Best of luck to our nominees! To order a copy of The Greensboro Review Issues 87 and/or 88 in which this work appears, see our subscription page here: http://www.greensbororeview.org/about/
More of our contributors made appearances around the Web this October:
Two poets from the Fall 2010 issue of The Greensboro Review had work featured on Verse Daily this past week: Michael Derrik Hudson's "Man Vs. Nature" and Annie Appleton's "When Big Falls"
Ever wonder what pulses through the head of a true genius?Well, I wonder about it all the time.That’s why I sat down with Hao Nguyen—fiction editor here at The Greensboro Review—and threw a few questions her way.Without further ado…
This is Hao Nweayen.Did I pronounce that right?
No.It’s okay.
[Laughing] I’m so sorry.We’re off to a bad start. Pronounce your last name.
New-yen..It’s actually Nguyen, but I’ll say New-yen..
I’m going to start blushing.What’s one thing—
That’s good.I like to make you blush.
What’s one thing you like about being an editor?
I like reading stories.So I’m pretty happy to read a whole bunch of stories everyday.It’s my dream job to sit and read all friggin day.
When you’re reading stories, what, if anything, are you looking for?
I’m looking for a story that can transport me because if it does not transport me, I am bored.So I have to believe in that world and be fully in it.Otherwise, I get very critical very quickly.
What are your pet peeves when it comes to submissions?
Asian stereotypes.I’m just the wrong editor for that sort of thing.
Do you find that you run into them often?
We’ve only run into 3 out of four hundred so far.I also hate stock female character whose sole purpose is to be sexy for the male protagonist.Or to be elusive for the male protagonist.
So do you find that if a female character is sexy in an introductory scene, do you find yourself cold to her to begin with?
No.
To the writer?
No.It has to be… I give benefit of the doubt for the first couple pages, but after that, I’m very reluctant to read on.I hate pursuit stories.
That’s right.
Where the man pursues the woman and the woman doesn’t have any kind of character.It’s just about how hard it is to be a guy.Like those self-pitying pursuit stories.
If the story you’re reading were a person, what would your relationship to he/she be?
Interviewer.Like for a job interview.
Ok.That’s much better than my answer.
Your answer was fine! Yeah but, you know, I’m cordial enough,
You’re asking questions where the story’s going from the get-go?
No, for the first couple pages, I’m willing to let them take me on a ride, but if there’s no ride present and I’m still sitting in my chair then that’s when I won’t turn the page.But I like—yeah—I feel like an interviewer where I’m judging and looking around but if they win me over, I want to be their buddy.Then I’m like that sidekick.Like “Let me be your friend”.If I don’t like the story, then I’m like that mean girl at a party that won’t talk to you… you know, yeah.No, maybe mean girl at the party isn’t the right thing.No, I’m the loan officer that’s politely telling you, “No friggin way”.Your credentials or your credit report that is your story does not pass.No offense.Sorry, next please.
Lastly, If you could have a super power, what would it be?
I think I want to be—you know the invisible girl in the fantastic four?She has the lamest powers, but then in one of these comic series, she could make force fields in people’s minds and thereby explode their heads.
Oh?
But yeah, she could be both invisible and create force fields so like--
That’s pretty morbid.
Yeah.But I mean she’s protecting too because of the force fields.Right?
Okay.And when did you realize you wanted to explode people’s brains by using force fields?
When I started working with Benjamin Klinkner.I was like, you know what would solve this work situation? Force field brain blowing power.
It would come in handy?
It would come in extremely handy.
You were actually lurking around the office this morning as opposed to “banking” and you were trying to figure out where to put the force field in my brain?
Ben, little do you know, I already plotted out—
So it’s just a matter of expanding—
The amygdala, the center of fear.I would stress it first.
Greensboro Review Issue 50 contributorBrad Watson answered questions this week about his writing practices, his favorite books, and his dogs over at the Fictionaut blog.
Poet Kent Shaw, whose work was published in our Fall 2007 issue, had the Poem of the Week for Sept. 28, 2010 over at The Missouri Review. Read his poem, "Why you can't build a city fast enough," here.
The Memphis Flyer ran an interesting story about Greensboro Review contributor Bobby C. Rogers and his debut poetry collection Paper Anniversary, which was winner of 2009 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. His work most recently appeared in Issue 88 of The Greensboro Review.
Earlier this month, poet, novelist, and short fiction writer Ron Rash won the Frank O'Connor award for his fourth short story collection, Burning Bright. The Greensboro Review first published Rash's fiction in Issue 64. Read about the Frank O'Connor award and Rash's other achievements here.
And finally--although quite belatedly on our part but still worthy of a note here nonetheless--Greensboro Review contributor Cathy Smith Bowers was named the 2010 North Carolina Poet Laureate. We first published her poetry way back in Issue 26. Read all about how Cathy Smith Bowers's writing career has grown since then at the N.C. Arts Council Poet Laureate page.
Ben is my esteemed fiction co-editor. I asked Ben some questions that I thought might be useful to writers or anyone that’s curious about Mr. Klinkner. We found some seats in the grad student lounge (carefully avoiding the one with the suspiciously large seat stains) and commenced with the interrogation.
Tell me one thing you like about being an editor.
