Posts Tagged ‘daniel orozco’

Jesse Bering's Bookshelf

With more and more books published every year, it’s increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Does this increase the usefulness of all the annual “Best of” lists? Perhaps. It’s irresistible when a critic distills a year of reading into a simple hierarchy, especially if her tastes match your own. It’s just so efficient. I tend to eschew those books awarded the most (or loudest) hosannas in favor of the previously unknown novels that slipped past me at publication. (This year it’s Ben Lerner’s excellent Leaving the Atocha Station.)

Sites like Salon, The Millions, and The Guardian go straight to the authors for their recommendations. I decided to do the same, canvassing our writers and editors. With a couple caveats: First, the editors couldn’t choose their own titles; Second, one’s choices didn’t need to be published in 2011, just read in 2011. Old classics and novels from 2010 and 2009 are all welcome.

Some submitted a straightforward list, while others penned brief summaries. (The Spanish-Argentinian novelist Andrés Neuman even separated his list by language.) I hope you’ll find your next favorite book among them.

Favorite Reads from 2011: (more…)

Daniel Orozco’s stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Essays, and the Pushcart Prize anthology, as well as in publications such as Harper’s Magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, McSweeney’s, Ecotone, and StoryQuarterly. He was awarded a 2006 NEA Fellowship in fiction and was a finalist for a 2006 National Magazine Award in fiction. A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford, he teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho. His collection Orientation and Other Stories was published by Faber and Faber in May 2011.

The Pugilist at Rest and Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine by Thom Jones
I needed a new story collection for a creative writing class I teach, and at the last minute settled on Thom Jones. I’d read a story or two from The Pugilist at Rest years ago and remembered being frankly not crazy about that hyperkinetic voice, and so I thought a “problematic” text would be fruitful for students. Revisiting Jones was a revelation. These narrators talk and think too much all right, and it’s all in service to the Struggle—to understand, to live right in the world. They are profane and funny, and they often fail spectacularly, and their efforts are very sad and very affecting. “I Want to Live!” is one of the most wrenching and honest stories I’ve ever read. Post-Pugilist, I was . . . well, jonesing for more Jones, and so I picked up Sonny Liston. A tour de force is literally a “feat of strength” and connotes an impressive achievement that’s pulled off only once. Yet Jones kind of tour de forces again and again.

Unpacking the Boxes by Donald Hall
This Is Not the Ivy League by Mary Clearman Blew
Hall reflects on his writerly life with a warmth and affection that is nonetheless elegiac. Blew’s retrospection is much cooler, hard-edged, and at times regretful. I don’t read much memoir and I’ve always been leery of memoirs by writers looking back on how they became writers—I mean, who cares, right? I accidentally read these two books back to back, and . . . well, more revelation! These memoirs are writers not just transcribing what they remember—my idiot definition of “memoir”—but contending with it on the page. The Struggle, once again!

All Authors’ and Editors’ Favorite Reads of 2011

The Introduction

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)