Month: October 2022

Hello October Again

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of September 25, 2022

Well that September just flew by, didn’t it? It wasn’t a bad month, just busy and barely any time to sit and relax. All I can say is that it was a hell of a lot better than September 2021.

Three new books and journals have been added to the library in the past week.

First up is the October 2022 issue of Poetry, which arrived on Wednesday and I read on Thursday, because I had a chunk of quiet time.

Next is Cathy Park Hong‘s Minor Feelings, which I added to my list after coming across some of her poetry online. Upon returning home from Books and Mortar, we discovered that my partner Zyra had picked up a copy some months ago and it was sitting on a shelf in plain sight. At least now, as the joke goes, I can read it more than once.

On the right is The Search for the Genuine, the new collection of Jim Harrison‘s nonfiction writing. I doubt there is much in here that I have not already read at some point, but Harrison’s nonfiction is just a pleasurable a read as his fiction and poetry so this is a welcome addition to the collection.

In reading news, in addition to the above I am on the first issue of 2021 of The Paris Review, which means I have only half a dozen remaining in my stack. I might get one more issue. As stated before, I am going to focus on this journal until I am caught up to present, then move on to the next stack of back issues of something.

One of the consequences of reading so many short stories by such a wide variety of writers is that, inevitably, I discover people who have recently died. This happened back in July with Duncan Hannah, whose book Twentieth-Century Boy was excerpted in The Paris Review in 2017. Hannah died this past June, aged 69, which no longer seems very old to me.

This past Friday I cracked open issue #236 (Spring 2021) of The Paris Review. The first item therein is the brilliant short story “Maly, Maly, Maly” by Anthony Veasna So. So died in December 2020 at the age of 28, just before his first book Afterparties: Stories was released.

In writing news, I am planning out my NaNoWriMo project, so while I am taking a lot of notes, I am not writing anything at the moment with a coherent narrative. This will be the first time I have planned out a project in advance, beyond the most basic outline of the order of events. At the moment, I feel optimistic that I will actually finish the first draft before the end of the year.

September 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

What I read in September 2022

Despite the craziness of my schedule, this was a pretty good month for reading. I passed 100 volumes read for the year, and 150 pieces of short prose. I have even managed to retain most of what I have read, which is a bonus.

Books and Journals

  1. Mario Levrero, Empty Words [2022.09.04]
  2. The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.06]
  3. The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  4. T L Greylock and Bryce O’Connor, Shadows of Ivory [2022.09.13]
  5. Sara M. Harvey, The Convent of the Pure [2022.09.16]
  6. The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.16]
  7. Sara M. Harvey, Labyrinth of the Dead [2022.09.16]
  8. Marguerite Duras (Kazim Ali, translator), Abahn Sabana David [2022.09.18]
  9. The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  10. The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  11. The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.29]
  12. Poetry #221.1, October 2022 [2022.09.29]

Short Prose

  1. Anuk Arudpragasam, “Last Rites”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.01]
  2. Diane Williams, “Garden Magic”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.02]
  3. Leigh Newman, “Howl Palace”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.02]
  4. William Styron, “From an Unfinished Novel”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.03]
  5. Olivia Clare, “Women and Men Made of Them”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.05]
  6. Matthew Baker, “Why Visit America”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.06]
  7. Emma Cline, “The Nanny”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.06]
  8. Willa C. Richards, “Failure to Thrive”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.07]
  9. Fernanda Melchor (Sophie Hughes, translator), “They Called Her the Witch”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.09]
  10. Kathryn Scanlan, “Yet You Turn to the Man”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  11. Taylor Koekkoek, “Dirtnap”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  12. Molly McCully Brown, “If You Are Permanently Lost”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  13. Clare Sestanovich, “By Design”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.12]
  14. Beth Nguyen, “Apparent”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.13]
  15. Jesse Ball, “Diary of a Country Mouse”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.13]
  16. Senaa Ahmad, “Let’s Play Dead”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.14]
  17. Rebecca Makkai, “A Story for Your Daughters, a Story for Your Sons”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.15]
  18. Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, “An Unspoken”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.15]
  19. Andrew Martin, “Childhood, Boyhood, Youth”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.16]
  20. Sarah Manguso, “Perfection”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.16]
  21. Emily Hunt Kivel, “The Juggler’s Wife”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.19]
  22. Ottessa Moshfegh, “I Was A Public Schooler”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  23. Jamel Brinkley, “Witness”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  24. Amy Silverberg, “The Duplex”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  25. Rabih Alameddine, “The July War”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.21]
  26. Shirley Hazzard, “An Unpublished Story”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.22]
  27. Shanteka Sigers, “A Way with Bea”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.22]
  28. Eloghosa Osunde, “Good Boy”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.24]
  29. Thomas McGuane, “Slant Six”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  30. Ayşegül Savaş, “Layover”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  31. Lydia Davis, “Six Stories”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  32. Patrick Barrett, “Saint Cuthbert’s Incorruptible Body”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  33. György Dragomán (Ottilie Mulzet, translator), “The Puppet Theater”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.26]
  34. Dantiel W. Moniz, “The Loss of Heaven”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.26]
  35. Melissa Febos, “The Mirror Test”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.26]
  36. Jack Livings, “River Crossing”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.29]
  37. Anthony Veasna So, “Maly, Maly, Maly”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.09.30]
  38. Mary Kuryla, “Hive”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.09.30]
  39. John Jeremiah Sullivan, “Uhtceare”, The Paris Revew #236 [2022.09.30]