On Sarah Long‘s “Leave off Doves“
by Carol Reid

This story of language and meaning, invention and deterioration, quietly drew me in and kept me happily captive. By Fictionaut standards this is a long story. It glows rather than flashes, but illuminates nevertheless.

Advanced Fiction student Tasmina (formerly Rachael Smith) dares to stud her assignments with made-up words. Professor Woody, secretly in awe of her audacity, meanwhile struggles to make his disintegrating marriage “better”. All his life he has relied on language and inflection for effective expression. His wife’s parting shot to him-

“Better,” she repeated blankly. “What does that word even mean?”

This story explores the limitations of language and celebrates its potential. Spaces between words and spaces between people are examined with thoughtfulness and grace. “Leave Off Doves” is a subdued, beautifully written story.

On Katrina Gray‘s “Peach“
by Kevin Myrick

I would have to say that my favorite story on Fictionaut (thus far) has been “Peach” by Katrina Gray. The comment I left at the time was “You got the southern sensibilities about telling the truth to people’s faces down pact in this story. And I too loved the dialogue in here.” True enough, southern people do their best to avoid all conflict if at all possible, and love gossip. Katrina’s story did something I’ve been struggling to do for some time: find two characters who are able to speak to you on the page. She accomplished this mighty feat of writing where one can see Lana and Peter fighting in a room somewhere in the mind’s eye. She also reminds us how something so simple like a photograph of a peach can be such a big deal if it pleases the soul of another. If I ever accomplish these feats in my own writing, then I’ll have truly found my voice.

On Sam Nam‘s “I Use Commas Like Ninja Stars“
by Sheldon Lee Compton

An early favorite of mine, having joined Fictionaut this past September, is Sam Nam’s “I Use Commas Like Ninja Stars.” It was the first story of Nam’s I read and it was full of some key ingredients I require for extraordinary literature – a style apart from nearly anything that came before it, a unique voice telling the story of outsiders adjusting, or not adjusting, in a way we’ve never seen before, and a quiet power through which a huge theme is shared simply and understandably.

An easy target for bravery in style, it is the movement from the inarticulate narrator, laboring along with his “foreign mouth,” on through the more schooled and uniform, language savvy new narrator that is most exceptional in this story. Nam’s ability with language, which is so much the centerpiece for the story itself, is what brought me back to the piece time and again. And with each return trip, I found more to admire and respect about “I Use Commas Like Ninja Stars,” another aspect of it to enjoy, to share with others.

Fictionaut Faves, a series in which Fictionaut members recommend stories on the site, is edited by Marcelle Heath, a fiction writer, freelance editor, and assistant editor for Luna Park. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Laura Ellen Scott writes very short and very long these days, blogging about it at probablyjustastory.blogspot.com. She also curates a blog where writers and editors offer their brief thoughts on writing very short fiction, and in April 2010 will join Prick of the Spindle as fiction editor.

What books/films do you feel closest to?

“Feel closest to” is a good way of putting it—doesn’t imply that I recommend them. Films: Belizaire the Cajun, Repo Man, Return to Boggy Creek, Suddenly Last Summer. Books: Four Novels (Duras collection), Ancestors and Descendants of Norris and Elizabeth Bennett (by Ned Crislip) and The George Mason University Catalog.

Do you have a mentor/have you ever had a mentor/do you yourself mentor?

I’ve been in a university environment since I was eighteen, so the concept of mentor is institutional. However, one of my past students just referred to me as a mentor, and that gave me pause. I’d thought we’d moved on to the artistic peer stage, which is my strong preference.

When you were a child, what did you want to be as an adult?

Someone who made other people change their minds and like it. Mom says I was copying words from the dictionary, trying to write a book before I could read. That’s pretty arrogant.

What are your favorite websites and online artist’s resources?

Resources? Not so much, except to remind myself of the difference between affect and effect. I follow a lot of writers on twitter and use Duotrope’s “What’s New” like a gossip column. I read several writers blogs regularly—Scott Garson, Sean Lovelace, and Erin Fitzgerald mainly, but also Art Taylor’s Art & Literature blog—I’d say Art is generally responsible for recommending most of my summer reading. I read your prompt blog, Meg, but it makes me feel like I’m lazy. I just discovered Kuzhali Manickavel’s blog, which is glorious. I miss Barry Graham’s old blog, Fuck You Penguin, and Spamusement.

