Lisbon Dispatch

World Cup fever is spreading and Leite's Culinaria has reprinted Philip Graham's "I Don't Know Why I Love Lisbon," which discusses many great things including, a World Cup match between Portugal and The Netherlands. The essay is excerpted from Philip's The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon.

Summer Reading

First, congratulations are in order for 9L contributors Stephan Clark, Sarah Einstein, and Margot Livesey! Stephan Clark and Sarah Einstein will be listed in the "notable essays" section of the upcoming Best American Essays for essays featured in Ninth Letter. Stephan Clark's "My Year of European Underwear" and Sarah Einstein's "Mot" both appeared in vol. 6, no. 2. Margot Livesey's "Mr. Clark's Daughter" from vol. 6, no. 1 is a notable short story in the upcoming Best American Short Stories.

Summer is a great time for picking up some new books. Here are a couple nominees for your reading list:

The Best of the Web 2010 from Dzanc books features a number of 9L contributors, including Mary Biddinger (vol. 5, no. 1), Robert Olen Butler (vol. 1, no. 1 & vol. 2, no. 1), Dan Chaon (vol. 4, no. 2), Brian Evenson (vol. 2, no. 2), Christine Hartzler (vol. 4, no. 2), Ander Monson (vol. 1, no. 2 & vol.6, no. 2), F. Daniel Rzicznek (vol. 6, no. 1), and Angela Woodward (vol. 7, no. 1). This is just a small sample of the plethora of awesome writers featured in the collection.

Walks with Men, the new book from Ann Beattie (vol. 1, no. 2) is out now. There is an excerpt available here.

Benjamin Percy (vol. 6, no. 2) discusses his affinity for Stephen King's The Gunslinger with Carolyn Kellogg over at Jacket Copy.

And don't forget, the summer/spring 10 (vol. 7, no. 1) issue of Ninth Letter is available in our webstore.

Published for a Day

Word Riot is publishing novels and story collections from past contributors in PDF form for one day only. The books will be available until 11:59pm tonight. You can download and read as many as you want between now and then. Be sure to check out I/O, a lyric essay memoir novel type thing, from 9L contributor Brian Oliu (vol. 6, no. 1).

Philip Graham's 9L Fiction Roundup

9L fiction editor, Philip Graham, blogs about the fiction in the new spring/summer 2010 issue and why he thinks it is our best issue ever!