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On Sunday night I had this great 2 1/2 hour phone conversation with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thebrownhornet which essentially only had to end because my ear was sore from the phone and my feet were tired (I'm a big pacer when I'm talking on the phone, so going back and forth through my apartment for over 2 hours with only 3 short breaks for cigarettes made for a strange workout). One of the topics of conversations was magazines we currently love and I went on and on about how this past year of Harper's Weekly was the best collection of essays and creative nonfiction and news stories that had ever come to pass (hyperbole) and that I saved every single issue because of this belief in being part of a watershed time, and he mentioned that he's newly into Atlantic Monthly, which was funny because I had just decided I didn't like Atlantic and pitched every back issue I had except for the 3 most recent.
But then yesterday I wandered into a bookstore after working in the library and found my way to the magazine section and there in the fiction section was a new Atlantic Monthly issue devoted entirely to fiction. I remembered thatthebrownhornet had sent me a news article awhile back that they were discontinuing the monthly publication of short stories, and I guess now they're just doing once-a-year publishing, which I think is a pretty good idea. I almost wish New Yorker would follow suit. So I picked it up and read this Charles Baxter short story which is surprising that I read it first since I'm only tentatively starting to accept his presence in my life. Everyone and their mother in MFA programs seems to love him and that often makes me feel turned off, but I've been trying to get over the pre-judging and I've read some essays that are starting to warm me up to him. So I read this short story and it's absolutely devastating and lovely and I was going to type out a favorite section, but it doesn't resonate at much off the page while standing alone, it needs the context of the story and the build to be fully impacted.
So that's my recommendation for the day: The Atlantic Monthly fiction issue and the short story by Charles Baxter. And also the essay by Rick Moody on workshopping.
And now, apropos of nothing, here's a self-portrait:
( this one's for triggerjane )
thebrownhornet which essentially only had to end because my ear was sore from the phone and my feet were tired (I'm a big pacer when I'm talking on the phone, so going back and forth through my apartment for over 2 hours with only 3 short breaks for cigarettes made for a strange workout). One of the topics of conversations was magazines we currently love and I went on and on about how this past year of Harper's Weekly was the best collection of essays and creative nonfiction and news stories that had ever come to pass (hyperbole) and that I saved every single issue because of this belief in being part of a watershed time, and he mentioned that he's newly into Atlantic Monthly, which was funny because I had just decided I didn't like Atlantic and pitched every back issue I had except for the 3 most recent. But then yesterday I wandered into a bookstore after working in the library and found my way to the magazine section and there in the fiction section was a new Atlantic Monthly issue devoted entirely to fiction. I remembered that
thebrownhornet had sent me a news article awhile back that they were discontinuing the monthly publication of short stories, and I guess now they're just doing once-a-year publishing, which I think is a pretty good idea. I almost wish New Yorker would follow suit. So I picked it up and read this Charles Baxter short story which is surprising that I read it first since I'm only tentatively starting to accept his presence in my life. Everyone and their mother in MFA programs seems to love him and that often makes me feel turned off, but I've been trying to get over the pre-judging and I've read some essays that are starting to warm me up to him. So I read this short story and it's absolutely devastating and lovely and I was going to type out a favorite section, but it doesn't resonate at much off the page while standing alone, it needs the context of the story and the build to be fully impacted. So that's my recommendation for the day: The Atlantic Monthly fiction issue and the short story by Charles Baxter. And also the essay by Rick Moody on workshopping.
And now, apropos of nothing, here's a self-portrait:
( this one's for triggerjane )
