CONGRATULATIONS TO LEE MONTGOMERY

Whose World Is This? a collection of stories by Executive Editor of Tin House Books and Founder of the Tin House Writers Workshop, Lee Montgomery, has been nominated for the Oregon Book Awards' Ken Kesey Prize for Fiction. The winner will be announced November 9th at the awards ceremony.

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SPRING 2009 THEME ISSUE: APPETITES

The Spring 2009 theme of Tin House will be Appetites—for food, sex, drugs, drink, and our collective appetites for resources, entertainment, gratification, humiliation, etc... We're looking for stories, poems, and essays that address the Webster's definitions for Appetite:  "an inherent craving" or "any of the instinctive desires necessary to keep up organic life." Our deadline is December 1, but please submit early as the issue will fill quickly. Appetites will be in stores March 1 through June 1.

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TIN HOUSE MAGAZINE WRITERS GUIDELINES ADDITION

Writers' manuscripts must have the page number and the authors' names on each page, starting with the title page, as well as the word “end” on the final page of the submission. Further, on their cover letter, writers must indicate whether the story is fiction or nonfiction.

For more guidelines, check http://www.tinhouse.com/mag/mag_submit.htm.

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PUSHCARTS 2009

All of the folks here at the Tin House would like to congratulate the wicked goodness that is Shannon Cain's "Cultivation" and Bruce Smith's "Devotion: Red Shift" for receiving Pushcart Awards for 2009.  Look for them in the Pushcart Prize Anthology down the road.

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WE HAVE A WINNER!

Literary Arts just announced the winners of the 2007 Oregon Book Awards and Lee Montgomery, Editorial Director of Tin House Books and Executive Editor of Tin House was the winner of the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction for her memoir The Things Between Us (Free Press).

One of the judges, Lee Gutkind, described Montgomery’s work as “vivid and riveting like cinema” and praised her ability to craft “real-life characters with evocative sensitivity.”

Congratulations to Lee!!

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See how Stephen King turned his short story, "Memory" from Tin House #28 into a novel

On the Amazon.com page for Stephen King's new novel, Duma Key Chuck Verrill, King's longtime editor, discusses how the story was expanded from what Tin House subscribers read into what will surely be King's next bestseller. Also, you can read the full text of "Memory" alongside the first chapter of the book. Check it out.

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FANTASTIC FANTASY

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A Starred Review from Publishers Weekly for Satellite Convulsions: Poems from Tin House

"In this beautiful anthology, the poetry editors of the literary journal Tin House have cherry-picked from the magazine's past contributors. Representing the establishment are venerable poets such as Sharon Olds, Charles Simic and Donald Hall. Hall's poems are heartbreaking meditations on loss, containing the ghostlike presence of his late wife and muse, the poet Jane Kenyon: 'The months of absence hurry./In sleep I touch her skin/And wake in the stain of dawn, in fury.' Among the younger poets are two who continue to draw wider attention: Matthea Harvey, who has a brilliant knack for whimsically relaying the everyday oddity of the contemporary world, and Christian Hawkey, who conveys some of the widespread feeling of helplessness: 'I will sit down in the middle of an intersection.../ & pour gasoline over my head,/ & gaze up at the clean white object of a gathering cloud.' Poetry in translation also has a strong presence, through Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska and the late Yehuda Amichai, among others. Also adhering to the magazine's dictum to showcase both the very well known beside up and comers, this book gathers poems that are never self-indulgent, occasionally political, often intimate and in many cases timely, both universal and approachable, such as the title poem by Ben Doller: 'When I bend back to look at the satellite convulsions, I/ am an aqueduct for twilit rain.'"

The Journal of Jules Renard Featured in the Los Angeles Times Book Review!

"Jules Renard's endlessly amusing journals are available again, and whether read straight through or dipped into at random, they're a marvel to behold...readers of this work are certainly encouraged to laugh throughout at his singularly savage wit."—Tayt Harlin, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Read full review
 

Human Resources: We Have a Winner!

Human Resources by Josh Goldfaden has been awarded the 2008 Devil's Kitchen Fiction Prize. As part of the award, Goldfaden will read at the Devil's Kitchen Fall Literary Festival put on by Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His reading will be on Friday, October 24 at 5:00 pm.

"Looking at Animals," a story from Human Resources, was awarded the Lytle Fiction prize for being the best short story to appear in the Sewanee Review in 2007.

And Human Resources was also shortlisted for the 2007 Story Prize (http://www.thestoryprize.org/2007_short_list.html).