What is happening with your creative world right now?

I cracked Smokelong, thank you very much! I’m also in the debut issue of Corium Magazine and the second issue of Double Shiny, and all of those pieces come from my recently completed (though not published, hint-hint) chapbook of gothic-ghosty vsf that I’m calling Curio. So I’m at a stage of rest in terms of new writing, but I’ll soon be listed as the new Fiction Editor at Prick of the Spindle beginning with issue 4.2 (June 2010). As you know Adam Robinson had me choose the March roster for Everyday Genius, and I’m so honored that people think I can do this sort of thing.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.

Perhaps the most interesting single thing happening in lit mag publishing is the incorporation of videos with short fiction—either as trailers, teasers, or incorporated with entire texts. And I think the most interesting and productive activity in this area is being done by Electric Literature, primarily with their short story trailers (one of those silly sounding ideas that really works when done right) and their single sentence animation videos. The first short story video i remember seeing and being absolutely awed by was Ninth Letter‘s reworking of Kelly Link’s seminal story “The Girl Detective.” The reason this topic is on my mind now is I can’t stop watching (and thinking about) Vance Reeser’s recent single sentence animation for Matt Sumell’s story “Little Things.” I haven’t gotten around to reading Sumell’s story yet, but Resser’s video works on its own, precisely and magnificently unpacking the magic of reading for all to watch.

FictionDaily editor David Backer offers up some words for Luna Park on February online fiction—namely that people seem to really like reading about other people:

After reading a lot of online fiction last month, I’m noticing something: people like people. People like reading about people, anyway. But this isn’t carefully said. “People” is too general a term for what I mean.

Smashing looking website for the new Future Issue of Take the Handle, which includes new work from Mary Miller, Zach Dodson, and others.

Lapham’s Quarterly maps out the evolutions of four stories: Pygmalion, Faust, Oedipus, and Leviathan.

Fiction returns to The Atlantic.

Some fine (very fine) looking lit mag branding.

Significant Objects and Electric Literature team up this week—or, SO x EL.

Must see: What an iPad magazine reading experience could look like (if a publisher had the budget).

Jacob Silverman talks with Second Pass “maestro” John Williams on the VQR blog about online reviewing, day jobs, and Twitter.

I’m on Twitter now, for whatever small good it might do the site’s traffic, but the site frustrates me as often as it pleases me. If you spend even a few hours away from it, you come back to an overwhelming number of posts and links. And inside baseball gets repeated ad nauseum: For instance, when Lorin Stein was recently named the editor of The Paris Review (smart choice), every literary or semi-literary Twitterer posted about it, so that you ended up reading the same “news” dozens of times. This happens with most major announcements about personnel, awards, or provocative reviews. For someone who runs a web site, I’m kind of a Luddite, and I’m not at all convinced that Twitter is a positive development. I sometimes feel like the constant flow of places like Twitter will eventually make smart link round-ups more worthwhile again, but it’s possible that I’m just being passed by the times. I’m 36, after all, which these days might be the equivalent of 78.

Roxane Gay says the new issue of Gigantic “is damn sexy and a fine publication.”

Poetry editor Christian Wiman offers some comments on the recent passing of the largest benefactress in lit mag history, Ruth Lilly:

As readers of this magazine will know, Poetry—and poetry—have benefited greatly from Ruth Lilly’s generosity and love of the art. Even before the immense gift to this magazine eight years ago, she had created fellowships for younger writers, established a major prize for a poet’s lifework, and endowed a permanent chair for a poet at Indiana University. Not everyone has approved, though. “Willy Lilly Nilly” was the title of one piece about Ms. Lilly’s bequest in 2002, which Slate inexplicably reprinted as a kind of callous obituary this past January. The New York Times notice of her death seemed equally off-track and condescending. Behold the whims of the rich, these writers implied, floating so dreamily, so untouchably above us all.

Every Tuesday, Travis Kurowski presents Luna Digest, a selection of news from the world of literary magazines. Travis is the editor of Luna Park, a magazine founded on the idea that journals are as deserving of critical attention as other artistic works.

We have some “festive” groups going on. I see this as “dope.” Firstly, it means people within the community are taking Fictionaut and making it their own. Relating their craft to their “irl” (“in real life”) worlds in addition for making Fictionaut a part of their everyday. Keep at it, you lovely nubiles. This is a community, a family interwoven through our craft, our love of the word, our camaraderie, our mutual respect, and our pom-poms to cheer each other on. Spring allergies driving you nuts? Power through, we’re writers. We’re rocking.

