Blog
Thumbnail artwork by Catrin Welz-Stein, Catherine Swenson, Christian Schloe, Jin Xingye
TRAVELING LIGHT Sneak Peek
TRAVELING LIGHT, upmarket literary fiction, 85,000 words. June Colter, 17, equestrienne in the Byrd Family Circus, thunders around the ring on horseback as she yearns for a different life. She defies her parents by studying in secret, helped by Jeta, an aged...
The Waiting Time: Your Book is Out on Submission. Now What?
You’ve finished your book and braved the querying trenches. You’ve signed with an agent who has begun the process of submitting your novel to publishing houses. The process can take months, with no guarantee that there will be a publication contract at the end of it....
THE BASS ROCK by Evie Wyld
THE BASS ROCK by Evie Wyld is a bewitching, textured novel that lingers after the last haunting page has turned. Told in alternating points-of-view, Viviane recounts the present-day arc of the story as she travels from London to clear out the family home on the Firth...
When You Get “The Call”
Sometimes something happens that you’ve hoped and worked and waited for for so long, you can’t quite believe it’s real, or maybe it’s more that you’re afraid if you blink, it will go away. Maybe this happens when, for example, your children are born. One day they’re...
ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong
ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS, by Ocean Vuong, is an incandescent, devastating novel/prose poem. Written as a letter from Little Dog to his mother, a letter she cannot read because she’s illiterate, the story explores language, family, identity, and what it means to...
SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones
SILVER SPARROW, by Tayari Jones, is a complex, superbly written novel with no easy answers. Jones has created flawed, believable characters who struggle with difficult moral issues of family and loyalty even as the consequences of their choices unravel with painful...
HOW TO SET YOURSELF ON FIRE by Julia Dixon Evans
How to Set Yourself on Fire, by Julia Dixon Evans, is a quirky story in the vein of Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, only sweeter. Sheila, 35, is a mess. She can’t hold down a job, she barely sleeps, and when she does it’s often on the stoop of her...
Daniela Petrova Interview, Part III
The final installment of my interview with Daniela Petrova, author of HER DAUGHTER'S MOTHER, is up on the Columbia Fiction Foundry YouTube channel. Daniela’s debut novel, published by Putnam, has been named “One of Five Thrillers to Read This Summer” by Time Magazine,...
Daniela Petrova Interview, Part II
The second installment of my interview with Daniela Petrova, author of the debut novel, HER DAUGHTER'S MOTHER, is now up on YouTube. In this segment Daniela shares how she cultivated sources in order to do research for the police scenes in her book. She also discusses...
Remembering Richard Moore, 1927-2009
In memory of the upcoming tenth anniversary of my father's death, I thought I'd take a moment to remember the poet Richard Moore, 1927-2009. During the last months of his life, Richard wrote the following fragment. What better person to share his accomplishments than...
Daniela Petrova Interview Part I
On September 7th, hosted by Columbia University’s Fiction Foundry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniela Petrova, author of the debut novel, HER DAUGHTER'S MOTHER. Daniela and I enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation about the novel and what it takes to get a book...
Resiliance, Determination & Teamwork at the USTA Eastern Sectionals
This past weekend sixteen of my teammates and I packed up our tennis racquets, team uniforms, sunblock, visors and determination to head up to Schenectady NY to compete in the USTA Eastern 18+ Sectional Championships. The Sectionals bring together all five regions of...