I like the moments when I realize three or four pages into a story that it’s actually a good one and I have something that my lovely coworker and I might actually be working on—as opposed to something that’s going into the pile we’re not going to use. The good stories are definitely more rare than the bad ones.
When you’re reading, what, if anything, are you looking for?
First and foremost, I’m looking for technical ability because I feel like all too often we see things that reflect unpracticed writing. Technical ability and coherence and coherent structure are probably things I’m looking for first.
So you ignore the pretty stamps?
No, pretty stamps are first. Then all the other stuff.
Yesterday, Bob-the-Mailman stopped by, as he usually does on slow afternoons. He took a seat in an empty swivel chair, picked up a spare copy of The Writer's Chronicle from another editor's desk, and promptly asked me how my life was going as a professional poet.
At first, I was a little taken-aback by that title. Professional poet? Is he talking to me?
But I guess when you're paid to read poetry all day, and known to be writing poetry when you're not reading it, that could make you--me--a professional poet.
Granted, I'm still wearing my grad student hat in addition to my duties at The Greensboro Review, but my paycheck is attached to this editorial job. And then it dawned on me: A job for reading poetry!? How lucky!
Moreover, how cool is it that my mailman is interested in my career as a poet, so much so as to casually ask me about it? I don't think my parents even understand what I do. But Bob--well, Bob's keeping me in check.
In an article that appears this week over at the online magazine The Millions, Greensboro Review Editor Jim Clark describes the writing community that has supported and surrounded this literary journal for 40-some-odd years:
There’s people out there who sit on their porches and talk about books, and drink together, and peck away in their rooms.
Indeed, we live in a place where writers are part of the community, and where, as journalist Bill Morris puts it in his article:
There’s a sense here that if your writing is not always avidly read by your neighbors, at least its making is regarded with genuine respect by them.
That's neighbors like Bob, people whom I'm certainly thankful to be around. And what better place to send your poetry for publication than where poets are welcome?
You can read more about Greensboro's literary community in Morris's The Millions article here.
And poets, when you're looking for places to send your work, remember how friendly things are down here. Our next submissions deadline is February 15.
Hearty congrats go out to contributors Travis Klunick and Elizabeth Gonzalez, both of whose work was selected for the The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 anthology, which hits bookstores this week. Klunick's and Gonzalez's fiction pieces first appeared in The Greensboro Review issue No. 85 (Spring 2009). If you a pick up a copy of the anthology, look for these star stories in the Table of Contents:
From the Best American Series website: "[This is a]n eclectic volume introduced by David Sedaris and compiled by Dave Eggers and students of his San Francisco writing center, who don't leave a stone unturned in their search for nonrequired gems."
View the full Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 Table of Contents here.
Ben (my esteemed co-editor for fiction) and I get a lot of shorter stories. Anything below 10-12 pages counts as short to us. Around here, we call them short-shorts or flash fiction. When I hold those very thin envelopes, I have a moment of both dread and anticipation. The Greensboro Review does not traditionally publish very short pieces, but it’s a new year with new editors and newness is the name of the game. The problem with finding the right ones to publish, however, is that there’s only so much room in each issue and we, of course, want the very best selection for readers. Short-shorts are facing stiff competition from longer stories that have the luxury of time and space to emotionally devastate and delight the reader. This is not unlike the impact difference between short stories and novels.
Length alone doesn’t accomplish that perfect mix of intrigue, truth, and emotion, but it certainly gives the writer more flexibility. Our most frequent reaction to the reasonably well-written short-short is, “But I wish there was more.” More story, more emotion, more meaning, more impact. More of everything. A short-short faces the risk of seeming incomplete and anemic—as if it were a rough outline of a longer and better story. Sometimes we get this sense because the story moves to emotional high points so fast that it reads as overblown. Other times the story’s dearth of emotion makes it more of an anecdote and leaves little impression.
Short-shorts are not easier versions of short stories (a mistake I used to make when daunted by the empty page). As John L’Heureux puts it, “The short-short story is an exercise in virtuosity that tightens the circle of mystery surrounding what we know.” This was on the back cover of Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories. I love the way he says this though I probably don’t understand it in full. The first part, the idea of the short-short as a virtuoso’s playground, however, rings absolutely true. Any misstep in a short-short is amplified just because there’s not much around it. One false line of dialogue is ignorable in a longer piece, forgettable in a novel, but blaring and horrible in anything very short. In this way, short-shorts are closer to poetry than not. Everything counts. And then, for The Greensboro Review, it has to be just as good as any of the longer short stories. So standards are high. They might even be ridiculous.
Now that I’ve terrified or angered anyone who writes very short pieces, some hope: I’m just one person with my own biases. It’s possible that I’m flat out wrong. Here are three examples of shorter pieces I admire:
“Fallen Nellie” by Brad Watson. Appears in Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives: Stories. (Preview in Google Books.)
“Day Ah Dallas Mare Toes” by Luna Calderon. Appears in Sudden Fiction Latino. (Preview in Google Books.)
“Sunday in the Park” by Bel Kaufman. Appears in Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories.
Verse Daily has selected another gem from The Greensboro Review for its daily dose of good poetry. Check out Stephen Massimilla's "Etymology" from Issue 87 featured there today.
A sampling of other poems from the GR archives that appear on Verse Daily:
