HOBART

How Fiction Works

A quick shout-out for this marvelous little bestseller. It isn't meant to be a guide for writers trying to learn the art of fiction, but a critical review of the things that make a piece of fiction do its job. Still, this literateur manque found it to be more enlightening than a number of fiction-writing books by more successful novelists. The paradox is that the critic can sometimes be more precise in his description of an art form than the artist herself might be in describing what she does.

Wood boils the art of fiction, by which he means close third-person realism, down to its essences -- point of view, detail, dialogue, language, etc. -- and explains how each of these elements does its job. It's an engaging read. It's also lively. Wood takes issue with Forster's distinction between flat and round characters (although I don't think his supplanting distinction between clear and opaque characters is that much more helpful), and makes a few points that may leave light bruises on the reputations of John Updike and William Gass.

The criticism might be that Wood defines the art too narrowly. What about metafiction? What about inventive narrative forms? But Wood is only choosing one type of fiction, which also happens to be the classic form, to limit his discussion. He's conducting a class that might be called Fiction 101, or Fiction for Dummies, and this reader, anyway, happily took note of every word.

-- Sean

A Dash of David Kramer

Scrupulous readers of the New York Times website will have noticed that one of the Times' newest bloggers is none other than New York visual artist and Hobart friend David Kramer, whose sly drawings graced the covers of Hobart 7 and 9 (the art + stories and games issues, respectively), and who writes his own excellent blog, Toothless Alcholic. Kramer is really in touch with his heart. He writes affecting stories, even when he's describing something as (apparently) simple as his feelings about Christmas or the time he almost got into a bar fight. Check out his book "Snake Oil" here, and his Times blog here.

Many talented people contribute to Hobart. I think we like to point out their other connections and achievements as a way to celebrate their work and share in their success. The beauty and wit of the print editions and the webpage owe the credit to those contributors and their talents. But I can say, as someone who met Aaron when he was just launching Hobart, and who has maintained a steady, minimal, and peripheral hand in this venture, that it is also true that Aaron simply has a great eye, and has probably put more work into Hobart than any of us can imagine. Thanks, Aaron, and keep up the great work. 

Peace, and have a happy holiday season.

-- Sean

Stephen Elliott's Web Startup

Here's a tip about an exciting new web journal and a call to donate a few bucks to a worthy cause.

Stephen Elliott has started up "TheRumpus.net", a web journal of original writing and video and cultural commentary more concerned with being essential than necessarily being timely or mainstream.

It looks great. In the pre-launch version (the official launch is scheduled for mid-January), Antonio d'Ambrosio writes about his time with the Clash, and Elliott writes about palling around with Arianna Huffington, hanging in Gaza, and going cold turkey from the internet for a month. Rick Moody and Ryan Boudinot have their own blogs. Michelle Orange is the contributing editor. There's even a Super 8 film about a gang of female skateboarders and their pet rats who terrorize . . . wait for it . . . what appears to be the Stanford campus. Bookmark The Rumpus and send them a few bucks. Write or Die! (Or something . . .)

-- Sean

("London Calling" cover image taken from therumpus.net)

More Dan Kennedy Twitter Poetry

We interrupt our news of indie lit mag holiday savings to bring you more poetry from Dan Kennedy's Twitter files. It's as if Auden had returned to write for Page Six.

Celebrity Sighting

By Dan Kennedy

Fitness celebrity John Basedow
is at 34th and Park
weeping at a bus stop
with a pile of snapshots in his lap.

-- Dec. 12, 2008

(posted by Sean)

Holiday Deal at The Kenyon Review: Buy One Year, Get Seventy Free

The Kenyon Review is now offering a bonus to their one-year subscriptions.  Not only do you get four issues of the magazine, but you also get a one year subscription to their archives via JSTOR.  That’s nearly 220 issues worth of material, starting with the inaugural issue of KR in 1939. I know that personally, I've used the Kenyon Review JSTOR archives through school to get through a variety of terrible meetings and orientations.  Every time I was scheduled one of these sessions in a computer lab, I spent the hour reading some of the great stories that have been published in their archives, including George Saunders's "Civilwarland in Bad Decline," one of my favorite stories of all time.

From The Kenyon Review's blog:

Give the gift of The Kenyon Review this holiday season! Not only will your gift recipient receive a four issue, full-year subscription to the most cutting edge work the literary world has to offer—but they will also receive seventy years of it! For the 2008 holiday season, a one-year subscription to The Kenyon Review comes with a one year subscription to The Kenyon Review archive via JSTOR—all for just $30! And there’s more: the print subscription will begin with our Winter 2009 issue, a very special seventieth anniversary issue of The Kenyon Review featuring new work by Joyce Carol Oates, Carl Phillips, E.L. Doctorow, Robb Forman Dew, Ilya Kaminsky, Kazim Ali, and more. It promises to be one of our finest. Save 25% of the newsstand price, and get access to the KR archive free! That’s over 200 issues for the price of four!

Here’s how it works: subscribe today. When we process the gift—typically within four weeks—we’ll begin the subscription with our Winter 2009 issue. Additionally, JSTOR will send an e-mail to the gift recipient at the address you’ve provided with log-in information to the KR archive—be sure to alert him/her to watch for it! Once the user registers with JSTOR, they will have immediate access from any internet connection to 70 years of the KR archive, a digitized treasure trove of the storied literary history of KR.

