News, publications and blog for the author of AM/PM (Featherproof Books) and Museum of the Weird (FC2).
I’m in Chicago. Last night there was a storm that shook the house and flooded the streets. This afternoon, Zach and I went to yoga and balanced it out by eating a box of shells and cheese with a can of chili in about 45 seconds. I want to barf, but instead I’m going to go to a party at the Poetry Foundation.
well anyway later
My house is quiet but for the farts of a cat.
Good readings happened in Portland and Seattle, including a good new find in the poetry of Portland poet James Gendron. You used to could buy his book at Poor Claudia but it’s sold out. Maybe it will come back sometime. In Seattle, Matthew Simmons and I had a tweet-off and everybody lost.
Thanks to Matty and Carrie at Smalldoggies and the folks at SPLAB in Seattle for the hospitality.
Supposedly there’s a Studio 360 piece floating around out there about the idea of narrative medicine, where aspiring doctors read fiction in order to achieve some aim, maybe empathy, and apparently some class is teaching my story “Babies” to this end. I am tickled by this and would love more information if anyone out there has some.
There’s a very kind review of Museum of the Weird up at BookPeople’s blog. The review aims not only to look closely at the book but to contextualize it with other pieces of experimental fiction and to define the genre itself. If you were looking for a reason to support local bookstores, perhaps their care and attention to the books could suffice. I’m reading at BookPeople on Friday at 7pm with Dan Boehl.
Texas tip: have you ever had frito chili pie? Check it out.
The New York Times reviewed Museum of the Weird
Please find my recommends for exciting online reads at the NYLON blog, including links to excellent pieces by Meredith Martinez, Lindsay Hunter, Christopher Higgs, Athena Nilssen, and Jamie Iredell.
Also find an interview with Richard Thomas at The Nervous Breakdown in list form, and learn what I really think about Farmville, Rob Lowe, and the Chevy Camaro Iroc-Z.
New story “Ghost” at Shattered Wig Press, a sneak preview of their Issue 29.
Kyle Beachy reviews Museum of the Weird
You’ll find press info here. Find Dan Wickett here:
“At times I worry that an author has maybe opted to go with an idea that is a bit of a reach, even for their many talents. I’ve learned to quit doing that with Amelia Gray and her stories, and after reading a couple of sentences, always decide to scrunch back in my chair and really settle in, as who knows where the hell she’s taking it. In what is becoming a very long streak, Gray has never gone anywhere that hasn’t amazed me.”
—Dan Wickett, Emerging Writers Network/Dzanc Books
The UA Press catalog is out, and with it, the cover of Museum of the Weird. The art is by Zach Dodson, who is half of the team at Featherproof and designed everything about AM/PM.
September 2010
(The above is actually the next-to-last draft, which is the last draft I have in high res. Behind the scenes! It smells like bananas back here. Anyway check out the catalog if you’d like to see the final colors, which are pretty much the same but with a black line on the plaque and a slightly deeper sea green in the background.)
Not to get too sentimental about Zach, who is away from the Internet this week because a swimming pool in Arizona was calling, but I really couldn’t be more pleased with the way the cover turned out, and I’m grateful to FC2 for allowing me to work with my friend, who is a genius, and perfectly captured the menagerie feeling of the book. You might think it is difficult to make the distinction between a plate of hair and a trichobezoar, but Dodson makes it simple. I am a factory that produces only excitement.
The semester is winding down. I finally sent off final, no-fooling final edits on Museum of the Weird. Celebrating by immediately getting waist-deep into a new thing. Also there’s a Five Things on Friday and an Encyclopedia Show on the 20th. Good thing I bought those strawberries.
I spend a lot of time wondering if I am working hard or hardly working. Sometimes this feeling happens after I take ten minutes to look for a good picture of Ruth Bader Ginsburg after reading extensively about her college years.
The Suns prevailed tonight. Tim Duncan tried to remove Steve Nash’s eyeball with his elbow but Nash rose above six hasty stitches because he is a basketball genius and doesn’t need depth perception to posterize a man. I wish I could have gone to the game, if only to finally figure out that you can get arrested for saying YES repeatedly while holding your fist in the air within the city limits of San Antonio. I’ve always suspected.
how you like me now
First things: three new little stories up at dispatch. Thanks to PHM for his work. Secondly, I’m reading tonight at The Book Cellar with Patrick Somerville, Achy Obejas, and Derek McCormack. Looking forward to running at them with flaming branches in word form.
It’s hard to express my feelings about being done with the tour. I’m not quite done done yet, since I don’t get to be home until Monday. Meanwhile I am staying with wonderful creative friends in Chicago and talking in half-sentences about gophers and Sprinters and one-eyed cats. I wrote up a brief account of the tour while I was in the van, just the bare details (we ate breakfast at the Waffle House, we read at the Booksmith) and the thing is still ten pages. That’s how I feel.
Anyway it was wonderful to meet so many kind and generous and funny people on the road, from those who put us up in their homes and let us use their towels, to those who took us out after readings and bought us drinks and food, to those who slipped bills into our raffle bag and helped us pay for all the gas we used on the entire trip, insane, plus a surplus of $12. I learned many new names; incredible guest readers in all cities, hosts that gave us peanut butter pretzels or took us to Bourbon Street or found flowers to make our walk a little pinker, kind friends who smiled while we tried to string together a complete sentences after twelve hours on the road. I found myself in cities and states I had never been before, accompanied by the kindest hearts. I’m being blurry and vague. Once I start putting names to things I’ll start feeling it all. Let’s wait on that.
Lots of work to be done. A freelance project kicks into high gear the minute tires touch the tarmac in Austin. I’m working out the final order on Museum of the Weird and making the final edits. My Five Things co-host has been invaluable in deciphering my half-emails from the road and pulling together an exciting roster of readers. I’m looking forward to one last weekend in Chicago, one more drink with friends, and then home.
Judge Lidia Yuknavitch chose Museum of the Weird for a Spring/Summer 2010 release. A complex and piercing collection, as poetic as it is poignant, Museum of the Weird features twenty four short stories that collectively expose both the hilarity and heartbreak of life in the twenty first century.
Bad Behavior has blocked 1642 access attempts in the last 7 days.
