Best Books (I Read) in 2025

A random assortment of some
of the books on my list(s)

Presenting my annual “best books” list, along with the accompanying list of caveats: these are, simply put, the best books I read over the course of the year. I try to narrow things down to 10ish books, which is awfully hard. I definitely read (and ADORE!) books by my writer friends, but I keep those books off this list. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: ALL lists are subjective. In my personal definition of “best,” I mean some magical alchemy of this book at this time that hit me this way. The order is chronological, so don’t spend time parsing out why one book is first, another last. Also, I had to eliminate some VERY EXCELLENT books to keep my list tidy, and YES, I feel terrible about doing so. You’ll see that I cheat a little at the end, but all’s fair in love and books.

 

DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

I always nod kindly and knowingly when people mention Barbara Kingsolver, but I’ll confess that this is the first book by her I’ve read, and what a doozy! I was all in from the very first paragraph, though I often resist reading loooong books (you’ll see what an outlier this year was on that matter as my list progresses!). This novel about Appalachia and opioid addiction and resilience moves fast, is smart, and offers a political point of view without turning preachy or predictable. The first-person voice is extraordinary and convincing. Yeah, maybe it’s cheating to rely on a genius like Charles Dickens and swipe the plot of David Copperfield…or maybe that tack is its own genius. I must have recommended this book a zillion times.

 

WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys

I read this novel back in college and retained only vague memories, which just shows I was assigned way too many books back then because I should have a better memory of this artful book about Rochester’s “madwoman” wife in the attic (definite red flag, Jane Eyre!). Deeply-evoked characters and perfectly evoked landscapes ranging from the Caribbean to that awful attic in England, meant that the minute I finished the last page, I immediately wanted to know everything about Rhys, wanted to reread Jane Eyre, and wanted to study Caribbean history. A hard-eyed look (wrapped in lush writing) at class, money, race, history, gender, and it has to be repeated: money.

 

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS: MEMOIRS by John Updike

Because I was lucky enough to be selected by the John Updike Society for a writing residency in Updike’s Tucson, AZ, casita, I thought I should study up. I read a fair number of his books in college (though then he went on to write many, many more over the years and I failed to keep up), so I sort of thought I knew what he was “about.” But these autobiographical essays gave me a fresh view, seeing how his life intertwined with his fiction (not that he called his fiction “autobiographical”) and seeing how he viewed his own career and life. Immense honesty in these pages about his insecurities, his painful and debilitating battle with psoriasis, the chip on his shoulder, his recognition of his failures as a parent. For a writer with such an absolutely dazzling writing style (those sentences! oh, sigh!) and with such a charmed career, he’s as messed up as the rest of us! I’ll confess that I didn’t read the entire book because the last two essays felt indulgent and probably should have been excluded. Does a writing style of such precision, bordering on ornateness translate to our world of TikTok videos? I can’t say—but I can say that when I was focusing on his words, I was transported.

 

OPEN: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Andre Agassi

You ever buy a cheap, used paperback you plan to read quickly and leave behind on the plane? You ever put that book on your “best books list”? For me, now, YES, and YES. What an exciting surprise this book was! It’s not that I care about tennis or Andre Agassi, but I do like an artful, honest memoir, and I’m always fascinated by what celebrity means. Ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, OPEN is beautifully written and well-structured (covering 40ish years) and even suspenseful. The voice is consistent and feels authentic and natural (I mean, of course I don’t know for a fact if this is Andre’s voice, but by the end, I was eager to hang out with him). Apparently, Andre hated playing tennis for most of his life yet he kept playing, and at the highest level. What is ambition? What drives us to success? What is enough? Who are we without that which has defined us for decades? These are the questions that kept Shakespeare awake…here in a tennis book.

 

THE LONELY CITY: ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF BEING ALONE by Olivia Laing

I absolutely loved everything about this book: its smarts, its bleakness, its bold and honest exploration of what loneliness is and does to a mind. While we get the author’s personal experiences, this is also a book of thoughtful research, as loneliness is examined through a series of visual artists (i.e. Hopper, Warhol, Wojnarowicz) who coped with their outsiderness and loneliness in a variety of (often unhealthy) methods…all the while continuing to create art. This book pushed deep—and uncomfortably—into my brain. While the book reflected New York City, my favorite place, we see here that unsettling aspect of New York City that tourists don’t always witness: the way one might feel utterly, helplessly alone while surrounded by an ocean of people. (Wait, that’s not exclusive to New York….)  

 

HELP WANTED by Adelle Waldman

Who’d guess a novel about an early morning crew of warehouse workers unloading deliveries at a Target-like store would be artful, compelling, funny, and infuriating? I liked how the author melded a strongly narrative story based on seemingly low stakes (which employee will get the promotion!?) with understated (yet biting) political commentary on how American capitalism uses/abuses the working poor. The large cast of characters and mix of POVs worried me a bit, but I adapted quickly and ultimately had no problem keeping people straight. I also liked that this was no sad-sack story: these workers maintained dignity and connection despite the odds perpetually stacked against them by forces beyond their control.

