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Congrats to Chad Simpson!

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:24:56 -0500

Chad Simpson’s Tell Everyone I Said Hi is the winner of the 2012 John Simmons Short Fiction Award from the University of Iowa Press!

From the press’ website:

The world of Chad Simpson’s Tell Everyone I Said Hi is geographically small but far from provincial in its portrayal of emotionally complicated lives. With all the earnestness of a Wilco song, these eighteen stories roam the small-town playgrounds, blue-collar neighborhoods, and rural highways of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky to find people who’ve lost someone or something they love and have not yet found ways to move forward. In “Peloma,” a steel worker grapples with his teenage daughter’s feeble suicide attempts while the aftermath of his wife’s death and the politics of factory life vie to hem him in. The narrator of “Fostering” struggles to determine the ramifications of his foster child’s past now that he and his wife are expecting their first biological child. In just two pages, “Let x” negotiates the yearnings and regrets of childhood through mathematical variables and the summertime interactions of two fifth-graders. Poignant, fresh, and convincing, these are stories of women who smell of hairspray and beer and landscapers who worry about their livers, of flooded basements and loud trucks, of bad exes and horrible jobs, of people who remain loyal to sports teams that always lose. Displaced by circumstances both in and out of their control, the characters who populate Tell Everyone I Said Hi are lost in their own surroundings, thwarted by misguided aspirations and long-buried disappointments, but fully open to the possibility that they will again find their way.

Pretty exciting. Congrats to Chad!

Read Chad’s matchbook story, Fourteen, here.

Eugenio Volpe at matchbook

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:13:41 -0500

Eugenio Volpe gives us what he came up with when a friend of his found a cabinet full of outdated mug shots.

His friend came up with some pretty neat stuff as well.

Also, did we tell you? AWP!

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:58:29 -0500

We will be tabling with the good people over at NANO Fiction.

If you find yourself in the haze of AWP, come by and give us a hug.

Kyle Hemmings at matchbook

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:54:00 -0500

Keep warm?

No problem. It’s going to be 44 today.

In celebration, read this piece by Kyle Hemmings.

Then

do some

kind

dance.

Krammer Abrahams at matchbook!

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:41:00 -0500

A doozie for you today:

boots walking in america bought some new boots by Krammer Abrahams

at matchbook

for real.

You’ve maybe been waiting for something like this.

Robert Kloss at matchbook

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:11:00 -0500

Exciting excerpt from Robert Kloss’s forthcoming MLP title, The Alligators of Abraham.

The excerpt is called A City of Bison. You should probably read it.

You heard me.

And if you missed our review of Kloss’s current MLP title, How the Days of Love & Diptheria, read it here.

Chanel Dubofsky at matchbook

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:31:00 -0500

Holiday one of two: complete.

Get yourself through by way of matchbook.

Today, a tiny piece by Chanel Dubofsky called Blind.

Get yourself through.

Get yourself.

Get.

Matthew Savoca at matchbook

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:13:00 -0500

A tiny novel excerpt from Matthew Savoca, entitled Jean.

Do you eat turkey?

Review: 'How The Days Of Love & Diptheria' by Robert Kloss

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:41:00 -0500

-Edward Mullany

Who or what is the antagonist in Robert Kloss’s novella, How The Days Of Love & Diptheria?

Or is there an antagonist to speak of?

The book is written in the second person; it is about “you”, a vague yet powerful individual or force that seems intent on bringing the apocalypse. I say “seems” because it’s possible that the violence that comprises this “apocalypse” is merely a consequence of a different mission, one that involves the pursuit of a nameless boy whose parents “you” have already slain. Across the countryside, and through the years, this boy hides and persists, desperate at first, terrified of “your black masks and long teeth”, living under the soil as “your horses thundered the hillsides”. Later, by his wits, and through a little violence of his own, the boy returns to civilization (which has already been decimated by that diptheria of the title); he lives among people, falls in love, procreates, only to see his son killed in an onrush of light and noise that he and his wife somehow survive. An explanation or motive for any of this isn’t given. Animals fall from the sky.

This is the plot of the book as best I can describe it. It is a beautiful and original piece of writing, though strange and contradictory. We are told that this is the story “of what you did and what the boy intended to do…the story of how the boy followed you and yours.” But while we are witness to the first part - what you did - we never quite see the second part - where the boy follows you. Or, though we do see him follow you, we see that he lacks urgency, so that he appears to not be following you. He becomes distracted. Love happens to him. He moves from place to place in a way that might be aimless. And toward the end, when he thinks to himself, “I should have killed them,” it seems that he means “you”, though he never appeared to have a chance to kill you.

