Grant Bailie lives in one of the poorest cities in the country. His fiction has appeared in Opium, Night Train, Eyeshot, Pindeldyboz and numerous other publications. His first novel, Cloud 8, has been called “mad and fascinating” by Kirkus Reviews, “an astonishing first novel” by San Francisco’s East Bay Express, and “tender and introspective” by Boston’s Weekly Dig. Read Fictionaut Five with Grant Bailie

Also on the blog:
   Luna Digest, 11/10
   John Minichillo: Underground, Except Out in the Wide Open
   Nicolle Asks Rick Rofihe For Advice
   Huffington Post: F’naut and the future of the literary magazine

Matt Baker‘s work is forthcoming or has appeared in the Cimarron Review, Texas Review, Tampa Review, Saint Ann’s Review, Santa Clara Review, FRiGG, Big Muddy, Saint Ann’s Review, Main Street Rag, and elsewhere. He’s the author of the novel Drag the Darkness Down (No Record, 2009.) You can read Matt’s story “Playing Dead” on Fictionaut. Keep reading.

Also on the blog:
   Luna Digest, 11/3
   Checking in with Electric Literature
   Jürgen Chats with Galleycat

Barb Johnson worked as a carpenter in New Orleans for more than twenty years before receiving her MFA from the University of New Orleans in 2008. A collection of her short stories entitled, More of This World or Maybe Another, was recently released by Harper Perennial. She lives and writes in New Orleans. Read Fictionaut Five with Barb Johnson.

Joseph Young lives in Baltimore, Maryland. His book of microfictions, Easter Rabbit, is currently available for preorder from Publishing Genius, with wide release in December 2009.

Victoria Lancelotta is the author of the short story collection Here in the World and the novels Far (Counterpoint) and Coeurs Blesses (Phébus). Booklist called her “a razor’s-edge writer with an existential streak and a fascination with the dichotomies of being.”

Keep reading Victoria’s Fictionaut Five…

“There is, in Stephanie Johnson’s stories, a profound, unflashy magic of seeing. She puts you right up to the beating hearts of her people—from which vantage, you see how they miss one another, and you understand as odd, perfect miracles their moments of connection and knowledge.” That’s Wigleaf editor Scott Garson on Stephanie Johnson‘s debut collection One of These Things Is Not Like the Others, now out from Keyhole Press. Keep reading…

Also: Jürgen talks about the ideas behind Fictionaut in the Huffington Post.

Brian Evenson calls Shya Scanlon “a new and vital voice in fabulist fiction.” His novel Forecast, which is currently being is serialized on 42 blogs and literary sites across the web, is “part SF, part noir, part road narrative and part love story […] tipping its hat to authors like Stacey Levine, China Miéville and Jonathan Lethem.”

“As brisk and refreshing as an ocean breeze,” Booklist said of Beth Bauman‘s Rosie and Skate (Random House), a young adult novel about two adolescents on the Jersey shore. Beth is also the author of the short story collection Beautiful Girls, and her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Barcelona Review and the anthology Many Lights in Many Windows.

Ru Freeman‘s debut novel A Disobedient Girl chronicles the trials and travails of two Sri Lankan women and their pursuit of freedom. Ursula Hegi calls it “Evocative and moving. Ru Freeman is a marvelous storyteller who sees deeply into the complex layers of compassion and love, of sorrow and betrayal. An amazing first novel.” Keep reading…

Let us know what you think of the redesign, and if you haven’t yet, make sure to add your books to your profile!

The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom & Party Girl succeeds wonderfully—triumphantly—as both a comic skewering of the suburban dream-cum-chimera and a poignant drama about one woman’s descent into self-estrangement (where mirrors used properly can fix everything). It’s hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure, a work that understands why the agents of hope and despair are the same, and why, therefore, we are a troubled, hopeful animal. It is, in short, a brilliant novel.”

So says Josh Emmons, author of Prescription for a Superior Existence, about Marc Schuster‘s debut, now out from PS Books.

Read more…