Two Starred Reviews for The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris

"As each chapter shifts from one voice to the next, Morris cranks up the tension so that by the time the dart match arrives, the book is impossible to put down. Morris explores how even the most banal choices we make—to get in the car or not?—can have a life-altering impact."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review and Pick of the Week

"Secrets and surprises are revealed as the narrative shifts among the five voices, injecting the culminating chapters with an almost unbearable tension. All the while, Morris continues to draw a subtle, near flawless portrait of the unique ways that small-town life can both nurture and suffocate its residents."— Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist, Starred Review

You Don't Know Me: A Citizen's Guide to Republican Family Values taking the country by storm

Win McCormack, Tin House publisher, kicked off his reading tour with a packed house at Powell's on Friday, August 22. Coming soon to a city near you! You Don't Know Me Events

"In graphic, devastating, and sometimes hilarious detail, Win McCormack reveals the true hypocrisy and depravity of those who love to quote the Bible but act like Caligula. When you finish You Don't Know Me, you will know for sure that the 'Family Values' phonies who have infected the GOP should never again be entrusted with the well-being of America."—Arianna Huffington, author of Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America

ELLE loves Lucia Nevai's Salvation!

"Crane is also, by way of Nevai’s humor and preternatural stylistic gifts, the kind of self-effacing, wickedly wise, subtly superior organic genius that we all long for in a protagonist...Salvation’s impossibly satisfying pearls begin arriving like rocks in an avalanche—one barely leaving its impression on you before another lands."—Rachel Rosenblit, ELLE

Girl Factory gets rave review in The New York Times Book Review

"In his delightful second novel, Girl Factory, Jim Krusoe manages to take lowly yogurt to new heights of repugnance...As with the best kind of horror story, Girl Factory occurs in a seemingly ordinary setting, and it's precisely the clash of the mundane with the horrific that the makes the narrative so absorbing."—Julia Scheeres, New York Times Book Review

Book Forum reviews Girl Factory, by Jim Krusoe:

As strangely whimsical as it is macabre, this tale could easily have become an on-the-run-from-the-law picaresque or an animal rights satire, but in Krusoe’s spirited hands it humbly fades into the backdrop, as the real story, far more sinister and equally madcap, unfolds...he is never heavy-handed—his writing is too unpretentious, his characters too wonderfully peculiar...We never learn, for instance, who the women are or how they came to be in their tubes. But this, too, underscores one of Krusoe’s themes: that life, unlike most stories, leaves so much unknowable. And this makes Girl Factory the best kind of novel—a wildly imagined tale with its own rules. A word of warning, however: You may never look at your yogurt the same way again. 

Read the full review

"DESPICABLE" says New York Magazine

 The arbiter of taste for all things...New Yorky, has decreed in its Approval Matrix that the cover of Do Me, Tin House Book's anthology of Tales of Sex and Love, is indeed despicable.

That is "Highbrow Depsicable," however, not "Lowbrow." 

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Literary Arts just announced the winners of the 2007 Oregon Book Awards and Lee Montgomery, Editorial Director of Tin House Books and Executive Editor of Tin House was the winner of the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction for her memoir The Things Between Us (Free Press).

One of the judges, Lee Gutkind, described Montgomery’s work as “vivid and riveting like cinema” and praised her ability to craft “real-life characters with evocative sensitivity.”

Congratulations to Lee!

Publisher's Weekly reviews Saving Angelfish, by Michele Matheson:

Matheson's promising debut, a gritty novel from Tin House Books' New Voice Series, tells the bleak story of a wayward L.A. junkie named Max. Virtually disowned by her dysfunctional parents, out of a job, sickeningly underweight, months behind on rent and unable to kick her debilitating heroin habit, Max flits from day to depressing day in a constant state of decrepitude. When she's not shooting up, she's snorting coke, and when she's not doing that she's thinking about her next fix. Despite her spiraling decline and a number of near-death experiences, nothing really changes for Max throughout her story. Her dealers (Grandpops, her crusty, repulsive landlord; and Carlotta, a beastly legless woman) and fellow junkies (Wolf and a roller-skating waif named Tutu) share Max's single-minded pursuit of getting high. Though initially mesmerizing, the drug-centric plot begins to ware a little thin; the crux of the book can be found in Max's unchanging attitude toward her life: "The goal is not to think-about anything. She winds up places, and that's fine." Nonetheless, Matheson's sharp, highly detailed prose thrusts readers in the driver's seat of an out-of-control life.

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LOS ANGELES TIMES NEW DISCOVERIES!