But the contradictions, if that is what they are, are less a problem than a part of the story’s structure. The very first paragraph includes the caveat, “Few stories so conflicted as who was found and how they were found,” and goes on to describe the opposing ways the parents may have been slain. This is followed by one of the story’s central images - a house that burns without being consumed. Evoking the story of Moses, who hears the voice of Yahweh rising from a bush that “was alight, yet did not burn”, the episode lends the story a prophetic or holy tenor. We recognize that the world of the story is not a world we entirely know. Things can happen that ‘can’t’ happen. And because the house in question had belonged to the boy’s parents, we are now prepared to witness the events of the boy’s life in similar terms, as paradoxical.

Yet what eludes me still is who or what is the source of destruction in the story. It is a question I don’t think can be fully answered. And I don’t want it to be fully answered, because it’s the mystery the story depends on. We can say the antagonist is “you”, but why isn’t it the boy? The boy only seems to be the protagonist because the narrative follows him. There’s no clear moral high ground that he inhabits. Having been orphaned himself, he murders another boy early in the story, and takes that boy’s place in a family that isn’t his own. His vengeance isn’t wreaked so much as wasted.

And what further can we say about “you” anyway? At times you are characterized as a man or men on horseback - as in, “Now you appeared on the horizon, a dim line of seven figures, vibrating against an open chasm.” At other times you are associated with a flash that is nuclear in its savagery - an “impossible roar” that accompanies “light of a thousand, thousand candles.” Your face is never seen. You are one and you are many. Are you mortal? Are you the divine, or an aspect of the divine?

A quality of apocalyptic art is that it is cautionary. The beauty of that quality is that it’s ambiguous; it doesn’t lay blame in any specific way. It says, rather, “This is what your world may become”, and it allows us to conjecture as to why.

————————

“How The Days Of Love & Diptheria” published by Mud Luscious Press/Nephew, 2011 (50 pages, $10)

The first painting above is “Burning House with Clapboards” (2007) by Lois Dodd. The second painting is “Saturn Devouring His Son” (ca. 1819) by Francisco Goya.

Tom Mahony's Second Novel: Flooding Granite

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:20:00 -0500

matchbook contributor Tom Mahony’s second novel, Flooding Granite, is now out from Casperian Books! Check it out!

Joseph Young at matchbook!

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:13:00 -0500

The inimitable Joseph Young has a short at matchbook today entitled Monks.

You know what to do.

Double dose at matchbook

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:24:00 -0400

In case you missed matchbook in the last two weeks, we had a story by Matty Byloos, entitled Some of Them Almost Grew Up in the Zoo. The story rests pleasantly in our archive, waiting for you.

Up this week is sputnik 2, by Andrew Michael Roberts. Another gem. You really need to get on these. Really. It’ll do you good.

Philip Sultz at matchbook

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:10:00 -0400

We’re lucky to have a story by Philip Sultz today entitled Lunch and Loops.

We think you’re pretty lucky to have it too.

Several things

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:34:00 -0400

First, if you haven’t already, check out Sophie Rosenblum’s new story currently up at matchbook. It’s awesome!

Second, One Page Fiction was inspired by the Stephen Dixon story that appeared at matchbook.

Third, our second set of Google Ad stories are now on Google and are find-able! They are also published at matchbook here. Stories! The size of Google Ads! And run as Google Ads! Cool, right?

Lena Bertone at matchbook!

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:46:00 -0400

Wonderful story by Lena Bertone at matchbook today, entitled The Sleeping Woman.

Worth checking out. Really.

PS Stay tuned for the overdue sixth (and final!) postcard from our postcard series. If you’re a subscriber, start checking your mail next week!

Eric Beeny, back at matchbook!

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:57:00 -0400

Eric Beeny has a story at matchbook today, entitled Bridge.

We think it’s pretty fantastic. Please form your own opinion. We’re fine if your newly formed opinion mimic’s ours. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.

Marysa LaRowe at matchbook!

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:12:00 -0400

A great story today by Marysa LaRowe called Where I Live Now is now published at matchbook.

The wheels roll along. Summer wanes, sadly.

Bob Thurber at matchbook!

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:15:00 -0400

A novel excerpt!

Really!

By Bob Thurber entitled Grainy Black and White.

Pretty sweet.

Mathias Svalina at matchbook!

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:19:00 -0400

A new story by Mathias Svalina is up at matchbook entitled The Pregnant Couple.

Be sure to check it, and Mathias’s upcoming Mud Luscious Press release I Am A Very Productive Entrepreneur.

It is the fourth of July.

Catherine Campbell at matchbook!

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:00:00 -0400

Very nice story by Catherine Campbell up at matchbook today entitled The Window.

This is Catherine’s first publication. We’re very excited for her (and for us!).

It’s all just very exciting.