 

*NINTH STREET WOMEN: LEE KRASNER, ELAINE DE KOONING, GRACE HARTIGAN, JOAN MITCHELL, AND HELEN FRANKENTHALER: FIVE PAINTERS AND THE MOVEMENT THAT CHANGED MODERN ART by Mary Gabriel

Longest title and longest book, at 926 pages(!!), including notes. I think I spent about a month immersed in this book, and what a glorious month it was. Every year I’ve got at least one “girl comes to New York City” book on my list, so this one’s that, but also so much more. I’m a fan of abstract expressionism, but museums mostly show the men (Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, etc.), so what a joy to learn about these fierce, independent, brainy, dedicated female painters, forced to wrestle both the muse and misogyny. I’m also a fan of reading about subcultures of artists, and hearing firsthand from denizens of the Cedar Bar was intoxicating (speaking of intoxicating, oh lordy, those artists PARTIED!).  And I’m a HUGE fan of reading about New York City, especially the 1950s, so no surprise that all these elements coming together made this my most favorite book of the year. If you read this book (and I insist you do), have your phone handy so you can look up the paintings under discussion. I was lucky enough to get to MoMA shortly after finishing this book, and I about cried to see a real, live painting by Joan Mitchell right there on the wall—as if that’s where it was destined to land all along. *My favorite book of the year

 

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving

I first read this novel back in the days of yore, probably when I was too young to appreciate it. I remember being bored by the detours into reproducing Garp’s short story and novel chapters, but this time I absolutely adored every detour Irving took us on, admiring how each tangent reverberated eventually. A book ahead of its time, as the reader is presented with questions about women’s rights, sexual assault, and a transgender character who is (IMHO) the most interesting and memorable character in the book (and the movie). (Reminder: this book was first published in 1978.) By making Garp a writer, I felt Irving was showcasing his own theories and strategies on writing and creativity, which was a bonus for me. In the end, the highest praise I have is that this book absolutely is like no other.

 

THE GALES OF NOVEMBER: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD by John U. Bacon

I grew up in Iowa, with relatives in Michigan, and went to college in Chicago, so the Great Lakes stretch through my early days. Yet I knew nothing about the ships navigating these bodies of water and little about the underpinnings of the manufacturing economy that made the industrial north (now Rust Belt) the envy of the world. Yes, yes, there’s a (truly) devastating shipwreck in these pages, but the bigger revelation for me was the compelling and comprehensive examination of the culture of Lake Superior and sailors, iron ore mining and manufacturing, ship-building and captaining a laker. The relentless push of capitalism to get the goods delivered. The vagaries of weather. Luck, good and bad. Finding the way to a mournful hit song that might seem to trade on the misfortune of others. I liked reported facts and research balanced here with the personal recollections and reflections of family members of the dead men, and sailors who worked the Fitz back in its glory days, and other experts and observers. Clear and compelling narrative nonfiction with the emotional pull of a great novel. Plus, excellent maps!

 ***

 Here’s where I’m going to cheat a bit and add some extra material—just like the narrative nonfiction books do!

 

SOME SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS I ADMIRED:

 

Goodbye Columbus & Five Short Stories by Philip Roth (OMG! Impossible this is his debut book!)

 

The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake (desperate men clawing through Appalachia)

 

Are You Happy? by Lori Ostlund (complicated contemporary lives evoked with flair)

 

The Continental Divide by Bob Johnson (dark & artful midwestern violence)

 

SOME BOOKS BY FRIENDS THAT I READ & LOVED:

 

Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop by Paula Whyman (memoir; funny & an education about native plants without being “teacherly”)

 

King of Broadway by Dan Elish (novel; charming and insider-y take on writing for Broadway)

 

Stay Here With Me: A Memoir by Robert Olmstead (memoir; lyrical & retrospective)

 

We by Sarah Freligh (short fiction; compact & powerful)

 

The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place by Andrew Bertaina (essays; brainy & dreamy & Proustian)

 

Pink Lady by Denise Duhamel (poetry; the sorrow and disorientation as an elderly mother declines)

 

One Last Ride by Dan Elish (YA; boy at camp & I bet you’ll cry)

 

POETRY!

At my free-writing dates on Thursday afternoons, I start each session by reading poetry and copying down resonant lines. Here are the books that kept me company in 2025 (to be transparent, I know many of these poets IRL). If you’re looking to add more poetry in your life, I suggest you start here.

 

Bodies of Light by Susan Tekulve

In Which by Denise Duhamel

Sky Mall by Eric Kocher

Everyone at this Party Has Two Names by Brad Aaron Modlin

Late Summer Ode by Olena Kalytaik Davis

The Place That Is Coming to Us by J.D. Smith

The Odds by Suzanne Cleary

Etiquette for Post-MFA Life

This is a rerun, but my craft talk at the last Converse MFA residency was about life 

after the MFA, so I got to thinking about this old post, which I think is still relevant. Here are my thoughts, especially directed to those navigating post-MFA life. 

First, do not expect your teachers to keep in touch with you. They may adore you and your work, but their own writing (and life) is always going to be their priority. This does not mean that they aren’t interested in what you’re doing…just that, for the most part, you will need to be the one to keep in touch. (The teacher-student relationship is, of course, also structured around a certain power dynamic and it is plain wrong for a teacher to pursue a student after graduation [unless that student wins a Pulitzer, haha].) So think about which teachers were especially meaningful to you and your writing life, and think about how to stay connected with them.

Social media is a nice way to keep a casual relationship going with your professors, but if they (or you) don’t use social media, an occasional email/text is, it seems to me, welcomed by most professors. A few dos and don’ts on that occasional email/text:

DO reread what I said and take to heart that word: occasional. Don’t overdo it.

DO follow what your beloved professor is up to and acknowledge his/her publishing successes.

DON’T (ever) attach work you’d like to be critiqued (unless invited, which I'm pretty sure won't happen).

DON’T write only when you want/need something.

DON’T take it personally if your professor is too busy to respond to you immediately, or perhaps ever.

DON’T write only when you want/need something. (Oh, did I say this already? Hmmm…must be important.)

DO ask for letters of recommendation/blurbs if you need them and you have maintained a good relationship with your teacher…but DON’T imagine you can make this request for the rest of all eternity. DO understand that your beloved professor will be beloved by many students who will come along after you. DO imagine that perhaps you’ve got a couple of shots at this sort of favor. DON’T (ever) ask for any letters that are due in less than two weeks.

DO understand that favors go both ways. You are now an MFA graduate, a member of the writing community, and that means you are allowed (encouraged!) to use whatever power you may have to help the people who helped you…can you invite your teacher to read at your reading series? Is your journal looking for a contest judge whom you will pay? Did you write a glowing review of your teacher’s book on Amazon? Can you interview your teacher for a writing blog? DO send an email offering something to your teacher!

DO follow up with your professor with a thank you after he/she has helped you in some way, whether it’s a letter written or advice offered or a question answered or whatever. At this point, your professor is not required to help you and is doing so only from the goodness of his/her heart. Saying thank you is FREE!

DON’T forget that your professor is first and foremost a writer whose job was to teach you. Note the distinction. Once you have graduated from the program, your professor takes no responsibility for you (unless you win a Pulitzer). Sad but true: your professor may not want to stay in touch with you. This might feel like a rejection. But please be gracious. A good teacher will have given you the tools to you need to forge ahead on your own and find your place in the community.

***

I’ll also offer a suggestion that revolves around that word “gracious.” Maybe it turned out you didn’t like your program so much. I’m sorry. I really am. (I wish you would have joined us at the Converse low-res MFA!) But now that you’re “free” of all those “%$#$-ing” teachers who think they’re such “hot $#@$” it might be tempting to let loose on them, either in your writing or on social media or in scathing, tell-all articles.

Don’t.

I’m only offering my own views here, but it’s been my experience that our lovely writing community is a small-small-small-small world, not only in size (I promise I could play six degrees of separation with about any MFA grad and get to a mutual acquaintance) but it is also small in terms of pettiness, which means that people WILL remember that you were the one who trashed the program or your teacher on The Rumpus or in The New Yorker or wherever. (Also, no one will be fooled by your pseudonyms and the tricks you use to disguise people/places…remember what I said about six degrees of separation?)

And think about it: why would you trash the crazy-imperfect-infuriating-inspiring program you graduated from? Now that you’re out, you should feel invested in the success of the program: you want your fellow grads to win awards and bring prestige to your school because that will help you and your degree. When your book is published, you should want to return in triumph to your program, invited back for a reading or a class visit. You should want your name proudly listed on the website as a “famous alum.” The fact is, you are connected in some way to your MFA program for the rest of your writing life.

Bitch and gossip privately, to your friends or at the AWP bar or Treman after you scope the scene to ensure your teachers are out of spitting distance. But always think twice and then twice again before going public about all the crap you endured while at your MFA program. (Unless we’re talking about something illegal or an abuse of power.)

In short, don’t burn bridges…until you win your Pulitzer.

***

Here are a couple of suggestions from some helpful people on Facebook:

DON'T write your former professors to ask questions you can google, and definitely DON'T ask vast questions that cannot be easily and quickly answered (i.e. "how does self-publishing work and should I do it?").

DO offer this advice to your buddies who are still in the program...I'm guessing that this information will be even momre helpful earlier in the program, so you can plan your exit strategy.

***

You may not want to keep in touch with all or any of your former professors, and that’s fine. While many segments of the writing world run on blurbs and letters of recommendation and such, your former teachers are not (and should not be) the only source for acquiring those documents. You will move forth and build your own network of support, and memories of that horrible MFA workshop will fade in time, and maybe soon you will be the teacher opening emails from former students. But one last tip:

DO thank your teachers in the acknowledgements of your first book, and DO spell their names correctly. And if you’re one of my former students, DON’T send me a free copy: I will happily and proudly buy it!

TBR: Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression by Teresa Wong

TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe! 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

Dear Scarlet is an intimate and honest look at my struggle with postpartum depression after the birth of my first child. Written as a letter to my daughter, my graphic memoir is equal parts heartbreaking and funny, capturing the ups and downs of life as a new mother.

What boundaries did you break in the writing of this memoir? Where does that sort of courage come from?

I wrote this book as an honest telling of what I went through and didn’t think I was breaking any boundaries until other mothers told me that my book is much needed. There is extreme pressure on new moms to be perfect and to embrace motherhood as a wonderful, joyful experience—and if you don’t find it all that great, you feel ashamed and alone. I’m not sure if Dear Scarlet is courageous, but I tell the ugly truth about my postpartum experience, and I hope others who are struggling will feel encouraged by it.

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

So many lows, so many highs! I began the book in 2015, writing and illustrating it over nine months. I finished my second draft and began querying in the summer of 2016, eventually landing a U.S. agent a few months later. We went out on submission in mid-2017 and, by the fall, had been rejected by 20+ “Big Five” imprints. Most editors loved the material but didn’t see it breaking out in the market, either because of the topic or because of the genre. We got really close in one case, but in the end it all came down to the profit-and-loss statement.

At the beginning of 2018, my agent dropped me, so I made a list of indie publishers and began sending my manuscript out in batches. By the summer, one small press had expressed interest, but they were waiting for their editorial board to reconvene in the fall before making an offer. That same week I received an email from Brian Lam, the publisher at Arsenal Pulp Press, who asked if I had gotten his earlier email containing an offer (I hadn’t!!) and restating his interest in publishing Dear Scarlet. They wanted to fast-track the book because they had an opening for their Spring 2019 lineup. I took Arsenal Pulp’s offer to a Canadian literary agent, who agreed to represent me and took over negotiations.

