NPR: All Things Considered

The wonderful Madeleine Brand interviewed me about Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) for NPR's All Things Considered. It will air on Friday, July 17th, and I'm really happy that this project that I love is one of the things being considered. Many thanks, too, to Shereen Meraji, Erin Killian, and everybody who has told me their life story.

[Update: The producer just emailed and said it will now run next week.]

Triple Love

Dennis Cooper loves Dear Everybody and gives it a super nice profile here--along with super nice profiles of Shane Jones' Light Boxes and Scott McClanahan's Stories.

July 18th: Some Smashing and 510 Readings

I am going to be busy the afternoon of July 18th.

2pm-4pm: Smashing for Success on July 18th @ 2pm-4pm @ the Contemporary Museum, 100 W. Centre Street.
Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro, co-creators of the documentary film I Will Smash You, will show some of the documentary and then lead a workshop in which participants are encouraged to share a story about an object that has some personal meaning for them and then destroy that object in whatever manner they wish. Destroyed relics will be housed in an archive in the gallery space. Bring an item for smashing, goggles or gloves if you have them, and a will to smash.

5pm-6ishpm: I'll be co-hosting (with Jen Michalski) the 510 Readings @ 5pm @ the Minás Gallery, 815 W. 36th Street. This month's readers are: Jamie Gaughran-Perez, S.L. Price, Ivy Goodman, John Barry.

The Dollar Store Tour and I Will Smash You

I have two events coming up that I've been looking forward to for a while:
(1) The Dollar Store Reading on July 11th @ 730pm @ The Lof/t. More info, below.
(2) Smashing for Success on July 18th @ 2pm @ the Contemporary Museum. More info, below.
I hope to see you there or there.

JULY 11, The Dollar Store Tour: Doors at 730pm, Show at 8pm, $1; The Lof/t, 120 W. North Avenue.
Featherproof Books' The Dollar Store Summer Tour of Awesomeness is coming to Baltimore. What’s The Dollar Store Tour all about? Each writer is given an item purchased at a local dollar store (mundane to insane) and a month to craft a story (fiction or non-) that involves the item as directly or obliquely as the author wishes. The item is then put on display during, or incorporated into the performance. You'll get a chance to hear some great writers who have been traveling around together for a week in a van -- Aaron Burch, Blake Butler, Zach Dodson, Amelia Gray, Mary Hamilton, Lindsay Hunter, Jac Jemc, Caroline Picard -- as well as a few of Baltimore's best -- Lauren Bender, Michael Kimball, Adam Robinson, Joseph Young.

JULY 18, Smashing For Success: 2pm, Contemporary Museum, 100 W. Centre Street.
Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro, co-creators of the documentary film I Will Smash You, will show some of the documentary and then lead a workshop in which participants are encouraged to share a story about an object that has some personal meaning for them and then destroy that object in whatever manner they wish. Destroyed relics will be housed in an archive in the gallery space. Bring an item for smashing, goggles or gloves if you have them, and a will to smash.

The Versus Anthology

Press 53 has put out a new anthology with a great idea behind it: The Versus Anthology, which is edited by Josh Woods, is a collection of creative works based on the theme of pitting iconic and original characters against one another. There are appearances from The Six Million Dollar Man, Jaws, Amelia Earhart, Joe DiMaggio, Hulk, Barbie, Stalin, Jesus, and Thor.

I have a piece in it and so do all of these nice people: Alexander Lumans, Andrew Scott, Becky Hagenston, Brad Vice, Curtis Smith, Danielle Girard Krauss, El Pollo Diablo, John Dimes, John Flaherty, John McNally, Josh Woods, Joshua Archer, K. H. Solomon, Kyle Minor, Laura Benedict, Margaret McMullan, Matt Guenette, Michael Garriga, Michael Theune, Okla Elliott, Pinckney Benedict, Stacey Richter, Susan Woodring.