Kevin Myrick: The haps? OK, here’s the down low: I started the April Fool’s Day Challenge group after I was inspired by Susan Tepper’s awesome effort of running the Valentine’s Day Massacre challenge.

Susan commented after the challenge ended that there should be someone in this great Fictionaut community of ours to step up and run the St. Patrick’s Day challenge (The Paddy Whacker was and still remains an excellent name, Finnegan.) I’m about as Irish as Lucky Charms, so being a moderator for that holiday was right out. I am sometimes funny. So thus, I thought April Fool’s Day would be a good challenge for me to take up and run.

I don’t really know what I’m doing as far as being a “moderator” and I’m not sure that there are any real “requirements” for this whole thing, but I have ideas of what I hope will happen.

Anything else you want to tell me here. Write until your eyes sore, your hands twist, until you feel as though our time together has been a moment in confession.

I think I covered it all. I have an idea of what I’d like to do for an e-book after the contest is over, but that is going to be a conversation a little further down the line.

As for those ten members of the group, thank you for joining early. For everyone else, I’m looking at YOU. Bring on the funny, the tragic, the violent and even the tawdry. I’m hopeful for good reading and participation in the contest.

Also, and this is my last point about the “rules” for the contest: April Fool’s Day means that all rules and bets are off. Isn’t that the point of the day to begin with?

Lastly, a moment of huckster self-promotion: go visit my site at www.kevinmyrick.com. I’ll be writing blog posts about my favorite stories during the contest on April 1, and I will hate for anyone to miss out on my reviews.

Nicolle Elizabeth checks in with Fictionaut Groups every Friday and sometimes Monday.

Ginna Howard‘s novel Night Navigation, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, is now available in paperback.  Shelf Life calls it “a needle-sharp look into the life of a mentally ill drug addict . . . Howard’s writing showcases the beauty that exists in the mundane, if we only open our eyes to see it.”

You can read an excerpt from Night Navigation on Fictionaut, and Ginnah just posted a new story, “True Romance ’66,” which recently appeared in Eleven Eleven issue 8.

Gloria Mindock is the editor and publisher of Cervena Barva Press and the author of Nothing Divine Here and Blood Soaked Dresses.

What books do you return to? Which books influenced you the most of your early life?

There are so many books that I read over and over again that inspire me.  Here are some of them: “Concerning the Angels” by Raphael Alberti, ” “Pencil Letters” by Irina Ratushinskaya, “The Horse Has Six Legs: An Anthology of Serbian Poetry” edited by Charles Simic, “Trilce” by Vallejo, “The Fourth Dimension” by Yannis Ritsos, “Elegy for Departure” by Zbigniew Herbert, “Duino Eligies” by Rilke, “Foamy Sky” by Radnotti, and “My Dream has Red Fingers” by Stella Vinitchi Radulescu.  These books never get old for me.  Each time I read them, I feel like it is the first time.

In my early life, I was influenced by Keats, Shelly, and Matthew Arnold.  I loved their poetry.  I still feel the same about their work but now I am mostly influenced by Eastern European poetry.  Another influence in my early life was the art books in my parents library.  I learned about Monet, Chagal,  Van Gogh, and Degas.  My favorite growing up was the ballet paintings by Degas. Yes, I spent time studying ballet and suffering on toe shoes but I loved it.  I guess that is why I liked his paintings so much.

I also think of a children’s book I read in the fourth grade called, “Black Storm.” (I still have this book.) It is about the love between a horse, Black Storm, and his owner.  They are separated because of bad men but are reunited in the end.  This book is special to me because I grew up riding horses.

What do you find exciting about the current internet landscape for publishers and writers? What do you find challenging?

The internet has brought me in touch with so many editors of small presses.  It has been wonderful because we share information with each other about various things.  As a writer, it is good to be able to search out magazines and online journals to send work to. I find that submissions are quicker as well as the responses, and contact is great with many supportive writers.

The most challenging part of the internet is when I see my name or Cervena Barva Press mentioned on Google with something that has nothing to do with writing.  I’ve seen my name listed under car dealerships and Cervena Barva Press listed under vacation spots.  This is very frustrating.

What brought you to found Cervena Barva Press?  How did the press evolve?