Food & Booze:
Essays and Recipes Edited by Michelle Wildgen, illustrated by Nicole J. Georges, Tin House Books: 226 pp., $16.95

“MOSTLY booze. Thank God. Maybe it's coming back. Or maybe it's just that, as Chris Offut writes in his contribution to this marvelous essay collection, "[t]here are two kinds of writers, you will hear people say, the ones who drink and the ones who quit." Then again, Offut's recipe is for baked possum; who wouldn't rather have a drink? Elissa Schappell, in "Ode to a Martini," quotes Dorothy Parker: "I like to have a martini / Two at the very most / After three I'm under the table, / After four I'm under my host." Lydia Davis, in "Eating Fish Alone" (one imagines a raccoon washing its paws in the river and looking anxiously about), provides a recipe for a smelly sardine sandwich. Sara Perry's essay on the apple is a walk in the park that begins with Eve, moves through Alice B. Toklas and ends with an uplifting recipe for pâte brisée and several versions of pie. "My first loaf sucks," reports Matthew Batt in "The Path of Righteousness," on his efforts at sourdough bread ("a Quonset-shaped loaf of despair"). "I feel like a soiled, unfaithful, pathetic man" ˜ this after having attempted a "nice brown sauce," inspired by Julia Child. These essays are pure fun, pure joy, every last honey-colored, 80-proof, diet-be-damned one of them ˜ and excellent attitude training for the coming holidays.”

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New Faculty! Applying!

We here are hunkering down for the gloomy winter in Portland but have another stellar faculty to give us something bright and warm to look forward to. In 2009 we'll be joined by some good old friends in Dorothy Allison, Steve Almond, Aimee Bender, Anthony Doerr and Charles D'Ambrosio; Jim and Karen Shepard will return, as will D.A. Powell and Marie Howe; David Shields will be back, in style and grace; and we're excited to introduce some some new folks to the Tin House coffle: Ron Hansen, Lan Samantha Chang, Ann Hood, and Kevin Young. Read more about them on our Faculty page and support them by buying their books!

We'll begin, again, accepting applications on January 1. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to write. And look forward to a new issue of Tin House coming in December, with new work from Ron Hansen, Anne Carson and Christopher Sorrentino. 

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September 2008 News

TOBI COGSWELL (04, 05, 06, 07, 08) will have her poem "I Know" published in the 07 issue of Eclipse and "New Year Tale" will appear in the Fall 07 issue of Spot Lit(erary) Mag(azine). She also has three poems ("Reckless Abandon," "Red Sequined Monkeys," and "Poste Restante") online at Verbsap. The 2007 issue of The Los Angeles Review features her poem, "The Dirty Joke." Her poem "After the Reception" is forthcoming in Sage Trail, and her poems "All She Can Do," "How to Vanish," "Transubstantiation," and "Jumping the Constellation" are out or forthcoming from Spot Lit(erary) (Mag)azine. Her poem, "World Cup Distance," will be forthcoming from Newport Review. Her poem "Nighttime Daytime" won honorable mention and "Just Once" won second prize in the Mona O'Connor Memorial Poetry contest by Southwest Manuscripters. Her poem, "Surrealist, Mon Amour," is in the SLEEPOVER issue of Prism Review, in honor of National Poetry Month. "Sad Kings and Sideways Fishes" has been accepted for the 2008 issue of Penumbra, and "Nighttime Daytime" and "Untitled" have been accepted for the Spring/Summer issue of the Homestead Review. Her poems "Try My Life", "Falling From the Sky," "Waiting," "Literary Love" and "The Good Rain" are forthcoming from Bellowing Ark, which will also publish her long sequence of poems, "21 Slices of Alice," in their July/August issue, as well as her poems "Ripening," "Cello," "She Runs With Sugar," "Just Once," and "Her Heart's Desire." Her poem, "I Wish I Looked Like Meg Ryan" has been accepted for the Winter, 2008 issue of the Cherry Blossom Review, as well. Her poem "My Secret Garden" has been acceptd for the Eros issue of Essence, a new poetry journal from Glascow, Scotland. She is also been chosen as the poet of the month at Moon Tide Press. Her poems "Skin to Skin" and "A Slice of Gina" will appear in the December 2008 Forge Journal.

PAMELA CROW's (07, Marie Howe) book of poems, "Inside This House," will be published by Main Street Rag press this month. It can be ordered online from their bookstore.

Andrew Roe (03, Peter Rock) has had fiction recently published in Glimmer Train, The Cincinnati Review, Salt Flats Annua, Avery Anthology and Failbetter.

Julie Dearborn (07, Abigail Thomas) will have essays on two online journals this fall, Somerset Review and Narrative.  

ALICIA GIFFORD ('03. '04, '06, '07) has a story entitled "At the Bar" in the current (Fall/Winter 2007) issue of Alaska Quarterly Review, and has an upcoming spoken word performance of four of her short stories (including two workshopped at Tin House Summer Workshops), produced by The New Short Fiction Series on May 9, 2007 at the Beverly Hills Library. Her short story (workshopped in '03 with JIM SHEPARD), "Toggling the Switch", originally published by Narrative Magazine and winning "The Million Writers Award" for Best Online Short Story of 2004, has been included in an ESL Textbook, Open Road Skills, 2nd Edition, published by Pearson-Longman in Canada, 2007. Her short story "Surviving Darwin" (originally published by The Barcelona Review) will be included in the 15th anniversary (and final) edition of The Best of Best of American Erotica 2008.