Unsaid #4

The new print issue of Unsaid is out and it looks amazing. The thing comes in at 504 pages and I love the weight that that lends to the writers and their pieces that are included. I have a piece from my new novel -- currently called Friday, Saturday, Sunday -- in the issue. And there are a bunch of rare, alphabetical pieces from the conceptual writer Andy Devine. Here's the whole, incredible line-up:

ANNE CARSON, BRIAN EVENSON, BLAKE BUTLER, DAVID OHLE, EVELYN HAMPTON, PETER MARKUS, ALEXIS ALMEIDA, ROBERT LOPEZ, BEAR KIRKPATRICK, MICHAEL KIMBALL, MEGAN LAYTON, DAWN RAFFEL, EUGENE MARTEN, DAVID HOLLANDER, OTTESSA MOSHFEGH, SHELTON WALSMITH, JASON SCHWARTZ, RUDY WILSON, SARAH MANGUSO, PAUL MALISZEWSKI, RICHARD ST. GERMAIN, SAM MICHEL, EMILIA A. PHILLIPS, BRIAN KUBARYCZ, SVEN BIRKERTS, RICK POINSETT, ALYSON JANE, BIANCA GALVEZ, JOE WENDEROTH, M SARKI, JOANNA HOWARD, WILL ENO, JESSICA NEWMAN, PATRICIA O'CONNELL, MATTHEW THOMPSON, CAROLYN ALTMAN, PETER CHRISTOPHER, ANDY DEVINE, DANIELLE BLAU, RACHEL B. GLASER, PATRICK EHLEN, M.T. FALLON, JONATHAN CALLAHAN, LAUREN MCCOLLUM, KRISTINA BORN, JULIA HOLLEMAN, TRIA ANDREWS, VIRGINIA KONCHAN, BJORN VERENSON, MICHAEL STEWART, TRENT ENGLAND, DYLAN T. NICE, BRIAN SCHORN, RYAN MURPHY, SAM PINK, BENJAMIN LANDRY, EMILY MAHAN, SHANE JONES, THOMAS LAVERTY, A. MINETTA GOULD, COOPER ESTEBAN, LINDSAY ANDERSON, JOSHUA KORNREICH, SCOTT GARSON

Also, I interviewed David McLendon about editing his great literary magazine Unsaid and the interview appears at another great literary magazine, elimae. David and I talk about what he looks for in a submission and why he loves some of the writers he loves.

I Made Fiona Robyn Cry (Again)

Back in April, I made Fiona Robyn cry when she read Dear Everybody. I made her cry again when she read How Much of Us There Was, which she calls "a distillation of what it is to be human."

An Act of Severance; Or, How Unsaid Magazine Became What It Is

I interviewed David McLendon about editing his great literary magazine Unsaid and the interview appears at another great literary magazine, elimae. David and I talk about what he looks for in a submission and why he loves some of the writers he loves.

The issue of elimae also has work from Brian Allen Carr, Elizabeth Ellen, Harold Bowes, Mike Topp, Eliza Walton, Michelle Reale, Stacy Muszynski, Darby Larson, and a bunch of other fine writers.

100 Readers

Fiona Robyn has a wonderful project going called 100 Readers, in which she sends 10 readers a copy of her novel (and then each of those 10 readers send it on after they have read it, etc.), The Blue Handbag, and then she interviews each of the readers. I am Reader 7.

A Helluva Short Story

Dan Wickett said nice things about short stories for the whole month of May at Emerging Writers Network and one of the last entries for short story month was this thing I put together called, "Some of the Letters That Were Cut, but That Tell Even More of the Story of Jonathon Bender, Weatherman (b. 1967 - d. 1999)," which Dan calls a "helluva short story." The chapbook short story sold out at ML Press before it was officially published and then Powell's had a few copies, but those are gone now too. Luckily, the great Adam Robinson will be republishing it this September as part of Publishing Genius series, This PDF Chapbook.

Books=Cake

The only reason I write books, really, is so that I get a cake each time I publish one -- or each time time one comes out in a new edition or translation.






Here's the cake for the UK edition of the paperback, which we ate in one day.



And here's the cake for How Much of Us There Was.

How Do You Say Dear Everybody in Greek?

I love my foreign rights agent. We just sold Greek rights for Dear Everybody.

Thunk Interview

Ryan Manning asked me some questions for his interview blog, Thunk, and I tried to answer them. The questions are more difficult than they first appear to be.

A Quiet Tour de Force

There's a great review of Dear Everybody up at The View From Here. Charlie Wykes calls Dear Everybody "a quiet tour de force" and also says this: "Writing a novel with a moral centre without being ‘preachy’ is not easy. Michael Kimball deserves great praise." And Charlie also says some other nice things that nobody else has said yet. Thanks, Charlie.