I founded Cervena Barva Press in April, 2005.  I can’t believe that the press will be celebrating its five year anniversary in a few weeks.  I started the press because of my love for publishing writers.  From 1984-1994, I co-founded the Boston Literary Review/BluR. We published poetry and fiction.  I had five Assistant Editors which was a luxury.  They were Catherine Sasanov, Dzvinia Orlowsky, Gary Duehr, Mark Fleckenstein, and Carl Phillips.  It was a wonderful time while it lasted.  In 1994, we ceased publication.  For the next eleven years, I concentrated on my own writing but I really missed publishing and finding new unique voices.  I kept telling my friends that I was going to start a press.  I think they were getting sick of me talking about it.  Finally, in 2005, I took the plunge and started Cervena Barva Press.  The name of the press means “red color” in Czech.  I am influenced by Eastern European poetry so I wanted a foreign name.  Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, was a big influence on me because of what he did for that country leading up to the Velvet Revolution and because of the plays he wrote.  Some of them are extremely weird and really take liberties with the characters and the language.

In 2005, I published 21 poetry postcards by poets that I knew and have published before in the Boston Literary Review/BluR.  It was really exciting to design these postcards.  Some of the poets were Simon Perchik, David Ray, Eric Pankey, Michael Burkard, and John Minczewski.  There were 20 poets in this project.  Since 2006, we have published 48 chapbooks, 18 books, and 5 e-books.  We publish mostly poetry but publish fiction, plays, memoir, and some non-fiction.  This year we have many books and chapbooks that will be published.  I keep telling myself to slow down but I keep finding work that I just have to publish!  The press would not be possible without my partner William J. Kelle.  He designs the covers for me and does the layout for the chapbooks.  He also does the the website for Cervena Barva Press, our newsletter, and bookstore, The Lost Bookshelf.  The bookstore sells Cervena Barva Press books but we also sell books on consignment for authors and publishers.  We believe in being another outlet for writers to get their books out there.

I have had 6 interns and will have another intern for the summer.  Most of them have been getting college credit for helping me.

The press is finally starting to get more recognition.  These past few years, I have been speaking on panels about the press and guest lecturing at colleges/universities about the press and my own work.  This summer, I am on two panels in June.  One is at the Joiner Center/Umass and the other is at Marymount College/Manhattan.  Recently, the press won a SUR Translation Book Grant from Buenos Aires, Argentina to publish a translation of poetry by Luis Raul Calvo with translation by Flavia Cosma.  I am so excited about this.  I believe there is not enough translations being published so I am trying to bring in more work from overseas to the USA.

What are your favorite websites?

Hmm…my favorite websites.  This is really difficult to answer.  I visit so many websites and blogs.  It is really fun to discover new sites and what others are doing.  With working full-time and publishing books, sometimes my time is limited.  When I was invited by one of my favorite writers, Susan Tepper, to join Fictionaut, I was leary and didn’t know what to expect.  Well, the experience has been absolutely wonderful and everyone is really supportive.  It is really a great community of writers.  I am really enjoying reading the work posted and commenting.  I try to visit the site everyday.  I also am on Facebook daily.  I keep in contact with some writers/editors on the site but am always careful of what I post for privacy reasons.  Another website I am on daily and that I love is a blog called, Tim’s El Salvador Blog.  Here I find news about what is going on in El Salvador.  Since my first book was about the atrocities during the civil war there and my new manuscript is about El Salvador today, I am a regular.  I also like Ron Silliman’s blog.

What are the things you enjoy most (the greatest rewards) about your work?

The greatest reward for me is seeing my poetry published in magazines, online and in book form.

One of the best things to happen to me and a dream come true is having my poetry published in magazines in Romania and Argentina.  Flavia Cosma has translated so much of my work.  I have a book forthcoming in Romania called La Porţile Raiului.

I feel one of the biggest rewards for me was when “Blood Soaked Dresses” was published.  In the early 1980’s I worked with El Salvadoran refugees.  They fled the civil war in El Salvador which lasted from 1980-1992. They shared with me what was happening in their country and the atrocities committed.  Currently, I am finishing a manuscript about El Salvador today and the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia.  I write about the atrocities to be a voice for the people.  I don’t want the world to forget.  I feel like it is my calling.

