“They snap shut with the satisfying click of the sleekest compact; they break open like perfectly shivered glass; they diagnose and recompose the heart’s and mind’s movements with a clinical yet sensual precision: these are Elizabeth Skurnick’s poems.” So says Maureen N. McLane in a new introduction to Lizzie Skurnick‘s collection Check-In, recently reissued by Caketrain. The expanded second edition features 14 new poems.

Lizzie will be reading with Kate Christensen and Maud Newton at the Housing Works Cafe in New York on April 15.  “You Could Marry Anyone” is a poem Lizzie started on Fictionaut and was just able to sneak into the book.

Very easy — traveling and eating and gazing around in a stunned daze.

To celebrate the fall publication of Blake Butler‘s Scorch Atlas, indie publisher featherproof books is holding a remix contest: “Download Blake’s story “Tour of the Drowned Neighborhood,” and have at it. Write a new story using just a few sentences, rearrange all of the sentences, scrap the whole thing and write your own story under that title. Turn it into a goddamned sestina.”  Blake will judge the contest.

Sabra Wineteer launches Live Oak Review, an online magazine dedicated to “promoting, celebrating, and providing stewardship for the authentic Southern literary voice.” The inaugural issue features a story by Marsha McSpadden.

Author Author‘s Bethanne Patrick has a video interview with Michael Kimball about his novel Dear Everybody. Together with Luca Dipierro, Michael is also making a film called 60 Writers/60 Places. In the trailer, Blake Butler reads on the subway.

On March 27, Tsipi Keller will join other NYU creative writing program alumni to read from their books.

Do “male enhancement” pills from late-night infomercials really supersize a man? Daniel Nester finds out at The Daily Beast and offers charts, videos, and other supplementary materials on his blog.

Molly Gaudry‘s  “Revaluing Nature Writing: Toward Love and Flower Power,” a piece of criticism, appears in Fringe: “We are faced now with the challenge of rediscovering human nature’s place in nature—a place where, I propose, neither eco-consciousness nor ego-consciousness should be privileged over the other.”

The Winter issue of Willows Wept Review is live, with work by Kim Chinquee, Morgan Harlow, Tiff Holland, and J.A. Tyler. 971 MENU‘s new issue features “His Face” by David Erlewine and “In Your Direction” by Lydia Copeland.

More publications (that we’re aware of):

• “Low Brow” by Ravi Mangla in eyeshot.net.
• “Cat in Mouth” by Shane Jones in Pequin.
• “You Should Know” by Lauren Becker in PANK.
• “Like a Family” by Meg Pokrass in Juked.
• “The Motion Sensors Go” by Jennifer Pieroni in Sir!

“I tap the gavel gently, ever so gently, against the edge of my filing cabinet, and whisper ‘Overruled!'” Sean Lovelace links to an impromptu lit happening in the customer review section of a crystal gavel for sale at Amazon.

The nominations period for the 2009 storySouth Million Writers Award is now open. Matt Bell won last year for his story “Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken.” Matt’s new story “An Index of How Our Family Was Killed” just went live at Conjunctions, you can listen to him read “Hold On To Your Vacuum” as a web extra at Keyhole, and his story “Mario’s Three Lives” has been reprinted in the second volume of Best American Fantasy.

Elizabeth Ellen interviews Sam Pink for Hobart: “if i read something i wrote and get the sudden urge to breakdance, then i know it is ready to be sent out.”

Art & Literature discusses net publishing and the evolution of short fiction with Laura Ellen Scott in an interview we can’t resist quoting at length:

To put it bluntly, print literary journals make me feel bad because their contents are available to very few readers. Whereas I know online fiction is read, and more importantly, read for pleasure. I hear from my readers fairly often, and as a reader myself, I delight in discovering new stories, sharing them widely, and interacting with writers—something not easily done in print.

And:

A lot of online fiction is all about surprise and grabbing attention — it can be very immaturely pitched, but I see that as a correction to an excess of maturity in academy fostered writing.

As always, we’re appreciative if you drop us a quick note if you have news.

Gary Percesepe is an editor at the Mississippi Review.

She’s a screw-up or a slut or a slacker, what used to be called Trouble with a capital T. She’s not a waitress or a girlfriend or a friend or someone you’d be able to take your eyes off. What we don’t know is her name, until the story is nearly told, and it is revealed by one of Mary Miller’s most delightful characters, the unlikely Norbert. (“What kind of name is Norbert?” he says. I shrug. “But if you picture a guy named Norbert he probably looks exactly like that.”)

Her name is Kate. She loves Beth (she of the permanent markered jeans, lettered with the title of the story, and a Chinese tat for luck “but so far, that’s for shit”), but she’s fucking Arthur, and fucking with Bee or Billy, or Traci or Tim, and, well, Norbert.

“Not All Who Wander Are Lost” is a tale of a pretty girl who’s down on her luck but still willing to draw the next card.

When Jürgen Fauth asked me to write a blurb for the Fictionaut blog featuring a story I particularly liked, I knew I would pick a Mary Miller story. I also knew it would be this one. I chose Miller (a graduate student at the Center for Writers, University of Southern Mississippi) because she puts me in mind of where the culture was in the mid 1970s, when a young writer named Ann Beattie was writing exquisitely observed stories in the New Yorker that somehow seemed necessary, like urgent bulletins from the trailing edge of American culture that called to a new generation of Americans who felt bewildered and a little lost. What Beattie did for the 1970s and 80s Miller is doing now, on the slant side in this “economic downturn” when expectations for life and work and love have been drastically downsized. With sentences that feature a persistent downward tug to our reluctant hearts, Miller gives us her tales of women—always women—coping, groping, hustling, enduring, yet somehow hoping.

So, it was Mary Miller, but which story? I chose “Wander” because I like its length. Miller’s short shorts on Fictionaut are little epiphanies that flash and wink on the page, with a few sly ‘millerisms’– jokes and feints and tossed off/sawed off sentences that delineate in a few hundred words the shape of a world moving at the speed of sound. But the shorter stories, like so many of their kind on Fictionaut (a site I have come to enjoy and hold every good wish for) feel to me like bright shiny surfaces, like the counter at McDonalds that gets wiped off at the end of the shift—they are wiped clean in my memory.

So here is a story with some heft, one that takes up some space and pays its way. It’s a delight to see Miller working at this length (the story weighs in at just under 9800 words). It’s the last story featured in Miller’s new palm-sized collection, Big World, just released by Short Flight/Long Drive Books (a division of Hobart). So settle in for a longer read, move your mouse, scroll on down. Or print the story out and take it to bed. As Kate says (meaning: in her pretty head), “It’s good in here.”

“The funniest books I’ve ever read are Lolita and American Psycho,” Nick Antosca confesses in an interview with Tao Lin. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Elizabeth Hand describes his second novel Midnight Picnic (Word Riot), a book based on dreams and set in the afterlife, as “a riveting and terrifying 21st Century Book of the Dead that’s one of the most frightening novels I’ve read in years.” Midnight Picnic, just released, is the followup to Antosca’s 2006 novel Fires.

Nick blogs at brothercyst, and you can watch him read at KGB and listen to him talk to Ed Champion on the Bat Segundo Show. His latest story on Fictionaut is “There They Are! Here They Come!”

Here’s the book trailer, and below it, Nick’s answers to the Fictionaut Five.

If you weren’t a writer, how would you spend your time?

If I weren’t a writer, I’d sell drugs of questionable legality (not street drugs, but not FDA-approved drugs; the kind of drugs that are manufactured in one factory in Brazil) over the internet and not pay taxes on my income. Then I’d sit around and make a real effort to master social skills, just master them, so I could anticipate how people would react to almost anything.

Which book do you wish you’d written?

The Known World by Edward P. Jones would be good because it’s an excellent book and it made some money. Hm, um. Towelhead by Alicia Erian. Everything is Illuminated, which a certain subset of indie writers love to whine and cry about and hate for some reason, but which is a very good book and was read by many people. Waterland by Graham Swift, because it’s excellent.

What are the websites you couldn’t live without?

http://themoviebox.net/trailers
http://www.ted.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
http://htmlgiant.com/
http://jezebel.com/
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/

What are you working on now?

It is bad form and bad luck to talk about projects while the first draft is still incomplete, but I am working on a number of new writing projects, and I’m very excited about them.

Can you recommend a favorite story on Fictionaut?

“Virginity” by Scott Garson is pleasing. Stories titled “Virginity” have a good history. Gombrowicz has one, I think.

More good publication news: Alice Lichtenstein‘s novel Lost, her follow-up to 2000’s The Genius of the World,  “an intimate record of love and loss” (NYTBR), has been acquired by Scribner and is slated for publication in March of 2010.

PANK No. 3 is out, and you’ll need both hands to count the Fictionauts in it:  Rosanne Griffeth, Michelle Tandoc, Rachel Yoder, Daniel Nester, Blake Butler, Molly Gaudry, Kathy Fish, and Scott Garson.

Keyhole #6 looks especially tasty. Guest-edited by William Walsh, it features stories by Matt Bell, Blake Butler, Kim Chinquee, Michael Martone, and Tao Lin.  Michael Kimball provides the artists’ bios in postcard-form.

Kim Chinquee‘s story “She Was OK Now” appears in the Spring issue of American Short Fiction. She also has three flash fictions in the new issue of Bateau, along with Blake Butler and Jennifer Pieroni.

Matthew Simmons‘ ebook Caves is up at Lamination Colony. Matt Bell calls it a “complex and hilariously touching puzzle.”

Martin Reed‘s “Retrospective with Mom” is up at The Pygmy Giant. Katrina Denza‘s “Peace” is featured in Wigleaf.  Rumble posted Lydia Copeland‘s “A Little Moon.” Rosanne Griffeth has work in Diet Soap #3. Claudia Smith‘s “Derrick” appears in Juked #6. The  March issue of decomP features Sean Lovelace‘s “Dear Amelia Earhart:”  J.A. Tyler‘s  “& (Nine)” appears in Robot Melon.  There’s lots of new work at the Northville Review, including stories by Lauren Becker and Scott Garson.

Matt Briggs made a short film for “Trap,” a story we once had the honor to publish:

Daniel Nester‘s How to Be Inappropriate, due in September, is available for pre-order. Two of Daniel’s essays will appear in Lost and Found: Stories from New York, a collection of pieces from Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood.

Kevin Wilson‘s essay “Winter in Tennessee” ran in the “Lives” section of the New York Times Magazine: “ It’s a little piece about a dead deer and a body of water and home ownership.  My wife is in there too.  And a pair of boots.  Basically, it’s got everything you’d want in a compelling narrative.”

Sunday, March 8 is Girls Write Now Day at the New School in New York, and on March 10, the Liars’ League in London will perform a flash by Tania Hershman.

Kathleen Rooney and Kyle Minor are on a 25-city tour supporting their books, Live Nude Girl and In the Devil’s Territory. You’re invited to follow the adventures of their “traveling literary circus” on their blog.

Elaine Chiew and  Ravi Mangla appear together with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jhumpa Lahiri in One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories.

“The more labels, the better,” Tayari Jones argues in an essay for eJournal USA.

Finally, a short film by Socrates Adams-Florou and Chris Killen, author of The Bird Room. The View From Here and 3:AM interview Chris.

In the new issue of flash fiction magazine SmokeLong Quarterly, Meg Pokrass and Dave Clapper interview Fictionaut co-founder Jürgen Fauth about the site’s genesis and design, his plans for the public launch, and how come everybody’s so friendly.

As always, we appreciate your feedback, so please stop by the forums or drop us an email if you have any thoughts.

Marcy Dermansky‘s second novel Bad Marie, the follow-up to Twins pitched as “Mary Gaitskill meets The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,”  has been sold to HarperPerennial.

Roy Kesey‘s story “Double Fish” won the Missouri Review‘s Editor’s Prize Contest.

The 2009 Tournament of Books — a “Battle Royale of Literary Excellence “– is underway at The Morning News. Maud Newton is among the judges, and Keith Lee Morris‘ The Dart League King is in the running.

Caketrain rereleased Lizzie Skurnick‘s book of poems, Check-In. Lydia Copeland‘s collection Haircut Stories is now available in the Achilles Chapbook Series.

In Poets & Writers, Jofie Ferrari-Adler conducts a Q&A with four young editors — Lee Boudreaux, Eric Chinski, Alexis Gargagliano, and Richard Nash:  “I do want to feel that the writer has access to something larger than himself.”

Jane Ciabattari interviews Colson Whitehead at The Daily Beast. At Bookslut, Blake Butler interviews Jesse Ball about his second novel, The Way Through Doors.

Fawlt Magazine‘s “Arrogance” issue has stories by Nick Antosca and Molly Gaudry. The February issue of Elimae features Molly, Brian Beatty, Meg Pokrass, Tim JonesYelvington, Kim Chinquee, Michelle Reale, Darlin’ Neal, J. A. Tyler, and David Erlewine, as well as Michael Kimball interviewing Blake Butler. Meg’s “Needles” is in Wigleaf, and Kim Chinquee has a story in 3:AM.

Tania Hershman has five shorts in the February issue of PANK, and Claudia Smith has three stories in Action, Yes.

Laurel Snyder laments the predictability of Jewish kids’ lit in Nextbook.

At Largehearted Boy, Nick Antosca, Mary Miller, and Blake Butler discuss playlists related to their books:  Blake starts his with Animal Collective, Nick’s ends with Pearl Jam, and Mary‘s list has Dolly Parton. Nick will be reading from Midnight Picnic at the KGB Bar in New York on Saturday, Feb. 21. On the same night,  Tsipi Keller presents Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry at New York’s Cornelia Street Cafe.

Kat Meyer discusses eBook pricing in a video clip on HarperStudio.

The Virginia Quarterly Review has made its archives from 1975 to 2003 public — over 3,000 poems, stories, essays, and reviews, including a piece by David Wyatt about  “Star Wars and the Productions of Time” and a story by Jennifer Howard.

Hear Amanda Auchter read Daniel Nester’s poem “Stardust Memories” at Linebreak.

At Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg interviews Gideon Lewis-Kraus about his Harper’s article on the Frankfurt Book Fair: “The one thing everybody can agree on is that Frankfurt doesn’t have much to recommend it.”

We’re pleased to announce that we just pulled the lever that relaunched the Fictionaut Forums — a place to chat about the site and the great wide world of writing in general. We’d love for you to stop by the help, ideas, and metafiction forums and leave comments, questions, suggestions, and get up in our faces about the things that don’t (yet) work the way they’re supposed to. We know for a fact you guys aren’t shy.

The annual AWP conference starts tomorrow in Chicago, and we wish we could be there. We’ll have to console ourselves with Gail Siegel‘s “Check-in, AWP.”

We already mentioned the Keyhole reading and Dogzplot’s flash fiction contest — but there are lots more events involving Fictionauts:

• Amy Guth, Kim Chinquee, Dave Clapper, Sean Lovelace, Darlin’ Neal, Gail Siegel, Matt Bell, and Kyle Minor are among the featured readers performing short works at the RUI vs. AWP Battle of the Acronyms on February 11.
• On Thursday, Feb. 12, Kim, Sean, and Blake Butler will read at Quickies! If you can’t make it to Chicago — or can’t wait — you can listen to Blake read from EVER at apostrophe cast.
• Shane Jones, Mary Miller, Sam Pink, and, again, Blake will read at eLit on Friday, Feb. 13.
• Also on Feb. 13, PANK Magazine presents Jennifer Pieroni, Daniel Nester, and Rachel Yoder.

We’re bound to overlook all sorts of AWP events and news, so please feel free to use the comments for additions and updates.

In other news, Questionstruck by William Walsh, Keyhole Books’ first release, is now available for pre-order. William warns that Questionstruck, compiled from rearranged questions from the works of Calvin Trillin, is “a book that will make you dizzy (like in a huffing sort of way) when you read it.”

Furthermore: Barrelhouse #7 is out, with fiction by Blake Butler, Matt Bell, and Laura Ellen Scott. Colin Bassett‘s chapbook Boring Meadows is available from Greying Ghost. Kathy Fish‘s “Swick’s Rule!” was published in Wigleaf.  Jayne Pupek, author of Tomato Girl, is interviewed at Literary Mama. Matt Bell‘s “The Leftover” appears in Merdidian #22.  Paper Hero Press offers Sam Pink‘s collection I am Going to Clone Myself Then Kill the Clone and Eat It. Granta’s “Fathers” issue features a piece by Maud Newton that begins: “Exactly how long the prostitute, unbeknownst to my father, stayed at our house and slept in my bed is hard to gauge.”

Michael Kimball‘s epistolary third novel, Dear Everybody, was greeted with rave reviews. The Believer called it a “curatorial masterpiece,” Time Out New York refers to the “stunning prose” that “evocatively hints at entire physical and emotional worlds lying just behind his story’s surface,” and the LA Times argues that “there is a whole life contained in this slim novel, a life as funny and warm and sad and heartbreaking as any other, rendered with honest complexity and freshness by Kimball’s sharp writing.”  And the trailer‘s a thing of beauty, too.

Michael’s first two novels are The Way the Family Got Away and How Much Us There Was. He is responsible for the collaborative art project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard).

If you weren’t a writer, how would you spend your time?

Growing up in Michigan, I was good at math and science and all that, so I was always supposed to be an engineer, but I was pretty bored with that by college. So my degree is in English education, but I never went into high school teaching. But if I gave up writing now, I would probably spend more time editing and more time painting.

Which book do you wish you’d written?

I have to pick more than one. I am jealous of Lydia Davis’ The End of the Story, also Meredith Daneman’s The Favourite. Ida Fink’s A Scrap of Time, Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter, Don DeLillo’s End Zone.

What are the websites you couldn’t live without?

There are a few of websites I look at pretty much every day—Bookslut, HTML Giant, Facebook, and I love maintaining my blog.

What are you working on now?

I’m still writing lots of life stories for Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard). I’ve had a huge backlog since the Guardian profile, but I’m catching up. And I have started a few different novels, one of which will become my fifth novel. I don’t know which one yet.

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions for 2009?

I didn’t, not officially, but I’m pretty set about two things—weighing under 200 pounds (being on book tour is difficult on the body) and being deep into a new novel (I can’t wait to see what is going to happen).