The Lonely Voice

And speaking of The Rumpus...

Most of the people who come around here frequent that place, no?

I hope so.

It really is one of my favorite sites to peruse, and I'm grateful to Stephen Elliott et. al. for the work that they do.

My favorite recent feature: Peter Orner is writing a column called "The Lonely Voice" about short stories. I've read three of the columns so far, and each one has twisted my little brain in just the right way. I can't wait to read the stories he's been talking about and then revisit what he had to say about them.

I also loved Dan Chaon's fairly recent tribute to his wife Sheila. It's honest and smart and heartbreaking and just about perfect.

About "The Lonely Voice"...

There are lots of people around the interwebs lately celebrating short story month, which is great, but I can't help but think that "The Lonely Voice" is the perfect title for a column about short stories. Since November, my agent has been shopping my collection around to the "big" houses, and while it's all been mostly positive, I can't help but think about the loneliness of it all.

Maybe sometime soon I'll contribute to the short story month discussion by posting excerpts of a couple of my rejections. It's not the kind of thing I would normally do around here, but it seems, right now, appropriate in some way.