Glimmer Train Stories, #91 - Softcover

Joseph Chavez; Simak Vossoughi; Melissa R. Sipin; Mehdi Tavana Okasi; Junot Díaz; David Naimon (interviewer); Sean Padraic McCarthy; Eugene Cross; Elizabeth Kadetsky; Kim Brooks; Cathal Sheerin; Robert Powers; Gil Filar; E. A. Durden

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1595530401 ISBN 13: 9781595530400

Publisher: Glimmer Train Press, Inc., 2014

Synopsis

Literary short stories by established and emerging writers.

Joseph Chavez
Stowaways
Marshall says it was like possibility itself. Life like an old clock, wound up after three years of silence and set ticking once again. "Yes!" Steven says. "Exactly." This is the opening he was looking for.

Siamak Vossoughi
The X-250
Mr. Rezai had melted, like a man falling in love, only in a movie that was too sentimental to be believed. George had never seen him look that way before.

Melissa R. Sipin
Walang Hiya, Brother
I can never tell anyone this. You know how it is, with family. The things you can't say, the secrets they hide until the omissions crack the surface, start fractures, evolve into lies.

Mehdi Tavana Okasi
The Hate
"I would never have let you become a soldier," my mother said to me in those years, recalling how we'd fled the eight-year war with Iraq.

Sean Padraic McCarthy
Speak to Me
She felt him leave, she later says, the energy shooting up through her hand. But now everyone is just shouting goodbye, I love you, we'll miss you. All at once. A family usually quite quiet, reserved, now a chorus of grief. Gone.

Eugene Cross
Miss Me Forever
While he waits at the bus stop, Tulsi leafs through the free Bible each student received after class. He can hardly believe how thin the pages are, like the wings of an insect.

Elizabeth Kadetsky
What We Saw
Mice, bugs, heat wave, neighbors, mattresses: all since the little earthquake. "The little earthquake," people call it, like it was as benign as a stuffed animal, a creature innocent beside the morning grapefruit.

Kim Brooks
Hialeah
"Peach Tree? Very aggressive sounding." "It says here she's a maniac, bred on nothing but cabbages and beets." "A Jewish racehorse. How could you go wrong?"

Robert Powers
Maghreb and the Sea
We knew it was time to leave when we realized we'd have to become miners after running out of money. I told you I'd rather drown in the sea than be buried in a cave.

Gil Filar
Here for Life
In December the heat blasted and the humidifier rumbled round-the-clock. Melody stayed inside more, overeating kale and quinoa and Hungry Man turkey dinners.

E.A. Durden
The Orange Parka
Since the beginning of Prithi's sophomore year, when she began to attend a charter school in another part of Brooklyn, Rakesh has accompanied his daughter to the city bus stop where her route begins.

Junot Díaz
Interview by David Naimon
That doesn't mean that I'm not sexist, that I'm not being sexist. The reader has to decide this. But I'm willing to risk the blowback.

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph Chavez lives and writes in Los Angeles, where he is at work on a novel and a linked collection of historical novellas. "Stowaways" is his first published fiction.

Siamak Vossoughi was born in Tehran, Iran. He attended the University of Washington, majoring in English. He is currently seeking to publish his first book of short stories.

Melissa R. Sipin's writing is published or forthcoming in PANK Magazine, Kweli Journal, and 580 Split. Cofounder of TAYO Literary Magazine, she blogs at msipin_com. "Walang Hiya, Brother" is her first fiction to appear in a print publication.

Mehdi Tavana Okasi's fiction and nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in the Iowa Review, Guernica, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Best New American Voices 2009, among others. He is an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Purchase College-SUNY, and lives in New York City, where he is completing his novel, of which "The Hate" is a chapter.

Junot Díaz is author of the novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a creative-writing professor at M.I.T., the fiction editor at the Boston Review, and a founding member of Voices of Our Nations Arts Writing Workshop, which focuses on writers of color. His latest short story collection is This Is How You Lose Her.

Sean Padraic McCarthy's stories have been recently published in The Ledge Fiction and Poetry Magazine, Sou'wester, Hayden's Ferry Review, the Sewanee Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Sand Hill Review, Greensboro Review, and South Dakota Review. Several of his stories have been nominated for Pushcarts, and he lives in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

Eugene Cross is the author of the story collection, Fires of Our Choosing. His stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine, American Short Fiction, Story Quarterly, TriQuarterly, and Callaloo, among others. His work was listed among the 2010 Best American Short Stories' 100 Distinguished Stories. He lives in Chicago and teaches in the Fiction Department at Columbia College Chicago.

Elizabeth Kadetsky is author of a memoir (First There Is a Mountain), a forthcoming novella (On the Island at the Center of the Center of the World), and a story collection (The Poison That Purifies You). Her work has been included in the Pushcart Prizes, Best New American Voices. and the Best American Short Stories notable citations, and her essays have appeared in the New York Times and elsewhere. She is assistant professor of creative writing at Penn State.

Kim Brooks's stories have appeared in Five Chapters, Glimmer Train, One Story, Epoch, the Missouri Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Meridian, and New Stories from the Midwest. Two of her stories have been given honorable mention in Best American Short Stories, and her essays appear often on Salon.com. She currently lives in Chicago with her family.

Robert Powers was born in Washington, D.C. He has previously worked as a journalist and technical writer in Beijing and Shenzhen. "Maghreb and the Sea" is his first published story. He is currently at work on a novel about contemporary China.

Gil Filar received his MFA at the University of Montana, and was the cofounder and managing editor of the now long-lost PistolPress. He's currently at work on his first novel.

E.A. Durden grew up in North Carolina. She has taught writing and literature at New York University and Prescott College. In 2009, Glimmer Train honored her with the Short Story Award for New Writers. The winning piece was named a Distinguished Story of 2009 in Best American Short Stories.

About this edition

• Publisher: Glimmer Train Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1595530401
• ISBN 13: 9781595530400
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Susan Burmeister-Brown, Linda B. Swanson-Davies
• Illustrator: Jane Zwinger