Coming in December! Our First Complete Online Issue

This year at Ninth Letter we have put together an online feature dedicated to showcasing the best student work from creative writing programs across the country. This special winter issue will only be available on our website and will feature work by eighteen outstanding emerging writers:

J. Scott Brownlee (New York University)

Matthew Burnside (Iowa Writers' Workshop)

Portia Elan (University of Victoria, BC)

Lisa Fay Coutley (University of Utah)

Samantha Deal (University of North Carolina, Wilmington)

Andy Hobin (Virginia Tech)

Nathan Logan (University of North Texas)

Gerardo Mena (Goddard College)

Katie Jean Moulton (Indiana University)

Beatrice Mora (Sarah Lawrence)

Brianna Noll (University of Illinois-Chicago)

Eric Paul (Fairleigh Dickinson University)

Ron Paul Salutsky (Florida State)

Cara Stoddard (University of Idaho)

Christine Stroud (Chatham University)

M. Thompson (New York University)

Laura Usselman (Virginia Tech)

Heath Wilcock (Arizona State)

Stay tuned to our blog, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook so you can be among the first to know when this fantastic issue goes live!

                                                Faith is like a wholly undeserved hangover,

a stubbornly dry ballpoint, like realizing partway through an episode of Law & Order

that you already saw the second half, in a motel outside Tempe,

your whole naked body goose pimpled under the air conditioner;

it's like/it's like a bridesmaid dress, faith is.

             
    --from "A Simile Is a Suspension Bridge," Portia Elan

Radio Free AWP

Here's something good whether or not you're at AWP 2011, Oronte Chrum aka U of I's own John Griswold, has been posting a series of podcasts to his blog. There are a lot of great ones to listen to, so head on over and check them out. Here are some highlights:

Get the inside scoop on the collaboration between Ninth Letter editorial and design as Jodee Stanley speaks with editors on both sides of the process. Also listen in as the designers for the current issue pitch their ideas.

Adam Levin (vol. 1, no. 1) reads from his novel, The Instructions.

Former 9L staffer, Dana Burchfield interviews poet Sandra Beasley.

Matthew Frank (vol. 2, no. 2) reads from his nonfiction book, Pot Farm.

Roy Kesey (most recently in the current issue, vol. 7, no. 2) reads from his novel Pacazo.

Former 9L CNF editor, Steve Davenport talks with Bruce Rummenie about poetry and music.

Also, today is the last day for Radio Free AWP giveaways, including a 1-year subscription to Ninth Letter as well as a 9L t-shirt!

new content @ ninthletter.com

The Ninth Letter website has been updated with terrific new content!

The Where We're At section focuses on the Allan deSouza exhibit at the Krannert Art Museum (KAM) in Champaign. Allyson Purpura, Kam's exhibitions curator, discusses deSouza's work and gives a quick preview of the feature that will appear in the next issue of Ninth Letter.

On the occasion of the opening of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis, IN, we are proud to present Marsha Koretzky's tribute to Vonnegut in the Featured Writer section.

Click on over to those sections and we hope you enjoy what you read. If you do, be sure to tell you friends, so they can check it out too. Thanks!

Featured Writers and Artists

The Featured Artist section on the Ninth Letter website has been an integral part of 9L's web presence, so when we wanted to expand the scope of our original online content, it seemed only natural to open that section to include writers as well. We are thrilled to announce the section will now be known as Featured Writers and Artists! Pieces featured in this section can't be found in the print edition of Ninth Letter. These are Ninth Letter web exclusives.

The inaugural piece, "Tempus Fugitive" is actually a collaboration between 9L contributor Bryan Furuness (more on him in a second) and three other writers, Sarah Layden, Andrew Scott, and Matthew Simmons. The piece is a series of letters written to the Tempus Fugit corporation explaining how the writer of the letter would utilize the company's time travel technology. We love it. We hope you enjoy it, so let us know what you think.


As mentioned above, Bryan Furuness appeared in vol. 6, no. 1 of the print edition with his amazing story "Man of Steel." I also had a chance to interview him about the story for an edition of 5 (or so) Questions. "Man of Steel" is featured in the just released Best American Nonrequired Reading. To celebrate all this Bryan Furuness goodness and to continue with our Fall Back Sale event, below is an excerpt from "Man of Steel."

A commercial changed my life when I was ten years old. I was watching television in my living room, which really meant that I was tossing a basketball in the air distractedly while slipping in and out of daydreams. Sometimes, during commercials, I would sink so far inside my own head that by the time the show came back on, I would have forgotten what I was watching. But this commercial caught my attention. I don't remember what it was selling, but the product's beside the point; the point is the commercial itself.

It began with strange, warbly music and then, rising from a kind of fog, a simple pencil sketch of a man's face, but then it wasn't a man's face at all: it was a creature with large, almond-shaped eyes and a rigid brow and pointy chin. This, said a voice -- deep and pleasant to listen to -- was a creature from outer space, an alien, a traveler from a distant star. "Who knows," said the voice, "what's really out there?"

The basketball fell out of my hands and dribbled away across the carpet. Now a woman looked straight at the camera -- into me -- and explained how, on an ordinary morning, she'd suddenly felt a blast of burning pain in her hand, when, at that exact moment, a thousand miles away, her son had burned himself on the stove.
"Coincidence?" said the voice.
I shook my head.

