>Litmag Catch Up Time

>In addition to the many subscriptions I’ve managed to accumulate, I end up buying single copies of some journals when I find myself in a Borders or Barnes & Noble. Which means that my stack of journals to read keeps getting bigger and bigger. And bigger. So for the next few days, I’ll post about journals. If nothing else, maybe it will help me work the pile down to a more manageable size.

First, a short one.

One Story. This week I read Issue 59, an older one that I must have picked up at Bread Loaf last summer, which is “The Great Divorce” by Kelly Link.

The interview (click on the author’s name) one the website is, in my opinion, more interesting than the story itself, which failed to interest me, although the first paragraph did get my attention:

“There once was a man whose wife was dead. She was dead when he fell in love with her, and she was dead for the twelve years they lived together, during which time she bore him three children, all of them dead as well, and at the time of which I am speaking, the time during which her husband began to suspect that she was having an affair, she was still dead.”

I didn’t think, though, that the story lived up (so to speak) to this great hook of an opening. I recently wrote about some later isses of One Story that also involved ghosts and spirits and it made me wonder if that’s the way to get the editor’s attention. Hmmm.

Next up: Potomac Review.

About the author

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.

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