Another reward for me is that my new book, “Nothing Divine Here” was just released.  I am so excited about it!  My writing is for the most part on the dark side.  This book is difficult to describe.  I guess you could say it is about the death of everything from relationships, myself, and others.  You name it, I kill it.  Yes, it is heavy but there are some humorous spots.  This book is real closure for me.  I sent it out years ago and only had a few bites but they fell through.  I put it aside to collect dust.  Finally, I gave it another shot and sent it to a foreign press and it was accepted.  I was on cloud nine and still am!

I will end with saying one last thing.  When I am able to share my work at readings with an audience, there is nothing like it.  It is really thrilling when my books are bought.  I think, oh my God, someone is reading my work.  Wow!  This is pure heaven for me.

Even though I speak about my work and the rewards that I get from it or the things that have happened to me, I share it with much humbleness.  I am so grateful for the journey my writing has taken me on and the people I have met.  It is a gift from them that I have been given.  I will continue to be a voice for those who can’t speak.

Thank you so much Meg for interviewing me.  I am so appreciative.  It was really nice to be able to share about the press and about what makes me tick. Thank you!

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.

Luna Park has an interview with Versal editor Megan Garr by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé (pictured at right with a copy of the magazine). Among other things, Garr explains translocality:

It’s a casual story with the usual suspects: lonely writers, a foreign town, alcohol. When I moved to Amsterdam in 2001, no literary community existed that was accessible to foreign residents. I was surprised. Naïve, I guess, that Amsterdam would be like what I thought Paris would be like; well, really that all great European cities would have these shadowy expatriate writers in bars, some sense of international literary exchange that was going somewhere. I grew up as a poet within strong literary communities, and finding none here, I decided to build one. Versal and our community work all started in an effort to extend Amsterdam’s literary spirit with the international reach it already had, but wasn’t using.

(Also check out some poetry from Desmond Kon in Everyday Genius and other interviews by him at Cerise Press and Retort Magazine. And at Luna Park this week, more notes from Cave Wall and a guest post by David Backer of FictionDaily.)

Mary Miller edits the new flash fiction issue of Ekleksographia, with work by Jeff Landon, Claudia Smith, Kim Chinquee, and many other talents of the form.

Following (in a way) TriQuarterly‘s lead, venerable lit mag Shenandoah is leaving print for online. Their final print issue will be dedicated to Flannery O’Connor.

Issue one of Bookcourt’s new literary journal, Reminder, is due out this month. Will include work from John Wray, Emma Straub, Alice Notley, Jonathan Lethem, etc.

Collagist editor Matt Bell has a symphonic new story up at Guernica, “Quella, Querida, Quintessa,” which begins liltingly: “How beautiful our daughter is in her white Tethering dress…”

The Asian American Literary Review has an upcoming event they’d like you to know about: a day-long literary symposium on April 24th at the University of Maryland.  Featured readers will include Karen Tei Yamashita, Ed Lin, Srikanth Reddy, Sonya Chung, Peter Bacho, Kyoko Mori, April Naoko Heck, and Ru Freeman. More info on their Facebook page.

“Seven Little Stories About Sex” from Eric Freeze and Boston Review, including this bit of wisdom for new fathers:

The boy understood that this was how every human being started, the proliferation of two cells dividing. But the father forgot to explain the sex part, how the sperm and the egg got to be in the same place at the same time and so for years the boy thought the sperm flew out of the man and through the air to where it entered the woman and multiplied like cancer.

And I don’t know how I missed this fantastic (and really long) interview with Jim Shepard in the December 2009 issue of Vice. (And why hasn’t Paris Review done an interview with him yet?) Here’s a funny bit on writing:

I will sometimes do more than one piece at a time, but it’s usually a sign that one of the pieces is in trouble, at least temporarily. I don’t think I’ve ever worked on two pieces at once that were both going beautifully where I’m like, “OK, it’s Tuesday. It’s Roman-soldier day,” whereas Wednesday is angry-Italian-relatives day.

Every Tuesday, Travis Kurowski presents Luna Digest, a selection of news from the world of literary magazines. Travis is the editor of Luna Park, a magazine founded on the idea that journals are as deserving of critical attention as other artistic works.

On Shelagh Power-Chopra’s “The Snowbank”
by Susan Gibb

It was a difficult process to select a particular story out of my tons of faves. Many of my favorite stories have already been removed from the files, happily being tweaked for publishing somewhere, I’m sure. From the rest, I scanned quickly and selected about ten to focus in on, then ground it down to one of my favorite fields of magical realism. Then I went through those four until I picked one that was easy for me to identify exactly why, on a second reading, I liked it.