What has struck me most about the past year was the number of people (total strangers) who gave me advice and offered help. I’m part of a large online writers group for women, and when I lost my agent, so many of them encouraged me to keep going. One woman even sent an email on my behalf to her ex-boyfriend, a well-established graphic novelist. He, in turn, introduced me to his own agent. Even though nothing came of it, I will never forget how kind and generous people were to me.

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

“If you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse.” Anne Lamott wrote this in Bird by Bird, which is a book full of the best writing advice I’ve ever read.

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

I was surprised that I ended up illustrating it myself. I am a writer, not an artist, and I felt for sure that I’d need to collaborate with an illustrator to make the book. However, when I showed the first draft to friends and colleagues, they said that the simple drawings amplify the vulnerability of the story. They told me it would be a better story if I drew the thing myself. I’m not entirely happy with all of the drawings in the book (especially now that I’ve been practicing for a few years), but there are certain panels that I really do love.

Who is your ideal reader?

My ideal readers are people who know or want to know what it’s really like to be a new mother, how big of a change it is and how difficult it can be, even when you have a baby under ideal conditions (e.g., with access to health care and a supportive partner).

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

I write about traditional Chinese postpartum foods, but I’m sure nobody here wants my mother’s recipe for pork liver soup.

***

READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK: www.byteresawong.com/arsenalpulp.com

  

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR PILE: https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Scarlet-Story-Postpartum-Depression/dp/1551527650

Survival Tips for #AWP19!

It’s baaaa-aaaack! AWP19 is about to descend upon Portland, Oregon…and since I started thinking about restaurants and where I’m going to eat, I guess it’s tip to post my AWP survival tips, honed after (yikes!) 20ish years of attending AWP conferences. I’ve never been to Portland (or even Oregon) and so know nothing worth passing along on that front…beyond the fact that:

1) Elastic waistbands may be in order on the way home since the Portland food scene is legendary, and

2) If it’s not too late for you, do NOT sign up for that cost-cutting redeye flight home. I wish I would have paid the extra $$ to leave at a normal time after my husband reminded me of the redeye hell we went through getting back from L.A. But why do I persist in thinking it sounds glamourous to say, “I’m taking the redeye in from the Coast”? Oh well…one more day to eat, I guess.

Twelve thousand writers is a lot of angst, need, and glory to be packed into one convention center…here are my tried & true & freshly updated tips for success, based on my experience at past conferences:

Wear comfortable shoes, at least most of the day. There’s lots of traipsing around long hallways and the long (sometimes uncarpeted) aisles of the book fair. It’s also inevitable that the one panel you really, really, really want to see will be in a teeny-tiny room and you’ll have to stand in the back…or sit on the floor; see the following tip:

Wear comfortable clothes, preferably taking a layer approach. Wherever you go, you will end up either in A) an incredibly stuffy room that will make you melt, or B) a room with an arctic blast directed at you. Bulk up and strip down as needed. Also, as noted above, despite their best efforts, the AWP conference staff has a knack for consistently misjudging the size of room required for a subject matter/speakers (i.e. Famous Writer in room with 30 chairs; grad student panel on Use of Dashes in Obscure Ancient Greek Poet in room with 300 chairs). I suppose it’s hard to determine who is “famous” and so on…in any event, you don’t want to find yourself scrunched into a 2’x2’ square on the carpet, and so see the following tip:

To avoid being stuck sitting on the floor, arrive early to panels you really, really want to attend. And, in fact, official AWP does not sanction sitting on the floor because it’s a fire hazard and you’ll be creating a barrier to those who have accessibility needs. Not sure how they feel about standing in a herd in the back? The point is, don’t sit on the floor—be mindful of others if there’s a herd of standees, and arrive early.

If a panel is bad, ditch it. Yes, it’s rude. Yes, everyone does it. (Be better than the rest by at least waiting for an appropriate break, but if you must go mid-word, GO.) I can’t tell you the high caliber of presenters that I have walked out on, but think Very High. Remember that there are a thousand other options, and you have choices. The only time you have to stick it out is if A) the dull panel participant is your personal friend or B) the dull panel participant is/was your teacher or C) the dull panel participant is your editor/publisher. Those people will notice (and remember) that you abandoned them mid-drone and punish you accordingly (i.e. your glowing letters of rec will flicker and fade). Undoubtedly this is why I have never been published in Unnamed Very High Caliber Magazine, having walked out on that editor’s panel.

There are zillions of panels: When you pick up your registration badge, you’ll get a massive tome with information about all of them, and also a shorter schedule that’s easy to carry around. Be dutiful and glance through the ads in the tome since these are the funders who subsidize our conference. Then ditch the tome and carry around the smaller master schedule….unless you are an app person (I’m not). Either way, do take time NOW to go to AWP’s website and scroll through the schedule and select EVERY panel that sounds even moderately interesting, and load those into the “my schedule” feature. Keep that stored on your favorite technology (mine is a sheaf of printed paper…which may be smart since I often forget how/where to re-access “my schedule,” which requires logging in and somehow finding “my account”; I assume app people are more adept than I am).  Anyway…no point waking up early on Friday if there’s nothing you want to attend. I checkmark panels I might go to if nothing better is going on and star those that I will make a supreme effort to attend. Give yourself a couple of options at each time slot so that if a room is too crowded, you have an interesting alternative.

