Glimmer Train Stories, #95 - Softcover

John Thornton Williams; Claire Luchette; Tamar Jacobs; Michael Varga; Aaron Guest; Vera Kurian; Aja Gabel; S.A. Rivkin; Emily McKay; Andrew Roe; Lee Conell; David Naimon (interviewer); Jonathan Lethem; Micah Nathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1595530444 ISBN 13: 9781595530448

Publisher: Glimmer Train Press, Inc., 2015

Synopsis

Literary Short stories by established and emerging writers.

John Thornton Williams
Darling, Keith, the Subway Girl, and Jumping Joe Henry
Darling kept his head down. Probably none of those girls had been in that fraternity basement last night, where he'd fought another homeless man for a fifth of liquor, but he didn't want to take the chance.

Claire Luchette
Full
In New York, he shows you the Angel of Bethesda in Central Park, and, with gusto and exaggerated sibilance, he recites the final monologue in Angels in America. "The world only spins forward, we will be citizens. The time has come."

Tamar Jacobs
The Wall Between
Her mother thought fish was a life-extending food (unlike red meat, a life-diminishing one), and so they ate it whenever there was money.

Michael Varga
Chad Erupts in Strife
Chad was now part of the family narrative, and there was no telling how the story would end.

Aaron Guest
The Hecklers
"If only life was being recorded," he said at Elliot's one night before the AA meeting. "Then you'd know when the blitz was coming. I mean, you could at least know, from previous plays, that the blitz was coming."

Vera Kurian
The Bleeding Room
They start to argue, as usual, and I've gotten so used to them that I almost find it easier to concentrate, with all the noise.

Aja Gabel
Necessary Animals
The trees are so close together in those woods that they look like tall old men leaning together, alive, whispering.

S.A. Rivkin
How to Survive a Non-Funeral
It was an all-family affair, and I couldn't understand why I was even permitted. I couldn't think of a single thing to say to the dying man.

Emily McKay
Affording to Lose
I caught myself wide awake and thinking, "I feel ... amazing," and then realized, "No, Caroline. That sentiment does not apply."

Andrew Roe
A Matter of Twenty-Four Hours
The right person would make all the difference. The right person would save him. And much time and effort and energy had been wasted over the years because of this belief.

Lee Conell
The Afterlife of Turtles
On good days we talk about science fiction and soup. On bad days we talk about turtle heaven and hell.

Jonathan Lethem
Interview by David Naimon
These things are always fragile. We pass through them. Neighborhoods, families, movements. And we are struck by them. They seem to be a vision of a world that we want to stay inside but it can't sustain.

Micah Nathan
In Search of Absolutely Nothing
"I thought Mayans invented the zero," Tosh said. "How can anyone invent the zero?" Katherine asked.

About this title

About the Author:

John Thornton Williams has studied writing at the University of Tennessee, Hollins University, and the University of Wyoming, where he is an MFA candidate. He is a recipient of the Tennessee Williams Scholarship in Fiction to attend the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and his fiction has recently appeared online in Story, Witness, Joyland, and The Masters Review. This is his first print publication.

Claire Luchette is a writer who once lived in Brooklyn and is now in the MFA program in fiction writing at the University of Oregon. This is her first published story. Tamar Jacobs is a writer whose stories have been published in Hayden's Ferry Review, the Louisville Review, South Jersey Underground, and the Dirty Napkin. She lives with her husband and son in Akron, Ohio.

After a stint in the Peace Corps in Chad, Michael Varga became an American diplomat serving primarily in the Middle East. Michael is a playwright and actor, as well as a writer of fiction. Three of his plays have been produced. "Collapsing into Zimbabwe," a short story, earned him first prize in the competition sponsored by the Toronto Star. His columns have appeared in various newspapers and journals.

Aaron Guest is an MFA candidate at Seattle Pacific University. He lives with his wife and three children. He is writing a novel filled with long sentences. This will be his first publication.

Vera Kurian spent her formative years in D.C., New York, and Los Angeles, and works as a research psychologist. This is her first story accepted for print publication. Aja Gabel's fiction has appeared in the New England Review, BOMB, and is forthcoming in Kenyon Review. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MFA from the University of Virginia, and is pursuing a PhD in literature and creative writing at the University of Houston.

S.A. Rivkin was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and immigrated to the United States at a young age. He has lived throughout the Midwest, and recently moved to San Marcos, Texas, to pursue an MFA at Texas State University. "How to Survive a Non-Funeral" is his first fiction publication.

Emily McKay is a recent graduate of the Creative Writing MLitt program at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and is currently working on a book-length memoir about seeking bipolar medication from within a Pentecostal family in Arizona.

Andrew Roe's debut novel was The Miracle Girl. His fiction has appeared in Tin House, One Story, The Sun, the Cincinnati Review, as well as the anthologies Where Love Is Found and 24 Bar Blues. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Salon. He lives in Oceanside, California, with his wife and three children.

Lee Conell grew up in New York City. In 2012 she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to earn an MFA in creative writing at Vanderbilt University. This is her first short story accepted for publication; since that acceptance, her work has appeared, or will appear, in Guernica, American Short Fiction online, Five Chapters, and Crazyhorse.

Jonathan Lethem's novels include Dissident Gardens, Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, and Chronic City. He is known as well for his genre fiction, his hard-boiled detective and science fiction books, his revival of the Marvel comic Omega the Unknown, and for editing the Library of America's edition of Philip K. Dick's novels.

Micah Nathan is a novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His works include the novels Gods of Aberdeen, Losing Graceland, and the collection Jack the Bastard and Other Stories. His work has appeared in Vanity Vair, the Paris Review, Best American Mystery Stories, Boston Globe Magazine, and the Gettysburg Review.

About this edition

• Publisher: Glimmer Train Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1595530444
• ISBN 13: 9781595530448
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Susan Burmeister-Brown, Linda B. Swanson-Davies
• Illustrator: Jane Zwinger