The first is that unexplainable “wow” feeling in your gut tinged with the bile of resentment that it wasn’t you that wrote it. The rest is a bit more methodical. The story I picked is “The Snowbank” by Shelagh Power-Chopra and the very concept–taken from a life event Shelagh read about evidently–is exquisite: a man finds himself stuck in a snowbank. Not only is this immediately interesting, it appeals to an inner fear bred into every snow-bound child by its mother. Instant empathy and tension. Shelagh sets the stage easily with a good intention gone bad–the quick trip to the store for a holiday necessity.

Shelagh then adds humor and conflict into the situation by way of a squirrel who was also scooped up by the plow and is the only thing the character can see inches away from his face. Here again, Shelagh depends upon the reader’s knowledge of an angry squirrel and the danger it threatens. I love magical realism, and the absurdity of this scenario is wonderfully handled by the author. Pinned in place deep within the snowbank, with no sure chance of being saved, the character’s thoughts travel through his life situations, which seem just as frustrating as the squirrel who was, with, “One eye wide open and less then a few inches away, staring straight at him.” He decides the squirrel is dead, but isn’t quite sure, and in either case, it’s metaphorical existence in both his current state and the possibility of his death is conflict enough.

The story has all the elements of strong character, tension, arc, reflection, drama, and resolution along with its humor, and when I found myself shaking my head in wonder with a big smile on my face, I knew it was a fave.

Fictionaut Faves, a series in which Fictionaut members recommend stories on the site, is edited by Marcelle Heath, a fiction writer, freelance editor, and assistant editor for Luna Park. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Now and then writers chime in to send over suggestions. Finnegan Flawnt, for example, popped in to whisper “Metazen, Metazen,” and I got to thinking that Metazen there is a fine, fine website. Humor, talent, fiction, “out of the box-ness,” it’s got it all. I think in addition to being a nice site which publishes alright work, it’s an interesting example of how a blog can bloom into a journal, an idea into a movement, an inspiring moment into a — alright I’m even annoying myself I’ll shut it. Meantime: www.metazen.ca have a looksy, and a nice weekend.

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth for Fictionaut): I have a gut feeling Metazen started as a blog, it’s an instinctual guess. How’d it start?

A (Frank Hinton): Metazen did start as a blog. Actually as a drunken blog. Last March I drank a bottle of whiskey and woke up the next morning with a fiction blog. Then I didn’t touch it for three months. I started up again in May just writing little bits of flash fiction and publishing them every few days. I felt I was being vein so I started to ask a few friends to submit. In 6 months we went from a blog to a weekly fiction site to a daily literary magazine in September.

Q: Who pics the pics I love them so much.

I choose the pictures. I’m a pretty strict aesthete…I like female legs, necks, lips and eyes. I scour the internet for pictures. I actually spend more time looking for photos than I do writing or editing the site. The pictures are everything.

Q. How is the Fictionaut group different to the Metazen site?

The Fictionaut group is something I don’t focus on enough. I usually put all of my stories on there and because we’ve had over 100 authors at Metazen, I encourage my writers to add to the group. I try to talk about upcoming events on there, but right now my thumb isn’t as green as I’d like it to be for the Metazen Fictionaut garden.

Q: Metazen publishes stories every day. Does the F’naut group do the same?

Metazen publishes stories every day, a “Saturday Morning” feature and “Best Of” story with author commentary on the weekends. The group is growing on Fictionaut but I think I’m going to set my new editors to come up with some creative ideas for it. Yeah, we’ve got 3 new editors coming to our site too…some Fictionaut celebs actually.

Q: Talk about three stories Metazen has published.

“Pretty” is a story by Christopher Allen. I read one story a week to my girlfriend when she’s in the bathtub, and “Pretty” was the story that started that tradition. The story is about a girl named Pretty and her mother Bonita riding on the train. The way Christopher paints this grotesque girl and her even more grotesque relationship with her daughter is perfect. You feel like you’re right on the train. You want to hug Pretty and take her home. You want a photo of her face to look at when you feel low.

