Author: Cliff

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.
January 28, 2007

>The New Yorker: “Cell One” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

>The narrator’s brother, Nnamabia, gets into petty trouble, including faking a robbery of the family home so he can pawn his mother’s jewelry. The…
January 26, 2007

>Alternate Publishing Routes

>I don’t know about you, but I learn a lot by reading Publishers’ Lunch from Publishers Marketplace. Today, for example, I learned of two…
January 26, 2007

>Simbiosis

>One of the pleasures of my recent stay in Mexico was the Bed & Breakfast where I stayed in Tepoztlan: Los Golondrinas. While its…
January 25, 2007

>The Napkin Project

>Word is spreading about Esquire Magazine’s Napkin Project in which a large number of authors were sent napkins and asked to write stories on…
January 25, 2007

>Virginia Festival of the Book

>It’s coming! This year’s Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville is March 21-25 and, as usual, there’s quite a schedule. Here is a…
January 25, 2007

>Mistake Number 7

> Don’t Use Real People in Your Story. Fair enough. Real people are boring: “Good characters have to be constructed, not copied from actuality.”…
January 24, 2007

>The New Yorker: "Heirs" by Amos Oz

>Was something lost in translation? Aryeh Zelnik is relaxing on the porch of his mother’s bucolic home when Wolf Maftzir, a fast-talking lawyer, shows…
January 23, 2007

>New "Bare-breasted Mama"

>The latest installment of Gail Konop Baker’s column, Bare-breasted Mama is up at Literary Mama.
January 23, 2007

>NBCC Finalists

>The National Book Critics Circle has announced the finalists for its prestigious awards. The winners will be announced March 8. The Nona Balakian Citation…
January 23, 2007

>The New Yorker: “Demolition” by Louise Erdrich

>Although this is an engaging story, Erdrich never makes the narrator convincingly male. As the story begins, he is a teenager who becomes a…