Taking the Epistolary Form to a Special Place

M. T. Fallon put a super thoughtful review of Dear Everybody up at Trestle. He says: "In Kimball's careful hands the epistolary form really gets to a special place. The assemblage of textual evidence of Jonathan's dissolution feels like a personal discovery. You don't feel as if there is a story being told, it's as if you are uncovering the story and telling it to yourself. I think that's where Kimball really succeeds, he pieces this novel together in just the right way so you don't really know that he pieced together this novel in just the right way." Plus, he has a bunch of other really smart observations about "transparent prose."

A Kind of World

I have a short poem up at Everyday Genius. It's at least 15 years old and a little bit about my early days in NYC.

A Huge Chunk of His Heart on the Page

Katrina Denza has a very nice write-up of my Dear Everybody and Paul Lisicky's Lawnboy at Illuminate; Ruminate; Create. She calls Dear Everybody a "brilliantly designed novel ... It left me feeling as if the author left a huge chunk of his heart on the page and it is this generosity and depth that left me stunned."

DEAR EVERYBODY: UK Blog Tour Wrap Up

I had a great time on my UK blog tour for the paperback of DEAR EVERYBODY that Alma Books just put out (US paperback coming in September). Here’s the wrap up with links to everything:

Me & My Big Mouth: DEAR EVERYBODY is “a wonderful, clever, imaginative and moving book. It really is quite something ... a fucking marvelous book." There’s also a nice interview.

Dogmatika: A fantastic interview that is assembled in the spirit of DEAR EVERYBODY, many different pieces.

The View From Here: An article about the writing of DEAR EVERYBODY that’s called "349 Pieces" because that's how many pieces make up the novel.

3:AM Magazine: Top 5 (novels that you may not have heard of).

Lizzy’s Literary Life: DEAR EVERYBODY is "unputdownable ... the most searingly honest and authentic sentiments I have ever read ... I had to pick myself up off the floor at the end ... easily the best read of 2009 thus far." Plus, there's a smart interview.

Digital Fiction Show: DEAR EVERYBODY "lives in the head of the reader after we have read it ... The letters combine to create a wonderful resonance that feels immensely vivid and real ... a lot of writers will read DEAR EVERYBODY wishing they had thought of something like this themselves." Plus, there's an excerpt and the trailer.

Planting Words: Michael Kimball "made me cry by creating a character called Jonathon, and making me care about him as if he were a member of my own family." Plus, there is a nice conversation.

Elizabeth Baines: DEAR EVERYBODY is "striking, witty, and above all moving … And here’s the most impressive thing to me – what Michael Kimball has done is to portray formally the fragmentation of a life (yet in a holistic and wholly satisfying way) – something which the form of a traditional novel would belie." Plus, Elizabeth calls out the publishing industry for its culturally disgraceful ways.

Writing Neuroses: A smart interview about the antithesis of the great American novel and ghastly characters.

Just William's Luck: DEAR EVERYBODY is "... the perfect way to tell the story of a man who has fallen through the net ... remembering that he has taken his own life gives a forensic importance to the documents. As you go through the evidence you may find yourself caring more with each page not only about his sad, short life but the continuing narrative of those other voices around him." Plus, there’s a thoughtful interview about unreliable narrators.

In Spring It Is Dawn: DEAR EVERYBODY is "a touching story of human relationships and how they can go wrong, and a story which made me stop to ponder the long-lasting effects our actions can have on others."

Thank you, Daniel, Scott, Susan, Mike, Marcia, Adrian, Fiona, Elizabeth, Kay, William, and Tanabata.

Human Relationships

In Spring It Is Dawn wasn't on the UK blog tour, but Tanabata gives DEAR EVERYBODY a very nice review, saying that DEAR EVERYBODY is "a touching story of human relationships and how they can go wrong, and a story which made me stop to ponder the long-lasting effects our actions can have on others" -- among other nice things.

Red Cedar Review #44

The new issue of Michigan State University's literary magazine, the Red Cedar Review (#44), is just out. It's edited by Lindsey Kate Sloan and Jill Kolongowski, and an interview we did last fall (when I was there for my literary homecoming with DEAR EVERYBODY) appears in the issue. I'm particularly happy about this one because the Red Cedar Review is where I had my very first publication, back in 1990. There is also work by Sean McCarthy, Dan Moreau, Gavin Craig, Richard Fellinger, Natalie Johnson, and many others.