COLUMNS
Talk Show 28 with Thomas Beller, Joshua Furst, Elizabeth Graver, Dave King, and Binnie Kirshenbaum
/ Jaime Clarke
07.29.09
TALK SHOW 28: Blue Ribbons
Thomas Beller's short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Southwest Review, Ploughshares, Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Best American Short Stories, and are forthcoming from Another Chicago Magazine, The Seattle Review and The St. Ann's Review. He is the author of three books, Seduction Theory, The Sleep-Over Artist, and How To Be a Man, and editor of several anthologies, including Lost and Found: Stories From New York, forthcoming this spring. He is a founder and co-editor of Open City Magazine, and creator of the website www.mrbellersneighborhood.com. He teaches at Tulane University. Visit Tom at www.thomasbeller.com.
Joshua Furst is the author of two books, Short People, a collection of stories, and The Sabotage Café, a novel. He lives in New York City and teaches fiction and playwriting at The Pratt Institute. Visit Joshua at www.joshuafurst.com.
Elizabeth Graver is the author of three novels: Unravelling, The Honey Thief, and Awake, as well as a story collection, Have You Seen Me? Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. At work on a new novel, she teaches at Boston College. Visit Elizabeth at www.elizabethgraver.com.
Dave King is the author of the novel The Ha-Ha, named one of the best books of 2005 by The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and a film version is in development by Warner Brothers Pictures. In addition, The Ha-Ha earned Dave King the 2006 John Guare Writers Fund Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dave's poems and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Village Voice and Big City Lit, and in the Italian literary journal Nuovi Argomenti. He divides his time between Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley of New York and teaches at New York University's Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Studies. Visit Dave at www.davekingwriter.com.
Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of five novels and a story collection. She is currently the chair of the M.F.A. program at Columbia University, and her new novel, The Scenic Route, will be published in May 2009 by Ecco/HarperCollins. Visit Binnie at www.binniekirshenbaum.com.
––Name a ribbon or certificate you won in grade school.
Beller: It was in Camp—Tennis VI. This was the highest rank of tennis accomplishment at the Cape Cod Sea Camps, which I attended.
Furst: First Place: Medley Relay - Arlington County, Virginia, YMCA Intramural Swim Meet 1976. An actual blue ribbon embossed in gold.
Graver: When I was in 2nd Grade, I wrote a story called “A Moment Too Late,” in which a girl and her sister go on a great ocean adventure and end up being swallowed by a whale. In the first version, fairies try to rescue the two girls but arrive “a moment too late.” This—“A Moment Too Late”—was the last line of the story, as well as the title. I remember enjoying the symmetry of that. My teacher wanted me to enter the story into a children’s writing contest sponsored by the local newspaper, but she strongly advised me to revise the ending and make it happy if I wanted to have a shot at winning. My story won 3rd place for the Grades 1-3 category.
Thomas Beller's short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Southwest Review, Ploughshares, Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Best American Short Stories, and are forthcoming from Another Chicago Magazine, The Seattle Review and The St. Ann's Review. He is the author of three books, Seduction Theory, The Sleep-Over Artist, and How To Be a Man, and editor of several anthologies, including Lost and Found: Stories From New York, forthcoming this spring. He is a founder and co-editor of Open City Magazine, and creator of the website www.mrbellersneighborhood.com. He teaches at Tulane University. Visit Tom at www.thomasbeller.com.
Joshua Furst is the author of two books, Short People, a collection of stories, and The Sabotage Café, a novel. He lives in New York City and teaches fiction and playwriting at The Pratt Institute. Visit Joshua at www.joshuafurst.com.
Elizabeth Graver is the author of three novels: Unravelling, The Honey Thief, and Awake, as well as a story collection, Have You Seen Me? Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. At work on a new novel, she teaches at Boston College. Visit Elizabeth at www.elizabethgraver.com.
Dave King is the author of the novel The Ha-Ha, named one of the best books of 2005 by The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and a film version is in development by Warner Brothers Pictures. In addition, The Ha-Ha earned Dave King the 2006 John Guare Writers Fund Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dave's poems and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Village Voice and Big City Lit, and in the Italian literary journal Nuovi Argomenti. He divides his time between Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley of New York and teaches at New York University's Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Studies. Visit Dave at www.davekingwriter.com.
Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of five novels and a story collection. She is currently the chair of the M.F.A. program at Columbia University, and her new novel, The Scenic Route, will be published in May 2009 by Ecco/HarperCollins. Visit Binnie at www.binniekirshenbaum.com.
––Name a ribbon or certificate you won in grade school.
Beller: It was in Camp—Tennis VI. This was the highest rank of tennis accomplishment at the Cape Cod Sea Camps, which I attended.
Furst: First Place: Medley Relay - Arlington County, Virginia, YMCA Intramural Swim Meet 1976. An actual blue ribbon embossed in gold.
Graver: When I was in 2nd Grade, I wrote a story called “A Moment Too Late,” in which a girl and her sister go on a great ocean adventure and end up being swallowed by a whale. In the first version, fairies try to rescue the two girls but arrive “a moment too late.” This—“A Moment Too Late”—was the last line of the story, as well as the title. I remember enjoying the symmetry of that. My teacher wanted me to enter the story into a children’s writing contest sponsored by the local newspaper, but she strongly advised me to revise the ending and make it happy if I wanted to have a shot at winning. My story won 3rd place for the Grades 1-3 category.