I like to choose a variety of panels: people I know, people I’ve heard of, genres I don’t write but am curious about, topics I want to educate myself on. Stretch yourself. I also like to go to a reading in which I don’t know any of the readers, just to have a lovely sense of discovery! And don’t forget the ninety-trillion off-site events! (I suspect you’ll end up depressed if every single panel you attend is How To Get Published…remember, the way to get published, really, is to be an amazing writer. You’ll be better of going to some panels that will help you in that pursuit.)

Someone will always ask a 20-minute question that is not so much a question but a way of showing off their own (imagined) immense knowledge of the subject and an attempt to erase the (endlessly lingering) sting of bitterness about having their panel on the same topic rejected. Don’t be that person. Keep your question succinct and relevant. Also, everyone is groaning inwardly anytime someone says, “I have a question and a comment” or anytime someone starts out by saying, “Well, in my work-in-progress, the main character is….”

Don’t say anything gossipy on the elevator, unless you want the whole (literary) world to know it. Do listen up to the conversations of others on the elevator, and tell your friends absolutely everything you’ve overheard during your offsite dinner.

Same advice above exactly applies to the overpriced hotel bar.  Also, if you happen to get a chair at the bar, or, goodness, EVEN A REAL LIVE TABLE, hang on to it!!  People will join you if they see you’ve got a spot!  Famous people!  I mean it: the only reason to ever give up a table in the hotel bar is because the bar has shut down, you’ve consumed every bit of liquid in the clutter of glasses, and a beefy bouncer is headed your way. (Also, here’s a fun fact: AWP alcohol consumption often breaks sales records at hotels.)

Speaking of famous people or former teachers or friends…do not say something like this in one long breathless opening sentence right after hugging hello: “Great-to-see-you-can-you-write-a-blurb-letter-of-rec-piece-for-my-anthology?” Ask for favors AFTER the conference! I mean, unless you enjoy that uncomfortable moment and awkward triumph of trapping someone into saying yes.

Support the publications at the bookfair. Set a budget for yourself in advance, and spend some money on literary journals and books and subscriptions, being sure to break your budget. Do this, and then you won’t feel bad picking up the stuff that’s been heavily discounted or being given away free on the last day of the conference. But, please, definitely do spend some money! These journals and presses rely on OUR support.

Just because something is free, you don’t have to take it. Unless you drove, you’ll have to find a way to bring home all those heavy books/journals on an airplane. Or you’ll have to wait in line at the hotel’s business center or the UPS store at the convention center to ship them home. So, be as discerning as you can when you see that magic markered “free” sign on top of a pile of sad-looking journals, abandoned by the grad students with hangovers who didn’t feel like dealing with their university's bookfair table.

Try not to approach the table of each journal at the bookfair with this question: “How can I get published in your journal?” Also, I recommend avoiding this one: “How come you didn’t publish my poem/story/essay/screed?”  Try instead: “What a beautiful journal. Please tell me more about it.” Even better: “I’m thinking about subscribing.”

It may be too late for some of you, but it’s inevitable that you will see every writer you’ve ever met in the aisle of the bookfair at one AWP or another…so I hope you were nice to all of them and never screwed anyone over. Because, yes, they will remember, and it’s not fun reliving all that drama as the editors of The Georgia Review gaze on.

Pre-arrange some get-togethers with friends/teachers/grad student buddies, but don’t over-schedule. You’ll run into people, or meet people, or be invited to a party, or find an amazing off-the-beaten-track bar.  Save some time for spontaneity! (Yes, I realize that I’m saying “plan” for spontaneity.)

Don’t laugh at this, but bring along Purell and USE IT often.  For weeks after, post-AWP Facebook status updates are filled with writers bemoaning the deathly cold/sore throat/lingering and mysterious illness they picked up at AWP.  We’re a sniffly, sneezy, wheezy, germy bunch, and the thought of 12,000 of us packed together breathing on each other, shaking hands, and giving fake hugs of glee gives what’s left of the CDC nightmares.

Along the lines of healthcare, don’t forget to drink a lot of water and pop an Advil before going to sleep if (haha…if!) you’ve been drinking a little more than usual. (Also note that AWP offers a daily 12-step meeting open to all in recovery. Please take care of yourself.)

Escape! Whether it’s offsite dinners/drinks/museums/walks through park/mindless shopping or whatever, do leave at some point. You will implode if you don’t. Also, the food on the convention floor is consistently overpriced and icky…you will starve if this is your entire diet.

Bring your cellphone charger and maybe even a portable charger. Or maybe you like huddling around electrical outlets?

I can’t believe I’m writing this: the Dance Party is FUN! I mean it! You don’t even have to go with anyone or be a great dancer (call me Exhibit A). It’s how to work off stress and reenergize after a long, sometimes daunting day after too many snubs, imagined and real. I mean, I’m sure there are all kinds of interesting undercurrents and nuances out there in the depths of that packed dance floor…but also, on the surface, it can just be FUN.

This is a super-secret tip that I never share, but I’ll share it as a reward for those who have read this far:  there will be a bathroom that’s off the beaten track and therefore is never crowded. Scope out this bathroom early on. Don’t tell anyone except your closest friends the location of this bathroom.

Finally, take a deep breath.  You’re just as much of a writer as the other 11,999 people around you.  Don’t let them get to you.

*****

If you're interested, I will be reading from THIS ANGEL ON MY CHEST at this off-site event:

Thursday, March 28

5:30  to 7:00

Hosted by University of Pittsburgh Press

Reading with Brad Felver

Mother Foucault’s Bookshop

http://motherfoucaultsbookshop.com/

TBR: Suitcase Charlie by John Guzlowski

TBR [to be read] is a new feature on my blog, a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe!