To read the rest of "Man of Steel" pick up a copy of vol. 6, no. 1 in our webstore. To get it for $5.95, choose, "sample copy, editor's choice" and enter "fall back sale" in the special instructions box.

FLAGRANTWORLD

One of Ninth Letter's founding editors, Joseph Squier, has a new art project, FLAGRANTWORLD. Joseph describes the project as "...part poem, painting, sound, song, cinema. Utilizing programming tools and database concepts, it assembles snippets of images, video, text, and audio on the fly and in real time, creating a kind of hybrid narrative that is dynamic and unpredictable."

It's a very cool project and one you should check out right away!

The Biblioracle

Ever finish a book and have no idea what to read next? Well, John Warner (vol. 6, no. 2) is here to help. All you have to do is head on over to The Morning News and leave a comment on The Biblioracle page listing the last five books you read and you'll recieve a recommendation on what to read next. The Biblioracle is open for business today from 12pm to 2pm (eastern time).

EWN's Short Story Month

As you know, the short story is far from dead, but short stories can always use some extra love and support. Lucky for us, and the short story, Dan Wickett over at the Emerging Writers Network has declared May Short Story Month.

Here is what Dan plans to accomplish this month:

My goal each day will be to find three stories to read and blog about - one from a collection that maybe I've held onto a little too long, should have finished and reviewed by now, etc; one from a print journal; and one from an online journal.

By month's end, if all goals are met, just under 100 short stories will have been read and commented upon. I hope to meet these goals, if only because it means I'll have scared up the time to read nearly 100 short stories!

Head on over to the Emerging Writers Network to read about the stories already posted.

Short Story Month is a great time to revisit some favorites or to try some new ones. Tell us how you plan to spend Short Story Month.

NewPages reviews 9L

NewPages.com has posted a very nice review of our current issue, Vol. 5, No. 2.

Reviewer, Sima Rabinowitz, writes, "Ninth Letter is part literary journal, part coffee-table book – the kind of coffee-table book you go back to again and again, admiring the gorgeous artwork and spectacularly designed pages each time with the same sense of awe, surprise, and delight."

The review praises Katori Hall’s “Oreo Girl: The Miscegenation of Miss Emma Brown,” The Music Feature, Naton Leslie's essay "Listening to Johnny Cash," as well as poems by Christopher Dwerse and Ryo Yamaguch.

New Content on ninthletter.com

If you haven't explored our web pages much this week, go check out our new Where We're At podcast, a reading of Keith Lee Morris's story "There Are in This World Moments of Great Beauty," which originally appeared in print in our Fall/Winter 2005 issue.

Philip Graham's latest dispatch at McSweeney's

Check out "Three Churches" at mcsweeneys.net, wherein Philip Graham describes some of the weird and wonderful things he saw while exploring some of Portugal's churches.

New Review at NewPages

The literary review site newpages.com has a very nice review of our Spring/Summer 2008 issue. Singled out for praise are prose writers Ron Carlson, Steve Tomasula, Tom Whalen, and Dave King, and poets Francine J. Harris and Twilight Greenaway.

Bonus: The review of the spring issue of Monkey Bicycle, which appears immediately before our review, makes special mention of 9L friend and UI grad student Aaron Burch, so check that out as well!

Philip Graham Interviews David Jauss

Check out Philip Graham's interview with author David Jauss on UI's NPR affiliate station WILL. Jauss was visiting our campus as part of our Carr Reading Series and gave a wonderful reading of his fiction later in the day.

Steve Davenport on Verse Daily

Get your daily poetry fix at Verse Daily, today featuring 9L nonfiction editor Steve Davenport and his killer poem "Popular Science" (originally published in The Literary Review).

Philip Graham Interview

Listen to 9L Fiction Editor Philip Graham discuss writing in an interview with Shelagh C. Shapiro for "Write the Book," a regular radio show on Burlington, Vermont's WOMM-LP 105.9 FM.

Submit Work to Short Story Podcasts

Beginning in September 2008, one story a week will be chosen and read on the Short Story website. The reading period is April-June 2008. The review is now accepting stories of 3000 words or less.

Send stories to: Short Story, P.O. Box 50567, Columbia, SC 29250. Check out more about this interesting opportunity by visiting http://www.shortstoryreview.org/.

Check your water bill

If you loved Eric Vrooman's story "Water Bill" in the Fall/Winter 07-8 issue of 9L, continue the virtual utilities experience here at www.hydratia.com.

The Emancipation of Oronte Churm

Dear readers,
Get the who, what, and why of Oronte Churm right here. All your questions are finally answered. Then click on over to McSweeney's for his latest Dispatch. Big news and great writing all brought to you by your favorite blog!

A Poem for the Day

Past Ninth Letter contributor Benjamin S. Grossberg has a poem, "One Last Thought" posted today on Verse Daily. Give it a click and read. The poem is from his book, Underwater Lengths in a Single Breath.

Thompson on the Short Story

A few days ago, author (UIUC alum, UIUC professor emeritus, and all-around awesome lady) Jean Thompson respond to Stephen King's "What Ails the Short Story?" with her own sharp, funny, dead-on assessment here in Maud Newton's blog.

We should have posted this sooner. We have been overwhelmed by page proofs. The new issue is coming in just a few weeks!

Poetry for your enjoyment

Go over to The Scrambler to read a poem by 9L's own Adam Deutsch appearing in their fall issue. How cool is that?