Archive for September, 2011

Frank Bill usually traffics in fiction that hits with the revelatory power of fact—the stories of his debut book, Crimes in Southern Indiana, have the power of bristling frontline reports on the havoc methamphetamines have wreaked on the American heartland. But here Frank steps out from behind his fiction to tell us about a time in southern Indiana when meth was but an exotic treat that came in the mail to only the most enterprising drug dealers. The intervening years would bring all variety of twisted darkness to Corydon, Indiana, but as Frank makes clear here, even in that more innocent time, those looking for trouble—and even those running away from it—had a pretty good chance of finding it.

-Sean McDonald, Vice President and Executive Editor, Paperback Director

Banger’s family got meth in the mail about once a month. It came from the West Coast in a large manila envelope, moist dandruff flakes lumped to the size of an unfolded diaper.

This was before the Sudafed, distilled water, liquid heat, batteries, Coleman fuel, and farmer’s-ammonia craze ignited small-town America, created broken pickets of teeth, catabolized tissue, and scalded the heartland into skin and bone.

This was sometime around 1990, when I chewed on adrenaline and spit madness. (more…)

It’s easy to be simultaneously envious of and seduced by Rosamond Bernier’s life. She’s struck friendships with seemingly every great artist of the 20th century, from Braque to Picasso, Bourgeois to Warhol. (This is addition to her journalism for fashion magazines like Vogue.)

As cofounder of the art magazine L’OEIL, Bernier amassed an impressive archive of photographs, some of which she’s shared with us. Highlights include a double portrait with her late husband John Russell (a wedding present from Richard Avedon), an oversized birthday card from David Hockney, and Pablo Picasso’s inscription in Bernier’s copy of El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz. (more…)

Here are a few recent additions from our Longreads page, our repository for articles, interviews, and stories longer than 2,000 words. (Also keep an eye out for our Twitter posts marked with the #longreads tag.) From the past thirty days:

• “The Angry Genius of Les Murray“ by J.M. Coetzee, in The New York Review of Books
• “The Book Collection That Devoured My Life” by Luc Sante, in The Wall Street Journal
• “Boats Against the Current” an interview with Simon Reynolds, in The Second Pass

With summer nearly over, you might be less motivated than usual to trudge through another day at the office. Thankfully Daniel Orozco is here to help. Work in Progress readers will likely remember his short story “Orientation” from May. Now you can read that story and three others about life on the job (be it bridge repair, the police beat, or temp work).

“Orientation,” “The Bridge,” “Officers Weep,” and “Temporary Stories” are now available as free ebooks for a limited time. Check with your favorite ebook retailer to download.

And if you get caught reading short stories at your desk, Kobo and Blackberry are offering a chance to win $500 in free coffee for your office—that should smooth things over.

(Official Rules)