Glimmer Train Stories, #79 - Softcover

Terrence Cheng; Vauhini Vara; Adam Theron-Lee Rensch; Rawi Hage; Selena Anderson; John Stazinski; Amy S. Gottfried; Sam Ruddick; Michael Schiavone; Sara Whyatt; Gabriel Brownstein; Diane Chang; Jeremiah Chamberlin (interviewer)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1595530282 ISBN 13: 9781595530288

Publisher: Glimmer Train Press, Inc., 2011

Synopsis

Literary short stories by established and emerging writers.

Excerpts:

Terrence Cheng
The Merchant
All familiar faces, part of a community that worked and lived and fought and struggled together, some behind open doors, some behind closed. Many from the same clans back in Guangdong, so that even here in New York there was a sense of home, of living a familiar life while still dreaming a new one.

Vauhini Vara
We'll Rise Above the Sky
"I sometimes think if Dad and I had split up earlier, Priya wouldn't have gotten sick," she says. "What do you think?" "That's not true," I say. "Nothing is related. People just invent causes and effects where they don't exist. Things just happen."

Adam Theron-Lee Rensch
A Day in the Life
John can only think of Sean, waiting at home. He needs to get back to see him, to not be the type of father who isn't near when his child falls asleep.

Rawi Hage
Interview by Jeremiah Chamberlin
To capture the real, transform it into a believable fiction, is a bizarre process. Blurred. The delusion in my writing is just accentuated to a form of overt madness and the exploration of madness. Violence is a form of madness; so is the poetic and the creative.

Selena Anderson
Here Come the Brides
But in what my father called a real moment of lunacy, he married my mother and became someone's husband again. There were four moments of that, four wives altogether.

John Stazinski
Bangor
At thirteen some boys give up church. But we were never a church family. Instead I gave up these weekend trips to see my felon father. Both are ways of rebelling, but also, I suppose, ways of seeing sleight of hand where magic once was.

Amy S. Gottfried
Chim, Chiminy
Even the older kids seemed to have jam all over their hands. Not that he was sorry about any of them. He just never planned on spending the bulk of his adult life walking around with a soggy sponge in his fist.

Sam Ruddick
Flight
He scrutinized my face for a second, then leaned back, smiled, and shook his head. "No," he said. "I don't think you have the first idea what you're up against. In fact, I'm one-hundred-percent certain that there is no way you could possibly know what's in store for you."

Michael Schiavone
Wackers
While fresh omelets sound nice, chickens are for farmers. Besides, I'm a dog person; at least I was until Barney passed last May. The guys at the VFW always pester me about getting a puppy, but I can't imagine playing fetch with a stranger.

Gabriel Brownstein
Kiss Him Goodnight
He would come inside the kitchen window, call an ambulance, and then dry off. And before the ambulance came, he would write Lila Diamond a letter. He would tell her about this night, about all the foolish things he had done while trying to get to Brooklyn to kiss her.

Diane Chang
The Teacher and the Revolution
Teng felt as if a pound of his own flesh had been carved out of him; waves of loss opened up in him, an ocean of loss.

About this title

About the Author:

Terrence Cheng is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York. Cheng earned his MFA in Fiction from the University of Miami, Florida. He is the author of two novels, Deep in the Mountains and Sons of Heaven.

Vauhini Vara, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her fiction has been published in Epoch and Black Warrior Review, and she is at work on a collection of short stories and a novel.

Adam Theron-Lee Rensch received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. He divides his time between Ohio and New York City.

Rawi Hage is a writer, visual artist, and curator. His first novel, DeNiro's Game, takes place during the Lebanese civil war. Hage's new book, Cockroach, takes place in contemporary Montreal during a single month in winter. In addition to his two books, his writing has appeared in such places as Tin House, Fuse, Mizna, Jouvert, the Toronto Review, Montreal Serai, and Al-Jadid.

Selena Anderson is a winner of the Transatlantic/Henfield Prize and has held fellowships at the Breadloaf Writer's Conference, the Carson McCullers Center, and the MacDowell Colony. Originally from Pearland, Texas, she lives in New York and is at work on a collection of short stories. This is her first story accepted for print publication.

John Stazinski's work has most recently appeared in the Southern Review, Missouri Review, Hopkins Review, and Chattahoochee Review. He teaches writing and literature at Quinsigamond Community College.

Juggling teaching, writing, and family life in no particular order, Amy S. Gottfried is a professor at Hood College, where she teaches American and environmental literature as well as creative writing. She's published in the Adirondack Review and has won honorable mention in Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction contest.

Sam Ruddick's fiction has appeared in the Threepenny Review, North American Review, and Prairie Fire. In 2007, he received a Henfield Prize for fiction. Michael Schiavone's short fiction's been published in Narrative Magazine, Night Train, Carve, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. His debut novel, Call Me When You Land, is forthcoming from Permanent Press in 2011. He lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Gabriel Brownstein is the author of two books: a short-story collection, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W, and a novel, The Man from Beyond. He teaches at St. John's University in Queens, New York.

Diane Chang was born near Shanghai, China and immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of three. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and a medical degree from the University of Chicago. Her fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner and Green Mountains Review. Currently, she is training at Montefiore Medical Center's Primary Care Program in the Bronx.

About this edition

• Publisher: Glimmer Train Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1595530282
• ISBN 13: 9781595530288
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Susan Burmeister-Brown, Linda B. Swanson-Davies
• Illustrator: Cover By Jane Zwinger