Author Archives: Cameron Riesenberger

The Bastions of the Short Story By the Numbers

Check out this cool little article over at The Millions that talks about the newest issue of the Best American Short Story Series. I’ve read this series, along with the Best American Nonrequired Reading and Best American Comics lines, for the past few years, and I always look forward to its release. This post also contains a link to a spreadsheet that details every story the series has published, including the number of stories each author has had published in the line’s thirty year run. Alice Munro tops the list with 18 stories, the next closest is Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike who both have 9. In total, authors who have been included in the anthology more than once make up 52% of the collections sizable history, which means that first time selections make up about 48%. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a great split to me. I think this is due, at least in part, to the distinguished guest editors that put the book together each year and make the final decisions on who is included. Each year, when I read the book, I sincerely believe that they are looking for the best stories, not recognizable names. I’ve also think they’ve done a great job again this year.

This article also includes a link to a breakdown of The New Yorker‘s fiction statistics. The magazine has long had the reputation for publishing stories by only a select few authors (Alice Munro also tops their list, with 12 stories), but, even though their stats are not as good as Best American, they’re better than I thought. Take a look at the story Here.

Having said all this, I should point out that The Missouri Review also has a strong reputation of publishing developing authors who haven’t published anything previously. We’re still wrapped up in your contest entries, including many from unknown or unpublished authors, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them ended up a winner.

What Kind of Name is Chase Insteadman?

Only a brief post today, we’re very busy here reading contest entries and planning for another on. I wanted to call your attention to this interview with Jonathan Lethem over at the LA Times. I’ve been a fan of Lethem’s since I read his Motherless Brooklyn a few years ago, and his new novel, Chronic City immediately jumped to the top of my to be read pile. Enjoy this engaging interview.

Keeping the Faith

Take a look at these two similar articles; one from The Huffington Post and one from Quarterly West’s website, written by George Saunders. Both deal with the trials and tribulations of being an aspiring writer; Mostly the constant chorus of “what do you plan to do as a writer?” and also the long waiting periods in before or in between acceptance letters. Melaine Drane ponders the allure of writing workshops and MFA programs. Saunders, with his typical wry humor, tells the story of his first acceptance and the sense of confidence and validation that came along with it.

Here at TMR, we’re busy digging tunnels in the mountains of contest entries that have poured into the office over the past few months. We’ve received well over 2,000 entries and we’ll be spending the next couple of months working through all them. Obviously, only a few of those entries will eventually be accepted. But to all those whose submissions are not accepted, don’t give up. Keep tweaking and writing and waiting for that letter that will make you forget all the ones that came before it.

Best,

–Cameron

Where Aren't The Wild Things?

Just Google it. The Millions, The Book Bench, Drawn and Quaterly, The New York Times, they’re everywhere, and, personally, I love it.I’m not sure if my parents would corroborate this or not, but I fondly remember Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are as being one of my favorite books as a child. I don’t remember what I thought the book was actually about then, but as I look back it, I think of it as a tale glorifying the power of imagination and how important it is to a child. Fifteen years later, as a college student and amateur writer, imagination is still very important to me, both to fulfill coursework and as a form of escape.

As you can imagine, I am both extremely excited and nervous about Spike Jonze’s film adaptation of the book that comes out on Friday. The trailers look great and they include everything I would want from the original. What I’m nervous about is everything in between. Sendak’s scant 38 page book would hardly be enough material for a feature length movie, and Dave Eggers’s novelization of the children’s book surely added something. I have faith that both Jonze and Eggers, who I can only hope loved the book as much as I think I did, stayed faithful to the kernel of wisdom at the center of the book about the power of imagination.

I’ll be at the theatre Friday night, sweating in my seat. At least until the wild rumpus begins. Maybe I’ll see you there.

All the Best,

–Cameron

What's Wrong With a Real Book?

Eddie’s post sparked my interest in the new wave of electronic reading devices and I stumbled across this hilarious piece over at McSweeney’s. Whenever I see an ad for a new reading device, whether it’s the iPhone or the Kindle or Sony’s new model, I always wonder the same thing: why is it necessary to improve on a device that has been successful and popular for hundreds and hundreds of years? I don’t know the answer. Of course, I’m probably biased — the majority of my time is probably spent with a book in my hands, but I still think that if the book needed to be improved upon there would have been a constant stream of innovations since it’s inception. I’m by no means an expert, but my understanding is that once ancient cultures switched from scrolls to bound books, the basic concept has changed very little; there’s been improvements in materials and strategies for making them, but the idea of what a book is is still relatively the same. So again, why do I need a $300 computer to read a $15 book?

