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Mixed Media

Hannah Kimei

I’ve often wondered if it’s possible to approach writing in a similar way to how my fine artist friends approach their craft. As an undergrad, I first started writing stories at about the same time I was hired to work at the bookstore at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. For two years, I spent afternoons shuffling around the store looking at books and trinkets and talking to my co-workers who were mostly all artists themselves. There was Frieda, who made hammerhead sharks out of leather, and Kim, who froze and gutted a dead raccoon to embalm in a jar. Zan made abstract paintings of spaghetti, and Hana returned to her exhibit every day through the length of her show to burn up an object she had papier-mâchéd. I listened to all these projects, amused and amazed, and thought, Why can’t I do something like that?

The Herald

Lynne Nugent

What do TIR graduate student editors do when they're not opening mail at the office? Writing, of course! Between afternoons of paper cuts and envelope licking, former occupant of TIR's fiction desk Josh Rolnick was working on a collection of stories he will be back in town reading at Prairie Lights tonight. Here's an excerpt:

Steve Almond's GOD BLESS AMERICA

Jennifer Bowen Hicks

God Bless America could almost be read as thirteen irreverent prayers: Dear [Whomever]: save us from our smallness. But no prayer will make you laugh the way Steve Almond does with his newest collection of stories, one of which was included in America’s Best, another in the Pushcart Prize Anthology. In Almond’s America, parents and children, TSA agents and smart-mouthed kids, horny Jews and voyeuristic mothers do embody American tics and isms—racism and escapism to name just a couple—but they’re at their most tragic when they orbit around each other, failing to connect. Time and again, as Almond’s characters almost touch (sometimes physically, sometimes emotionally), there’s a nearly visceral hesitation: will they or won’t they do it?

Utne Reader: What Are YOU Looking At?

Sarah Kosch

I may be sentimental to an obscene degree, but I think most of us can agree that Susan McCarty’s “Services Pending” from our Fall 2010 issue and Danielle Deulen's “Aperture” from Spring 2011 are two essays that sucker-punch one somewhere under the ribcage and leave—if not full-on tears—at least a pause. It was no surprise to me when Lynne told me Utne Reader had reprinted the former and was also interested in reprinting the latter. I didn’t know what Utne was all about, but I was already convinced of their superior taste.

Then Lynne handed me an issue to look through, and Hugh Hefner gazed back at me and asked the question: “21^st Century Sex: What are you looking at?”

“I’m not really sure, Hugh,” I said. “But I’m intrigued to find out.”

From the Archive: Ann Patchett's "Africa"

TIR staff

To celebrate Publishers Weekly's naming of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder as one of the Best Books of 2011, we give you her short story "Africa" from our Spring 1988 issue (18/2):

Africa

ONE

"Boo." Georgia opened the closet door and peered inside. She could hear Lewis' light breathing and make out the shape of his small shoes in the darkness behind the coats. "When someone says 'Boo' you're supposed to say 'Boo' back at them. Otherwise it's bad luck." The silence continued for a while.

"Boo." Lewis said.

Mixed Media

The Herald

Steve Almond's GOD BLESS AMERICA

Utne Reader: What Are YOU Looking At?

From the Archive: Ann Patchett's "Africa"

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