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

One day in 1956, a suitcase with a chopped-up, blood-drained little boy is found on a street corner in Chicago.  Then another is found on another street, and then a third and a fourth and on and on.  Two Chicago Police Department detectives – guys with their own personal traumas – are assigned to solve these crimes. 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And, which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

The characters I enjoyed the most are the two cops: Hank Purcell and Marvin Bondarowicz.  I loved reading gritty, noir detective novels like Mickey Spillane when I was a kid and James Ellroy’s take on that genre when I was in my 30s and 40s, and I tried to pack as much of that into the novel as I could with a twist.  It’s no longer 1960 or 1980, so I tried to give a 21^st century spin to 50s noir.  My main cop is Hank Purcell who is not only hard-boiled to the max, he’s also a loving father, a terrific husband, and a WWII vet walking around with all those PTSD memories.  There’s an emotionality and a gloom to him that mixes nicely, I think, with the noir world he inhabits.  I also like Marvin.  He’s ultimate noir.  Although Jewish, he doesn’t respect Jewish people or anybody else he runs across whether they’re black, white, Puerto Rican, straight or gay.  Mixed with this meanness of his is a tendency to be very, very funny.  The recent Kirkus review of the book highlighted this aspect. 

The most trouble?  The villain.  The guy who butchers these kids.  The book is loosely based on a series of actual murders that occurred in Chicago in 1956 and 1957.  I was around 9 when these took place, and they taught me that the world was a place to fear.  Writing about the villain brought back a lot of those memories of when I was a kid and I would be sitting on a stoop in my old neighborhood with my pals and we would start talking about Suitcase Charlie.

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

The low?  The book was accepted by a small publisher who at first did a great job of promoting the book.  Sales were good, reviews were good, amazon reviews were good.  Then I gave the publisher the second Hank and Marvin mystery, Little School Boys.  The publisher was having trouble at that point with sales and eliminated promotion.  I didn’t know this when I signed the contract.  There was no promotion of any kind.  I shouldn’t tell you this but the novel sold about a dozen copies.  There were no reviews. Nothing.

When I complained, the publisher said, if you don’t like it buy yourself out of the contract for the two novels.  I did. 

The happy ending to this is that I almost immediately found another publisher, Kasva Press.  The press is very hands on, very committed to making the republishing of Suitcase Charlie a great experience for me and my readers.  Kasva has also committed itself to the publicaiton for the next two Hank and Marvin mysteries:  Little Altar Boys and Murder Town.  And they’ve also agreed to publish my novel about two German lovers in WWII, Road of Bones.  I had this novel with another small publisher also.  The publisher kept putting the novel off from one year to another.  Originally it was supposed to appear in 2012.  And it never got published although I was under contract.  Ugh.

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

I’ve got two pieces of advice:

1. Always be writing.
2. You don’t need any stinking writing advice.

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

For me the novel was a fantastic time machine.  Suitcase Charlie is mainly set in the neighborhood I grew up in in Chicago, the Humboldt Park area where I lived from 1954 to 1975.  Writing the novel allowed me to go back in time and visit people I knew and loved as a kid and places that meant so much to me, the park, the schools, the street corners where I played. 

How did you find the title of your book?

That was the easy part.  That’s what we called the serial killer who was killing kids in Chicago and dumping their bodies in the parks when I was a kid.  We pictured him walking with a suitcase down the street at night and just dropping it here or there.  A lot of times, we’d be sitting on a stoop at night talking or joking or singing, and one of the boys or girls would look down the street and see somebody carrying a bag or a suitcase, and say Suitcase Charlie, and we would know fear.

By the way, the guy who did a number of these murders was finally captured but it wasn’t until the early 1990s.

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes* I might share?)

There is a discussion of czarnina, a traditional Polish duck’s blood soup in one of the early chapters.  A suspect has some in his refrigerator, and it makes him look really really suspicious to my two cops.  I would give you the recipe, but the soup is just too disgusting.  It requires about 4 cups of duck’s blood. 

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR: amazon.com/author/johnguzlowski

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR PILE:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1948403048/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_DkS.BbB1ME171

READ MORE ABOUT THE WRITING PROCESS: 

http://lightning-and-ashes.blogspot.com/2015/05/suitcase-charlie-how-i-came-to-write.html?m=1

TBR: Virginia Pye, The Shelf Life of Happiness

TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and, from time to time, a recipe! 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

My characters long for that most elusive of states: happiness. One reviewer called these stories bittersweet, and I agree they combine heartbreak and joy in equal measure. A young skateboarder reaches across an awesome gap, both physical and emotional, to reconnect with his disapproving father. An elderly painter executes one final, violent gesture to memorialize his work. A newly married writer battles the urge to implode his happy marriage. And a confused young man desires his best friend’s bride and, in failing to have her, finally learns to love. In each story, my characters aim to be better people—and some even reap the sweet reward of happiness. 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And, which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

I most enjoyed writing the old artist character, William Dunster, in the story White Dog, because he’s cantankerous and befuddled and more than a little bit drunk, yet also wise. He observes the other characters and the manicured setting in the Connecticut countryside with an air of detachment, seeing through the gallery owner’s vanity and his wife’s unhappiness. Basically, Dunster can’t turn off his bullshit detector, so he’s thinking what we all might be thinking if we allowed ourselves. Plus he’s especially smart about art. What matters most to him is “the ongoing lover’s quarrel with the work.” A part of me feels that way, too.