As I said, I’m biased, but do people actually want these devices? I’ve done no actual research to support this, but I’m not really sure they do. I haven’t seen anyone using one here in Columbia. I know Mid-Missouri isn’t exactly the biggest city in the world, but I would expect to see at least a few in all the technologically savvy students that are here on campus.

Here’s another example that I have absolutely no research to back up. My Father works in the marketing department for a large company in St. Louis. His department toyed with the idea of using Amazon’s Kindle as incentives for placing large orders. From what I gathered from talking with him, this promotion didn’t seem to boost sales or even perk much interest. He fought the idea from the beginning, but he too is probably biased seeing as he faithfully hauls a book with him on the Metrolink (St. Louis’s subway-esque transportation system).

Maybe I’m wrong and the book does need to be improved upon. Maybe recent “Green” trends will push people in the direction of a more energy efficient form of reading. Maybe I’m deluded in thinking that the book will always be around. I hope I’m wrong on that last one, but even if I’m eventually forced to switch over to a Kindle, I still wax nostalgic about the days when I could curl up in a comfortable chair with a heavy book instead of a green-glowing, paper-thin computer screen.

All the Best and Happy Reading(In whatever form you like),

–Cameron

A Frightening Vision of Nabokov's Ghost

Give this article from The Wall Street Journal a quick glance. I found it very intriguing and almost humorous at some points. It’s hard for me to imagine the publishing world without posthumously published books. After the cloud of Obits and retrospectives settles, one of the first questions that everyone asks is what the author has left behind — what’s been left unfinished — what’s lying lying around that we can curl up next to before there is nothing else?  And there’s always something, half of a novel, four unpublished stories written 25 years before, outlines, etc…

I waffle back and forth when I try to decide whether or not I agree with publishing  unfinished or unpublished work. On one hand there’s Kafka; we’d have none of his work without the persistence of Max Brod, nor would have any idea what “Kafkaesque”, a staple descriptor in writing workshops, meant. But for every Kafka, there’s a handful of Truman Capote’s, whose novel Summer Crossing was written when Capote was a barely twenty. The manuscript was “rescued” from his trash can by his housekeeper and auctioned off after her death in 2004. The novel is by no means bad, but I have a hard time believing that if Capote had thought it was worth publishing, he wouldn’t have sought that option out for himself.

Of the examples in the article in WSJ, I find the Nabokov example to have the most shades of grey but also the most possibilities for extreme outcomes — either good or bad. It also has a certain amount of irony that I think Nabokov would’ve appreciated. His “manuscript” is a series jumbled index cards that have no discernible organization. Can’t you just see Nabokov sitting at his desk thinking this idea up and laughing at us for believing we could conceive of what he really meant for? That’s the image in my head anyway. It also reminds me of the poet John Shade in Nabokov’s Pale Fire, who wrote out his drafts on a series of index cards.

The plan for the publication of this “manuscript” is a bound facsimile of the cards with perforate edges that can be torn out and rearranged how the reader thinks they should be organized. I’d envision Nabokov taking this one of two ways. 1) He’d hate it and rip the cards out of the publisher’s hands and burn them himself. Or 2) He’d like the innovation of the form instead of a gaggle of academics poking and prodding the cards into the equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster. The bonus option, my personal favorite, is that this form is actually how he planned it out all along and his son is following some kind of script.

In the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter. I know I’ll be reading this book, along with the posthumously published writings of David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ralph Ellison; all have novels that will be published by the end of next year. One part of the article that I thought could have be examined more was the economics of publishing posthumous novels; that they’re the closest thing to a sure thing possible in the publishing world. There also seems to be this kind of trend in Hollywood, where an unprecedented amount of film remakes are being green-lighted. Just something to think about when you crack open the latest Norman Mailer book or you buy your tickets for the upcoming Wolfman movie.

On a completely unrelated note, The Millions concluded their list of the top twenty books of the new millennium,  with The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen earning top honors. I will refrain from commenting on their decision for the time being. Maybe Nabokov will be on their next list.

Best,

–Cameron