Our friends and heroes at Dzanc Books tell us that The Best of the Web 2009 is now available for pre-order (it will be in stores in late June) at the Dzanc website for $18.00.
The line-up for Best of the Web 2009 includes a kettle of fine stories, flashes, poems and essays, but from Brevity, we are proud to be represented by:
Terese Svoboda – How Catholic – Brevity 28
and
Kathrine Leone Wright – Why – Brevity 28
More info on the anthology and on ordering here.
From Kathrine Leone Wright, author of “Why” in Brevity 28:
Sometimes thoughts don’t take linear form. Sometimes words are an explosion. They come to me in a rush of color, busting with their own force.
So an assignment to decipher the why in “why I write” from my thesis advisor couldn’t be completed in linear fashion.
The reason I write can’t be summoned in narrative form. The reason I write crosses genres. And because words amaze me, the density of poetry excites me. Calculating cost per word, tossing out cheap articles and overused flowers. That’s what I’m talking about.
And because I’m not all that great with authority, even though I did strive to be a good student. And I wasn’t a traditional student, having taken on graduate school at 39 as a “decade crises” in which I assessed what I meant to do versus what I had DONE. I thought I had already examined the linear why.
And plenty of writers have already gone there, said it best. Why I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction, by Will Blythe comprises a wonderful set of essays on the topic.
And because the best possible answer for why I write – have to – wouldn’t meet the guidelines for the assignment. And because writing is a joyous, laborious, insane process that slips away when you reach for it.
That day, I wanted to capture the explosion.
Next week, BREVITY 28 will fall to earth like an acorn from a truth-telling oak tree. Where else can you find intergalactic dust, two peach-colored poodles, one upturned car, notes on the art of fencing, cake erotica, failed Caesarian sections, missing toddlers, cameos by Tiresias and Oedipus, and the brightest red dress you’ve ever seen? All of it nonfiction, and brought to you by the incomparable likes of Terese Svoboda, J.T. Bushnell, John Calderazzo, K.L. Cook, Brian Doyle, Kate Flaherty, John Griswold, Pat Madden, Leslie F. Miller, Brian Oliu, Rita Rubin, Phil Terman, and Kathrine Leone Wright. Plus new Book Reviews from Debbie Hagan, Joey Franklin, and Liz Stephens and stellar Craft Essays from Barrie Jean Borich and Sherry Simpson.
Stay tuned!
