L☀RNA S☁RE

SS: You’ve published in every issue of Noon since 2006. I find the stories in there comparable to anything that you’d find in Harper’s or The Paris Reviewor The New Yorker, but outside of serious literary circles it’s relatively unknown. 

CM:  I agree. I think that the stories in Noon can go toe to toe with stories in the very best places publishing short fiction in the world. And I know a lot of very smart people who hold the exact same opinion, including people high up in the world of publishing. I think in the fullness of time, Noon will be much more widely known than it is today, when people look back on this period of literary history. Diane Williams has an incredible ear, and she has an eye for all different kinds of stories. This is a cliché, but I think she has this kind of ear for authenticity. If there’s one thing that she taught me — writing for Diane was really my MFA — it’s how to carve all of the bullshit out of my writing, all of the literary pretension, any kind of fake word, any kind of cheap trick, anything that didn’t sound original. Link

I am so happy to have a piece in the summer fiction issue of the Mississippi Review Online.

It’s called “Boys and Girls in America Have Such a Sad Time Together” (a line from On the Road). Here’s the link to my story. 

Another thing that happened since I last updated is this interview with Ryan Manning.  Also Frank Bruni wrote about my favorite topic, Neapolitan pizzas in NYC. And Lawrence and I went to California. This was our cabin at Deetjen’s in Big Sur.