Tags
Bibliophilopoly, Dancing Girl, Deal Me In Reading Challenge, Hyacinth Girl Press, short story "playlist", Short Story Month, StoryaDay.org Extreme Writing Challenge
Bridget Reading (1959) by Peter Samuelson
April was an exhausting month filled with frenzied poetry writing challenges and a steady diet of readings.
May has now dawned, but it looks to be no less action-packed. Many are polishing poetry manuscripts for the open calls at small presses like Dancing Girl and Hyacinth Girl.
And then there is the lesser known but increasingly popular StoryADay.org Extreme Writing Challenge, which much like the Poetry Month challenges calls on participants to produce daily work from prompts.
Some of the exercises look really interesting, and they have big names like Neil Gaiman contributing, but I am not sure that the pace is something I can maintain. I prefer to take story writing much slower, but am always up for a dose of good reading.
That’s why I am recommending the Deal Me In Reading Challenge as an alternative way to celebrate the genre. This is a year-long readathon with a story-a-week pace, but participants are certainly welcome to move at their own schedule.
Jay already has a great list of selections up on the site with more recommendations at his twitter account @Bibliophilopoly.
I haven’t quite got a 52 track “playlist” ready just yet, but here are some of my favorite reads in the form:
Available Online:
Barn Burning by William Faulkner
Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty
The Storm by Kate Chopin
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
Miriam by Truman Capote
From Collections:
Cry Cry Cry by Sherman Alexie
Eisenheimer the Illusionist by Steven Millhauser
Room 101-Benny Does Dublin by Roddy Doyle
Gerald’s Monkey by Michael Knight
Men on the Moon by Simon J. Ortiz
Angry Fish by Susan Power
Grit by Tom Franklin
Monstress by Lesley Tenorio
The Littoral Zone by Andrea Barrett
Lucho by Patricia Engel
Walk the Blue Fields and Night of the Quicken Trees by Claire Keegan
Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros
The Problem with Susan by Neil Gaiman
Melinda Falling by Jincy Willet
Love too Long by Barry Hannah
Leave your own “playlist” in the comments and I’ll feature the best compilations in a future post.
I’m one of those crazy poetry freaks who goes gremlin without an occasional fix. I find a few of the more mainstream books locally, but for the really good stuff you have to scout out the small presses. Here’s my go-to list: