Mary Akers‘s debut collection Women Up On Blocks is available now for pre-order, and Press 53 offers signed copies. WeWomenGlobally has an interview with Mary — and a great photo.

Big World, Mary Miller‘s collection of short stories from Hobart, is now shipping, and Shane Jones‘s debut novel Light Boxes is available from Publishing Genius. If you hurry, you might still win the contest. Holy Land has an interview with Shane.

The Northville Review, edited by Erin Fitzgerald, makes its debut — with a story by Scott Garson.

At if:book, Dan Visel links Ben Greenman‘s Correspondences to the postcard art of Ray Johnson: “Greenman’s work, like that of Johnson’s before him, anticipates a new kind of relation between the author and the reader. The reworking of this relationship in increasingly varied ways will be the most significant aspect of the way our reading changes as it moves from the printed page to the networked screen.”

In other Ben Greenman news, you’ll be able to buy three exclusive stories in the shape of Jack Spade limited edition passport covers.

The second issue of print mag NO COLONY is crawling with Fictionauts: Blake Butler, Scott Garson, Brandon Hobson, Sean Lovelace, Jennifer Pieroni,William Walsh, and Corey Zeller all grace its pages.

The same goes for the winter issue of Frigg, which has three stories (each!) by Barry Graham, Tiff Holland, Ravi Mangla, Mary Miller, and Jennifer Pieroni.

In an interview with Conversational Reading, Soft Skull/Counterpoint’s Richard Nash reveals how to publish in a recession: “In fact, ironically, we had a great year. Best ever.”

“The future is always irresistible.” Maud Newton talks with editor Tom Jenks about how Narrative became the first literary magazine available on Kindle and how fiction changes as it meets new technology.

Beth Bauman and Kaytie Lee have stories in Visiting Hours, an anthology of new fiction edited by Dan Wickett and introduced by Kyle Minor. Avery #4 has stories by Jessica Breheny, Hannah Tinti, and Scott Garson.  Ravi Mangla‘s “Blurb” is at Johnny America. The new issue of decomP features work by David Erlewine and Molly Gaudry. Meakin Armstrong‘s story “Power Ballad,” about “a guy with bad hair trying to pick up a woman with a bad tattoo” appears in Our Stories.

If you happen to be in Buffalo, don’t miss tomorrow’s Exhibit X reading with Kim Chinquee and Forrest Roth.

Finally, a video of short performances of Kirsten-Menger Anderson‘s Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain, courtesy of Sally Shore’s New Short Fiction Series.

Listing the Fictionaut favorites of 2008 was so much fun that we couldn’t wait a whole year to do it again. Here, then, are the ten stories posted in January that stirred up the most interest in the community, as determined by a combination of views, comments, and favorites. As always, you can check out more recommended stories here. Enjoy.

1. A Man by Pia Ehrhardt
2. Gymnopédie Set by Scott Garson
3. No One Was With Him by Kim Chinquee
4. Moat by Ravi Mangla
5. Baby Love by Meakin Armstrong
6. Your Hair, Your Weight by Maryanne Stahl
7. Inelegant Corpse by Cooper Renner
8. THERE IS AN I.V. OF THE TIMES I HAVE THOUGHT, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT” AND IT IS SWELLING MY VEINS by sam pink
9. In the Jukebox Light by Curtis Smith
10. Angel by Mary Miller

The New York Times Book Review called Maud Casey “a stand-up philosopher posing vexing questions about human existence” and praised her “dazzling narrative dare.”  She is the author of two novels, The Shape of Things to Come and Genealogy, and the short story collection Drastic.

I’d like to recommend Curtis Smith‘s “In the Jukebox Light.” There’s an ease to the voice, a collective, inquisitive “we” that is often lyrical (“blissful astronaut lovers float in a sky of flashbulb stars”).  A dense, palpable world is conveyed swiftly. It’s a world in which this couple’s loss is not extraordinary but is still worthy of attention. I particularly like the “or not” at the end—that uncertainty is lovely.

Esquire points to five great online literary magazines, several of which happen to be published by or feature contributions from Fictionauts: Narrative, Flatmancrooked, Guernica, Anderbo, and The Adirondeck Review.

On February 11, Blake Butler, Barry Graham, and Molly Gaudry will join a group of writers for an Orange Alert reading during the AWP in Chicago. Blake will also be reading at “no point in not being friends” in Manchester on January 27.

KORA is a new journal of “avant-garde poetry, prose, & ‘experimental’ literary hybrids.” The inaugural issue features work by J.A. Tyler and Sean Lovelace. Sean will also guest judge the Dogzplot 2009 AWP Flash Fiction Contest, and he has a story in Diagram 8.6: “My Grief Upon the Death of Regis Philbin.”  Terese Svoboda is in the same issue, with a piece called “Noble Savage.”

Lit mag InDigest is having a reading at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York on February 2nd, featuring Meakin Armstrong and Erica Wright.

“World-class perpetrator of gimmickry”  Tao Lin may or me not be a Fictionaut — but we’re fairly certain he’s been featured in New York Magazine.

Molly Gaudry (“July in Cincinnati“) and Randall Brown (“The Set-Up“) have stories in the latest Dogzplot. Molly also contributed to “Nine Stories,” a collaborative piece at Titular, and she has two poems in Red Peter.

“Jimi Don’t Play Here No More” is the title of Tim Elhajj‘s story in Brevity 29. Meg Pokrass has “Day of the Renaissance Fair” in LITnIMAGE. Myfanwy Collins‘s “Let Me Go” is in Wigleaf.  Laura Ellen Scott‘s “Do you know what it means to miss” appears in Juked. Lauren Becker has a story called “Ice Cream Man” in Drunk and Lonely Men #10, and Oak Bend Review published Paula Ray‘s poem “Deflated Contemplation.”

Curtis Smith sends news that Parting Gifts, a journal that has been championing short-short fiction since the late 80s, has been resurrected after a brief hiatus. You can subscribe and submit though the web site, and back issues are available as PDF files.

Available now from Willows Wept Press, Matt Bell‘s chapbook How the Broken Lead the Blind “delivers ten inventive stories rich in language, ideas and catharsis that will leave you hungering for his next collection” (Steven McDermott.)  The title story and “Her Ennead” are up on Fictionaut. To celebrate, we asked Matt to recommend a story he digs:

“Let x” by Chad Simpson is short enough to fit on a bar napkin but creates a world big enough to allow for some fiercely playful language and an impressive amount of emotional depth. There aren’t enough stories that also function as true and honest apologies to the people we’ve wronged, and this is one of the best.

“Let x” originally appeared on the Esquire Books Blog.

“Barry Graham’s stories are little cries for help from way in the corners and deep in the cracks of contemporary fiction,” says Jeff Parker, author of Ovenman. Who among those who’ve read “DICKEY DEW,” “BLACKHORSE,” or any of Barry’s other stories on Fictionaut would disagree?

Another Sky Press just released Barry’s debut collection  The National Virginity Pledge: Short Stories and Other Lies, which you can order from Amazon or directly from the publisher. Barry is a four-time National Tic Tac Toe Association champion and fiction editor of Dogzplot.

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

i’d bum around the boardwalk in atlantic city, scraping up enough change to meet the poker table minimums, then lose it and start over.

Which book do you wish you’d written?

the new testament.

What are the websites you couldn’t live without?

www.dogzplot.com
www.girlshuntinggirls.com
www.absolutepoker.com
www.yahoo.com
www.fictionaut.com (of course)

What are you working on now?

i’m working on two novels and a collection of flash fiction collages.

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

2009 is the end of negativity.

Daniel Nester surveys literary journals, including Caketrain, The Lumberyard, Atlas, Bateau, and Chautauqua, for Library Journal.

Janice Erlbaum‘s essay “Girl Meets Toy” was voted one of Nerve.com’s ten best of 2008, and she just joined the board of Girls Write Now, the New York creative writing and mentoring organization that is having its annual winter reading this Saturday, January 17.

The new issue of elimae features stories by Tsipi Keller, Meg Pokrass, Colin Bassett, and David Erlewine. David and Meg also have stories in of Press 1, and Meg offers a writing prompt in SmokeLong Quarterly.

