden Lord Sal Pane for letting me know about this list. His debut novel Last Call in the City of Bridges is a perfect time capsule of the city circa 2008, and it’s of course so much more–a generational marker, a meditation on technology and connection.

And of course, thanks to Tessa from the East Liberty branch for including me. I wrote parts of EDOS at the Carnegie Library in Oakland, and I conducted research for my second novel there.

It is very, very hard for me to believe, but my debut collection is now two years old. Celebrate with me?

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, a hairstreak butterfly is “any of a group of insects in the gossamer-winged butterfly family, Lycaenidae (order Lepidoptera), that are distinguished by hairlike markings on the underside of the wings.”

Hairstreak Butterfly (Review) is also Colorado College’s literary journal. I’m proud to say I have a story published there. If you’re a fan of 80s nostalgia, short second-person pieces, or the novel Bright Lights, Big City, you should definitely check it out. It’s really cool to be published alongside writers such as Amber Sparks, Brandon Shimoda, Jennifer Tseng.

Special thanks to Natanya Pulley and Olivia Belluck for all their editorial magic.

My flash essay “Onomatopoeia” is now live at The Normal School!

Congratulations to the finalists and their presses! It was truly an honor to judge this year’s fiction entries alongside Natanya Ann Pulley and Irene Yoon. For more info about the winner, tune into the virtual awards ceremony, which will be hosted by The Center for Fiction on June 23, 2021 at 7pm ET.

Fiction Finalists and their Presses

David Tung Can’t Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College by Ed Lin, published by Kaya Press
Fiebre Tropical by Juli Delgado Lopera, published by Feminist Press
Further News of Defeat by Michael X. Wang, published by Autumn House Press
Hezada! I Miss You by Erin Pringle, published by Awst Press
Silence Is My Mother Tongue by Sulaiman Addonia, published by Graywolf Press
Silverfish by Rone Shavers, published by CLASH Books
Telephone by Percival Everett, published by Graywolf Press
Temporary by Hilary Leichter, published by Coffee House Press
When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu, translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse, published by Milkweed Editions
Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton, published by Soft Skull Press

Special thanks to Cedric Rudolph and Janette Schafer for the Pushcart nomination! The Redefining Masculinity anthology is such a great project. I’m proud to be part of it and can’t wait until it’s out in the world.

I’m proud to announce that I’m a fiction judge for the CLMP’s Firecracker Awards, which “are given annually to celebrate books and magazines that make a significant contribution to our literary culture and the publishers that strive to introduce important voices to readers far and wide.”

You can read more about the awards (and the open submission period, which is Oct 1 to Nov 16, 2020) here.

I’m proud that one of my first publications was in the Canadian art journal Papirmass. When my novel was published, Kirsten helped share the news. Nearly a decade after my stories first appeared in Papirmass, my debut collection got published, and Bec and Kirsten were among the first to congratulate me and help spread the word.

Aside from being run by lovely people, Papirmass was one of the first art journals/subscription services to make art affordable and accessible, and they’ve supported so many up-and-coming artists and writers. Sadly, they’re closing down after 13 years. If you’re interested in buying a print (or packages of postcards, quote cards, or coloring cards), they’re having a limited-time archive sale. You can check it out here.

Interested in the research process, especially how to research an entire culture or nation? Want to hear some anecdotes about history, food, and the first time Koreans heard a piano? My research notes for Impossible Children are up today!

In the creative writing classes I teach, scene often becomes an early point of emphasis, especially when it applies to fiction. Hemingway’s classic “Hills Like White Elephants” stands as an exemplar, as the brief story relies on little more than setting and dialogue. According to Nancy Pagh, author of the thoughtfully written “Write Moves: A Creative Writing Guide and Anthology,” scene “can be as forceful as an explosion at a fireworks factory or as subtle as a lover’s eye contact shifting slightly away… creat(ing) the impression we’re there, experiencing what happens through our senses. This is ‘showing.’” In his latest, the Mary McCarthy Prize winning collection of 18 short-stories, “Impossible Children” (Sarabande Books), novelist Robert Yune clearly gets this, using place and well-rendered, self-aware characters to great effect, making for some of the most compelling reading I’ve done in a while.

Special thanks to Fred Shaw for this lovely review. Really missing my friends and the special literary community in Pittsburgh this evening.