Your gift recipient will be able to read the first published stories of Flannery O’Conner or Thomas Pynchon, as they originally appeared in KR’s pages. He/She will enjoy Wallace Stevens’ “The Aurora’s of Autumn” or Sylvia Plath’s “The Beekeeper’s Daughter,” or Robert Lowell’s earliest published poems. What gift could be better? And best of all, they’ll think of you each time they rediscover a literary gem from KR. Give the gift of KR today!

Click here to order.

--Matt

Holiday Deal at sunnyoutside: Buy Two, Get One Free

Chapbook press sunnyoutside is having a Buy Two, Get One Free sale throughout the holidays at their website, until 12/19.  I've only seen one book from them, but the one I read I can recommend wholeheartedly: Night Train Editor Rusty Barnes's Breaking It Down (which I reviewed for NewPages here, if you want more information).  It's a nice looking book, the writing's great, and I'm sure sunnyoutside has some other books that are just as good.

Here's the details on the special:

Buy any three titles, get the least expensive one free.
Keep the free one for yourself or just save some money. Simply order the two more expensive/equal value books and when checking out drop a note letting us know what you’d like your free title to be. A particularly good deal for overseas buyers, too, as the free title won’t be calculated in the shipping. Give the gift that can be enjoyed in the warm glow of your auto’s dome light after your power has been shut off and you’ve been evicted from your home. Happy holidays!

--Matt

Holiday Deal at One Story

As the year draws to a close we here at Hobart are engaged in three missions. First, we want to let you know about some amazing deals being offered by cool indie litmags. Second, we want to lure barry back to the comments section after deleting one of his posts. And third, we want him to admit that he designed the superhero costumes for Team Hobart, and also that Team Hobart was his idea.

So far, our progress on these fronts is mixed.

But here is another good deal for you, if you like short stories. And who doesn't? No one, that's who.

One Story is offering a great deal -- a 2009 subscription for only $18. The catch is that you have to enter a secret promotional code when you order a subscription for yourself or as a gift (in which case One Story throws in a holiday card -- you can't say these people aren't thoughtful). The code, though. The code came to us in an e-mail. Are we allowed to put it in a public place? Well, we think that anyone reading this blog should be receiving e-mail from One Story, so really it's only like we're forwarding this to our friends. Also, this blog is read by a truly amazing audience, and we know One Story really wants to reach both of you. So we're going to go ahead and pass the code along, written in lemon juice on scratch paper. Hold it over the toaster when you get home.

H8DEC4

One Story, publishers of great stories by John Leary and Alix Ohlin, among many, many others. Hannah Tinti, author of "The Good Thief," which looks really cool, and which I want.

Happy holidays!

-- Sean

Ever

Friend of Hobart, serial over-eater and giant of the internets, Blake Butler's debut novella EVER is now officially available for pre-order from Calamari Press. Blurbs from Brian Evenson and Gary Lutz should be enough to convince you to dish out the frogskins for this book, but if they aren't here's Blake's own words: "[each copy] will come with free new life and maybe a cheat code for Arkanoid and some other things." 

I can't think of a better reason to buy a book. 

All the Helicopters are Magic

Officially available for pre-order from the good folks at Magic Helicopter Press: chapbooks from Hobart contributor Mary Miller and future contributor Benjamin Buchholz. These look like they are going to be awesome. I mean, who doesn't like magic helicopters with daisy propellers?

Mary Miller is one of the most exciting writers around these days. Ask anyone. Even Salman Rushdie. Her story from Oxford American got an honorable mention in the Best American Short Stories and, even better, her full-length collection Big World is due out soon from Short Flight / Long Drive Books. Mary Miller, it seems, has a thing for small presses with transportation-themed names. 

Times are tough, but lots of great lit is cheap. So, buy, buy, buy! Then come back here and thank us for telling you to.

-Team Hobart

p.s. Barry, you might think it's gay, but at least be fair and admit to designing the unitards with the silver H on the front. Come on!

Buy, Buy, Buy! Mud Luscious Press

So, for the next few weeks, leading up to Christmas/the end of the year, we are going to try to spotlight some literary deals and offerings that come with the full Hobart support and that we suggest everyone take advantage. Of course, I say that with the full knowledge that these announcements rarely lead to either of you readers purchasing stuff, despite my offer for free Hobarts, but I'm going to continue the tradition of offering up free stuff anyway. So, if you buy anything we spotlight until the end of the year, send us an email or leave a comment and we'll send you a free back issue of Hobart or Michelle Orange's The Sicily Papers. Also remember HTMLGIANT's Secret Santa offer. Sign up for that, then buy some of these deals for others, get something from your own Secret Santa, and get a free Hobart to boot!

First up is the relatively new Mud Luscious Press. From their website, MLP "publishes limited edition, single author, single work, chap style volumes of poetry & prose". They are kind of like a shorter, more indie, just plain cooler version of One Story. They will be putting out three chaps every month and right now you can buy a six month subscription for $36. That's $6/per month, aka $2/chap, aka pure dynamite. Check out their roster for those next 18 stories now!