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

This book has a lot of good karma behind it, or maybe a better word is kismet. It was runner up for the Press 53 short story collection prize twice and Kevin Watson, the publisher and editor, wrote to me soon after the second time to say they should publish the collection. But for some reason I never got that email. About six months later, I wrote to him to suggest the same thing. And later, I was delighted to have one of my closest friends create the beautiful cover. We’ve also gotten the most moving responses from writers who I admire enormously. The whole thing feels like a happy labor of love.  

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

Write. That’s about it. Just sit down and do it. The process will teach you things that no one and nothing else can. Trust that you’ll improve with practice. Assume you’ll write many things, so don’t get too attached to one. But mostly, just write.

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

I wrote these stories over a ten-year span, and while I sensed they had something in common, it wasn’t until I started to pull them into a collection that I discovered the theme of happiness—or the theme of the search for happiness. I realized that each story, in its own way, was about that striving, that universal longing.

How did you find the title of your book?

Strangely enough, the title was originally from a story that didn’t make it into this collection. I had written a short short set in a grocery store, where a woman is on the phone with her brother, who is at the hospital with their dying mother. The woman wants to escape the sadness of losing her mother by noticing simple things like the brightly lit fruit, but instead, all she can see is how everything is tainted with sorrow and decay. She thinks about the literal shelf life of grocery items, and the phrase shelf life of happiness crosses her mind.

Fast forward to when I put together this collection and I realized that story, while one of my favorites, didn’t fit because it was told in the first person and all the others were longer stories in third person. But I realized that the idea of a shelf life of happiness fit with many of the stories. It struck me that an altogether different character named Gloria Broadhurst, who is a bit of a grand dame, might actually say that phrase aloud, because she’s clever and wrestles unabashedly with her own unhappiness. Gloria would feel comfortable making a pronouncement using that phrase. So I plugged it into that story and then changed the title of that story to Shelf Life of Happiness.

This helps to illustrate my earlier writing advice: assume you’ll write a lot and it’s all yours to mess with, tear apart and build back up, ruin and perfect, and enjoy!

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book?

You’ve stumped me on this one. I never noticed that my stories are so lacking in food! Off the page, I love Italian dishes (and was just there again this summer and had some amazing meals), and Moroccan, and French, and Indian; you name it, I like it! But in my stories, my characters clearly need to eat more.

I see that only one character has a food recollection: the mother in Her Mother’s Garden shares a distant memory of a meal she had on a cliff-side restaurant in Greece. She’s never mentioned it to her daughter before, which only makes the daughter feel more desperate about holding onto her mother before it’s too late. So food, in this case, shows how private pleasures are often kept hidden, even from those we love, and how the longing for happiness and connection can attach itself to even the most pleasant of reflections.

READ MORE ABOUT VIRGINIA PYE: https://www.virginiapye.com

BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR PILE: https://www.press53.com/short-fiction/shelf-life-of-happiness-by-virginia-pye

READ A STORY FROM THIS COLLECTION:

“Best Man,” https://www.press53.com/issue-137-presenting-guest-editors-149/#pye

        

Best Thanksgiving Stuffing EVER!

I really think the headline says it all…if stuffing is the obvious highlight of your Thanksgiving meal, you owe it to yourself to give this recipe a try. Put away the bagged bread cubes, drop that Stove-Top! This is not a hard recipe, and I promise what emerges will be worth your time. In an ideal world, you might have homemade chicken stock, but quality canned will do. This stuffing can be made early and reheated in a microwave. You can stuff it in the turkey or not. Keep it warm all day in a slow cooker. Eat it all by itself all by yourself for dinner (as I have done). In short, it is THE BEST and it has NEVER FAILED TO DELIGHT!

Cornbread & Scallion Stuffing

Adapted from the beloved, still-missed Gourmet magazine, November 1992
(It’s actually called Cornbread, Sausage & Scallion Stuffing, but I don’t put in the sausage. See the note below if you’d like to add the sausage.)

For the cornbread:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk
1 large egg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the stuffing:

¾ stick unsalted butter plus an additional 2 tablespoons if baking the stuffing separately
2 cups finely chopped onion
1 ½ cups finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons crumbed dried sage
1 teaspoon dried marjoram, crumbled
1 teaspoon crumbled dried rosemary
½ cup thinly sliced scallions
1 ½ cups chicken broth if baking the stuffing separately

Make the cornbread: In a bowl stir together the flour, the cornmeal, the baking powder, and the salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, the egg, and the butter, and add the milk mixture to the cornmeal mixture, and stir the batter until it is just combined. Pour the batter into a greased 8-inch-square baking pan (I actually use a cast iron skillet) and bake the cornbread in the middle of a preheated 425 F oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. (The corn bread may be made 2 days in advance and kept wrapped tightly in foil at room temperature.)

Into a jellyroll pan, crumble the corn bread coarse, bake it in the middle of a preheated 325 F oven, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, or until it is dry and golden, and let it cool.

Make the stuffing:  In a large skillet, melt 6 tablespoons of butter and cook the onion and the celery over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened. Add the sage, marjoram, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste and cook the mixture, stirring, for 3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl, add the corn bread, the scallion, and salt and pepper to taste, and combine the stuffing gently but thoroughly. [In the original recipe, they tell us to “Let the stuffing cool completely before using it to stuff a 12-14 pound turkey. But the USDA now tells us the stuffing “should be mixed just before stuffing and cooking the turkey.” No one’s getting salmonella on my watch! Again, remember you can warm the stuffing in the microwave if needed.]