“Rice” is a piece by Dorothee Lang. It looks like a plain and sparse story when you first read it and then after you finish, it sits with you. It doesn’t digest. You go back and read it again and then where there was once a minimal feel, now new colors and ideas come to mind. You realize it’s a trick. The story is not a puddle but a lake. It’s clean and bright and steaming like a bowl of rice.

“The Serious Writer and His Penis” is a story by Finnegan Flawnt. First off, without Flawnt there would be no Metazen. He is the spectral force that ignites the entire site. Really. I don’t know why. This is a story about penis perception. I think it’s something all men worry and wonder about. But it is also something else. It’s a meditation on the nature of human reception. I think it’s saying we can only take what we believe and that’s how we form our ideas.

Q: Floor’s yours, get personal.

I live in Halifax. I write all the time. I write on the toilet, my pockets are full of paper scraps. Last night I wrote a story on the inside of a cereal box. Most recently I published “American Serial” at Metazen, a 20 part novella about a man that doesn’t exist. I am a pretty neurotic person. I’m getting married next week, so I’m really excited to lose my virginity. I’m worried about how sex will affect my artistic life. Sigh. Next month we’re publishing our 26 Vaginas, 26 Penises ebook. We have 52 stories from 52 different authors. Each author wrote on one word from each letter of the alphabet. Alcohol, Boredom, Confession, Delusion etc…It will be interesting because each story will be published on a different website. Different theme, colors and HTML presentation. Complex, but fun.

Nicolle Elizabeth checks in with Fictionaut Groups every Friday.

Michael Kimball’s third novel, Dear Everybody, is now in paperback in the US, UK, and Canada. The Believer calls it “a curatorial masterpiece.” Time Out New York calls the writing “stunning.” And the Los Angeles Times says the book is “funny and warm and sad and heartbreaking.” His first two novels are The Way the Family Got Away (2000) and How Much Of Us There Was (2005). His work has been on NPR’s All Things Considered and in Vice, as well as The Guardian, Prairie Schooner, Post Road, Open City, Unsaid, and New York Tyrant. He is also responsible for Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard)—and two documentary films, I Will Smash You (2009) and 60 Writers/60 Places (2010).

What story or book do you feel closest to?

For me, it’s always books over stories. I can’t think of a story I feel close to, but there are so many books. The few that I go back to over and over, which makes them feel close in a way are DeLillo’s End Zone, Davis’ The End of the Story, and Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter. Of my own work, it’s whatever I’m working on at the time. Of my published work, it’s How Much of Us There Was, mostly because it is my most personal book, so to speak.

Do you have a mentor? Do you yourself mentor?

I don’t officially mentor, but there is a young man, who was homeless and addicted to crack for a time, and I try to help when I can. If it’s just writing that we’re talking about, I don’t have a mentor, but I do help people with some of the vagaries of the publishing industry when I can – contracts, agents, all that.

How do you stay creative? What are your tricks to get “unstuck?”

I like to do things and make things, so staying or being creative is never much of an issue for me. And I’m usually doing more than one thing at a time—either writing fiction, writing life stories, painting, making documentaries. If I ever am feeling stuck, then I just do something else. And, then, whenever I go back to the stuck thing, I’m usually not stuck anymore. I like to let my subconscious do work for me like that whenever I can.

What are your favorite websites?

I love HTMLGIANT and Largehearted Boy and Big Other and sites like that that do a great job of getting the word out on a huge range of books and writers.

What is happening right now that you would like to share in your writing world?

Dear Everybody just came out in paperback, which is pretty exciting. And my pseudonym, Andy Devine, which I’ve been using for conceptual writing for about 10 years, has a book called Words coming out with Publishing Genius in April.

How did you end up with a pseudonym?

Andy Devine started as my Vegas name and evolved into a pseudonym for my conceptual writing when I was editing Taint Magazine (this was back before there were so many online magazines). We were looking for content and didn’t want to publish work under our own names. Then a while after that, I was telling my agent about it (and how the work was structured) and he thought it was a great idea for me to use the pseudonym for that kind of work. So I kept it in part to keep my agent happy. It’s always good to keep your agent happy.

What is it like to write the life stories of objects for Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story? Just recently I saw one of your postcard life stories about a chair!

I love writing the postcard life stories, of course, but I have a special affection for the life story of Red Delicious Apple and Chair. I have also written them for a Sammy the Dog and Moose the Cat. It pushes the narrative into a perspective that I’m not used to working with, which makes the language fresh. And it also makes me realize that there are stories everywhere.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.