PAULA WHYMAN (07, Karen Shepard) has been awarded a fellowship with VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts) and has been asked to contribute a story to an anthology edited by Richard Peabody, founder and editor of Gargoyle magazine. She will also have a story, "Driver's Education," included in a forthcoming anthology from The Hudson Review. She also received a 2008 Individual Artist Award for “artistic excellence from the Maryland State Arts Council. She also had an essay read on NPR's "All Things Considered"; check it out. 

ALEX LEMON's ('05) second book of poems, Hallelujah Blackout, was just published. An excerpt of the title poem was selected by Charles Wright to be included in Best American Poetry 2008.

BENJAMIN PARZYBOK's ('05) novel, Couch, was picked up by Small Beer Press (run by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant www.lcrw.net). Here is the blurb: " Benjamin Parzybok's COUCH, in which three guys carry a couch across the
country in an exuberant and humorous debut reminiscent of The Life of Pi and Then We Came to the End, an episode of furniture moving gone awry becomes an impromptu quest of self-discovery, secret histories, and
unexpected revelations."

PAIGE CHANT ('07) has been accepted to the University of Washington's MFA program where she will begin her degree in the fall of '08.  

EILEEN CRONIN ('07) recently had a story of hers appear in the GW Review. An excerpt of her memoir will also appear in the Bellevue Literary Review. She won the Washington Writing Prize for Short Fiction in 2008 (awarded by the Washington Independent Writers, now American Independent Writers).

JAN ELLISON ('06) has been recognized by the following for her work: 2007 O.Henry Prize for my first published story, The Company of Men; Special Mention, Fiction, 2008 Pushcart Prize anthology; 100 Distinguished stories list, appendix to Best American 2007 (edited by Stephen King).

TAREK CHEMALY's ('06) poem "the colors of wisdom" won the "Med Poets Society" juried show in February '08, and my blog Beirut/NTSC (Never Twice Same City) [www.beirutntsc.blogspot.com] was elected as one of the most influential in the Middle East by ArabAd magazine (www.arabadmag.com) in January '08.

SARA KIRSCHENBAUM (06. 07) has two poems, "900 Day Siege" and "Housewife," in Kalliope - a Journal of
Women's Literature and Art  Vol. XXIX No. 1. She also has a piece of creative nonfiction, "Blue Refuge," forthcoming from Poetica Magazine.

LAURA VAN DEN BERG (07) has a collection of stories, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, forthcoming from Dzanc Books in 2009. Also, the title story was recently picked up by One Story.

LIZ PRATO (06, 07) had her story "He Never Gave It to You Straight" chosen as a runner up for the Juked Fiction Prize by Frederick Bartheleme, and will be published in Issue #5. She currently has an essay in Subtropics, #4, and an interview with her on the Subtropics website. She has work forthcoming in Iron Horse Literary Review, Gertrude Press, and Massage & Bodywork Magazine.

GRETCHEN MCCULLOUGH (07, Steve Almond) has two stories up at Storysouth this issue. "The Best of Bad Luck" and "A Little Honey and a Little Sunlight."

SEAN CARMAN (07, Jim Shepard) has been blogging for Huffington Post and its sister political humor site 23/6 (www.236.com). My 23/6 blog can be found here: http://www.236.com/contributors/sean_carman/

PAUL AUSTIN (07, Abigail Thomas) has a memoir coming out in September of 2008. The working title is Something for the Pain: An ER Doctor's Story. The publisher is W.W. Norton.

DEBORAH LOTT (07) will have her story, "Looking for an Angle," published by the Alaska Quarterly Review in 2008.

CANDY SHUE (06, Matthea Harvey) has two poems, "I Could Google" and "Seven Year Itch" on poemeleon.com. Her "Advice for Travelers" appears on ToastedCheese.com. And Verbsap published her essay, "The Goldfish Farm."

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If you'd like to learn a little more about our Workshop Leaders, check out these sites: Aimee Bender: http://www.flammableskirt.com

Steve Almond: http://www.stevenalmond.com

D A Powell: http://www.poetryflash.org/archive.284.Witt.html

Dorothy Allison: http://www.salon.com/books/int/1998/03/cov_si_31intb.html

Jim Shepard: http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum146.php

Charles D'Ambrosio: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040614fa_fact4

Charles D'Ambrosio: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040614fa_fact4