The stuffing can be baked separately: Spoon the stuffing into a buttered 3- to 4-quart casserole, drizzle it with the broth, and dot the top with the additional 2 tablespoons of butter, cut into bits. Bake the stuffing, covered, in the middle of a preheated 325 F degree oven for 30 minutes and bake it, uncovered, for 30 minutes more.

Serves 8-10; fewer if I am one of the dinner guests!

Note: Here are the instructions if you want to add the sausage: The recipe calls for “3/4 lb bulk pork sausage” that you brown in a skillet. Remove it from the pan—leaving the fat—and proceed with cooking the onions, etc. Add the sausage at the end, when you combine the cornbread and scallion with the onion mixture.

TBR: Sonja Condit, The Banshee of Machrae: One Death in Seven Stories

TBR [to be read] is a new feature on my blog, a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and, from time to time, a recipe! 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

MURDER and FIRE and REGRET. Okay, you wanted sentences: Emmy Fane has a boyfriend and a best friend, Kalen and Jessa Machrae; she loves them both and will do anything for either one of them. After Kalen has a car accident that leaves him severely brain-damaged but alive, Jessa intends to kill him because she can’t stand to see him this way, and Emmy has to decide: is she going to help Jessa or stop her?

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And, which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

Lilly Machrae is both. I knew that the bridge where Kalen had the accident was going to have a local legend, but at first, I thought that was all. There was just going to be a story, and Emmy would offload some of her guilt onto the story. If the bridge was haunted, it’s not really her fault that she was on the phone with Kalen when he crashed. The ghost did it. As the book got longer, Emmy identified with Lilly more and more, and began to tell some stories from Lilly’s point of view, so I had to let Lilly be a real person. The hard part was that her story had the potential to become a complete cliché: mill girl seduced and abandoned by the owner’s son. Nobody wants that. When she started calling up demons, she moved into another area of potential cliché, which is why that part of the story is told by her brother, who doesn’t really understand what he’s seeing and doesn’t even know the word ‘coven.’

The black honey from laurel flowers is a real thing, by the way, although in real life it’s red, not black. It’s actually sold as a recreational drug in parts of Turkey.  

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

It’s a strange book. It isn’t really a straight-through novel—there’s an opening novella and then it splits up into clusters of stories in multiple possible timelines and alternate realities. The first part, Flashover, was published in a small magazine and nominated for a Pushcart, so that was great. But I didn’t even try the traditional publishing route. It seemed obvious to me that this book needed a small publisher who would understand and appreciate it. I sent it directly to a few, and I also went the competition route and sent it to both short-story collection contests and novel contests (since it’s both). With a competition, at least you know someone’s reading; it doesn’t go straight into the no-thank-you file. It came in second at SFK Press’s novel competition, and Steve McCondichie, the publisher, liked it so much he decided to publish it. SFK has been great. The editor, Eleanor Burden, asked me some hard questions about the morality of the central question of euthanasia, and whose life is worth living, and who gets to decide that, which made me go deeper into Emmy and Jessa’s motivations and greatly improved the book. 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

I think that quality comes from quantity. Put words on the page. Lots and lots of words. Sooner or later, some of them will work. That’s a favorite, and another one is, don’t save anything. Don’t hold anything back for later. If you think of a great idea for a throwaway moment, use it now! If you think of a wonderful name for an insignificant character who will walk through a book and be gone in two pages, use it and let it go. Pour it all out. Only an empty cup can be filled.

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

Going into the book, I did not at all intend to write the historical parts. (Actually, I didn’t expect anything; I just wrote the stories as they occurred to me.) Suddenly this modern South Carolina story had pieces beginning in China in 1897. That surprised me. I didn’t know I needed to go that far back. Also, I don’t know anything about early 20^th century China, and I also didn’t research it, because the story is third-hand: Emmy tells the story as she remembers being told it as a child by Eldred Machrae, who told it as he remembered it from his mother, who was certainly lying about some things. Consequently, the historical reality doesn’t matter all that much. If I had researched it and made it more truthful, it would have been less authentic to the way family stories are passed along.

How did you find the title of your book?

The title was hard. For a long time, I just called it that book thing. I knew the title of the first part, Flashover, and I thought maybe that was the title of the whole book, but it didn’t seem to fit. Strangely, even as the whole book was nameless, the titles for the stories and sections were easy, and I kept taking chapter titles and trying to use them for the whole book. Roadside Cross was my second choice, but then I would have had to find a different title for that story. The Banshee of Machrae was the title of a story that I ended up cutting, so then I had an orphaned title, and it seemed to fit. Also, who is the banshee—is it Lilly or Emmy? I don’t know. It could be either.

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? Any recipes to share?

There’s surprisingly little food. I’m sorry! You can buy mad honey, but you probably shouldn’t, since it’s, you know, literal poison. As the Machraes are a Chinese-Irish-American family, any combination of Chinese-American food and Irish food would be great! There’s also a scene with lemon bars which almost but not quite turns into murder. This is my favorite lemon bar recipe. Whatever you do, don’t look at the calorie count per serving. Some things are better left unknown.

RECIPE FOR CALORIC LEMON BARS: https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/lemon-bars-9989?photo=35852

BUY SONJA’S BOOKS (and her stepmother’s, who has the same name!) FOR YOUR TBR PILE:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sonja+condit

READ AN EXCERPT FROM “FLASHOVER”:

http://apt.aforementionedproductions.com/2017/03/an-excerpt-from-flashover-by-sonja-condit/#.W4qiKPZFzIU

MORE ABOUT THE PUBLISHER: http://sfkpress.com/about-us/