Full disclosure. I’m probably not going to be linking to many stories in Hey, Internet for a while. This is because I may (may) soon be contributing to a column about great story finds on the web for a particular publication that I just finished interning for. Maybe. Essentially, I’m going to be hoarding all the good stories for myself for a while, in the off chance I want to write about them elsewhere. Sorry. In the meantime, have some very interesting essays.
Brian Oliu has completed his collection of lyric essays about video games. I read a few of these essays when they appeared in Hobart, and I’m quite excited to find out that there are more of them. Oliu links to the ones that have appeared online, so go read a few for yourself.
Towards A More Complete Measure of Excellence
Roxane Gay points out that major presses rule the “best of” lists. As usual, she is super astute. Small presses are often razor sharp. They give your brain paper cuts. I get really excited every time The Collagist comes out. Or PANK. I’m submitting my short shorts to Wigleaf. I’m saving up for a subscription to Hobart.
Stephen Burt talks about superheroes as poetic subject and point of cultural reference. A wonderfully well-researched, insightful piece.
Lore Segal’s “Reverse Bug” is one of my favorite short stories. In other places where you’ve discussed this, in the interviews excerpted in Into the Arms of Strangers, you say that for years you replaced the statement (and it is a statement), “Isn’t this intolerable?” with “Isn’t this interesting?”
VQR Fall 2011: The Soviet Ghost
The Virginia Quarterly Review commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union with a themed issue. Ed Ou’s essay “Under a Nuclear Cloud” is one of many excellent pieces of writing to be found in it. There’s also short fiction in there. But, shhh, you didn’t hear about it from me.
Defunct Girl Gangs of North American Drive-Ins
All right, one story. Just one. I can’t resist. Luke Geddes’ latest is one of those stories that I really wish I had written myself. The title says it all.
A. Werner 