Kathy Fish, Molly Gaudry, Kim Chinquee, Randall Brown, Mary Miller, and Rachel Yoder all have work in the new issue of Quick Fiction (pictured: cover art by Andrew Kehoe.) Kim also has four short shorts in Guernica.

The inaugural issue of Pear Noir! is available for pre-order, with stories by William Walsh and Tao Lin.

Carolyn Kellogg is the “MFA in Creative Writing chick” in the February issue of Marie Claire.

Donna George Storey will be reading from the anthology X: The Erotic Treasury in Oakland and San Francisco on January 22 and 29, along with Greta Christina, Pam Ward, Susie Hara, Susie Bright, and Rachel Kramer Bussel.

Here’s one video that YouTube hasn’t taken down yet: the digital marketing team at Macmillan, including Ami Greko and Ryan Chapman, explain how a book travels from the author to the reader: “Second Life and World of Warcraft avatars constitute 90% of our reach.” Enjoy.

As always, we appreciate a quick note when you have news to share. Thanks!

No one should be surprised that a diverse crowd of web-savvy writers would enjoy blogging. And yet: the percentage of Fictionaut members who also run a weblog is truly outrageous.

We thought it might be fun to collect all of our members’ latest posts on a single page — kind of like Elvis’s Graceland basement, but with blogs for TVs and minus the porcelain monkey. Just kick back and watch the posts roll by.

The headlines of the latest posts are now also being displayed in this blog’s sidebar, and you can subscribe to the aggregated feed. If your site seems to be missing, drop us a line and we’ll add it. Please note that we can only include sites that offer an RSS feed. Happy blogging!

If we’re reading that cocktail napkin right, Blake Butler, Matt Bell, Kim Chinquee, Kathy Fish, Rosanne Griffeth, Claudia Smith, and Kelly Spitzer contributed stories to the handwritten issue of Keyhole Magazine.

Kelly Spitzer also recently interviewed Mary Miller, author of Less Shiny and the forthcoming Big World, on her site Writers in Profile.

Blake Butler‘s novella Ever is getting released by Calamari Press on his birthday, January 14.  Watch the official and unofficial trailer.

Sarah Weinman read 462 books last year, and Carolyn Kellogg asked her: “So how do you do it?”

Ru Freeman‘s “Jesse’s Story” appeared in Guernica: “I follow the woman in a blue dress; the blue of my brother’s eyes.”

You may have read about Japenese cell phone novels or know that Maud Newton is tweeting Paradise Lost — but  David Miller is writing a Twitter novel.

Speaking of Maud: you have until Tuesday to cast your vote for the Best Literature Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards.

The irrepressible Lauren Cerand has launched The New You Project, dedicated to spreading word of Jonathan Baumbach‘s novel You: Or the Invention of Memory. “Here’s how it works: email me between now and February 14 to request a free copy of the book.”

Winter’s going great for resident snowman expert Bob Eckstein, who has been just about everywhere: in the New York Post, the Daily News, New Hampshire’s WKBK, and — whoa — Good Morning America.

But Bob wasn’t the only Fictionaut to grace the pages of the Post: Jessica West‘s forthcoming What Would Keith Richards Do? was featured on Page Six.

Finally, Sean Lovelace has won the Third Annual Rose Metal Press Short Short Chapbook Contest, judged by Sherrie Flick. How Some People Like Their Eggs will be published in the summer. Molly Gaudry was a finalist, and Dawn Corrigan, Rosanne Griffeth, and Tiff Holland made it to the semi-finals. We salute you all.

Noria Jablonski, author of  Human Oddities and recently included in Owen King and John McNally’s superhero anthology Who Can Save Us Now?, has posted stories about busloads of kidnapped children, bad perms, and sideshow mummies on Fictionaut. What does she like to read on the site?

“I’d like to recommend the weird, witchy ‘Animals, Animals, Animals‘ by Jessica Breheny,” writes Noria. “Cats speak prophecy, abandoned stuffed animals are rescued, birds lurk. Eventually the FBI gets involved. I’ve read this one a few times, and every time the language knocks my socks off all over again.”

Jessica is the fiction editor of Ping Pong, the Literary Arts Journal of the Henry Miller Library, and the author of a collection of short stories and a young adult novel. “Animals, Animals, Animals”  originally appeared in Storyglossia.