BookFox

The Death of Simultaneous Submission?

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article about a new software called CrossCheck, which is billed as a plagarism program. Most writers, who unlike academics are not quoting and paraphrasing, are hardly ever in danger of plagiarism. But the program actually goes one step beyond crosschecking other previously published articles, and also checks other currently submitted articles: "At Elsevier, a leading journal publisher, an article submitted simultaneously to two Elsevier publications will be automatically flagged."

Every writer I know ignores the prohibitions against "Simultaneous Submissions" (Or Sim Subs, if you want to be informal about it). And since print submissions are still in vogue, it would be difficult to enter all submissions into a database and crosscheck them against other journals to guard against simultaneous submission. But now that electronic submissions are becoming increasingly popular -- especially the program offered by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) -- it would be very easy for code to be written that would flag articles that had been submitted simultaneously. And it would even be worse than in the academic realm, because there are far more programs to upload submissions in the academic realm than in the creative realm, and so only one program might apply to a large number of journals. While my first move to escape detection would be to use different titles for the same story -- just like a writer does in the short story collection by Robert Bolano, "Last Evenings on Earth" -- a program like CrossCheck would check the entire story, not just the title. Those damn computers: Sometimes I feel like I'm playing chess against HAL.

For now -- and I should emphasize the "now" -- this program is only available to academic journals, and hasn't yet crossed over to the literary realm (as far as I know). But I think this kind of possibility might serve as a slight deterrent to those writers who continue to cry and beg and implore journals to switch to electronic submissions. Let it be said: there are some definite downsides to the electronic format. Although I have to admit -- with postage rising yet again, it might be a downside I'll eventually be willing to accept.

Frank O'Connor Short Story Award

The 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the heftiest cash prize in the literary world for the short form (35,000 euros), has announced its longlist. Thirty-nine authors from around the globe are nominated. Only one Canadian was up (no, it wasn't Alice Munro) as opposed to fourteen British writers (!). But the nice thing about this award is that they actually make good on the their promise/goal of highlighting up-and-coming authors. On the American side of things, I'm glad to see Benjamin Percy nominated for "Refresh, Refresh," although both Jhumpa Lahiri's "Unaccustomed Earth" and Jim Shepard's "Like You'd Understand, Anyway" are obvious picks. (Tobias Wolff wasn't eligible because "Our Story Begins" collected previously published stories).

I'm also glad to see Nam Le nominated under the Australian category for "The Boat," which is his first book and which comes out this month. Roddy Doyle is up for Ireland, but his latest collection, "The Deportees and Other Stories," is underwhelming. Anne Enright, who won the Man Booker Prize for her novel "The Gathering," is also up under the Irish section, but since I haven't read her collection, "Taking Pictures," I can't pass judgment. If you remember, last year the prize went to Miranda July for "No One Belongs Here More Than You," and the shortlist was quirky, bypassing Alice Munro and favoring writers like the Israeli Edgar Keret. So it seems likely that an up-and-comer has a good chance with this prize.

Short Story Reviews and Awards

storySouth now has the longlist for the 2007 Millions Writers award, celebrating the best of online fiction. The list of publications is especially helpful if you're looking to read good fiction online or want to know which online publications (there are so many!) are good to send material to.

The May issue of The Short Review is out, with new reviews of oldies but goodies as well as some new collections.

The LA Times Hardcover Bestseller list has not one, no, but two (!!) short story collections in the top ten. I'm celebrating for the form. Jhumpa Lahiri's "Unaccustomed Earth" is still at number one (fourth week on the list) and Tobias Wolff's "Our Story Begins" clocks in at seven (also fourth week).

Interview with Joe Hill

One of the last interviews we conducted at the LA Times Festival of Books was with Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King and an accomplished horror writer in his own right. Joe Hill and I talked about the difference between conceptual horror and horror of the act, as well as how the Vietnam and Iraq war have affected the horror genre.
Interview: Joe Hill from RedFence on Vimeo. Interview: John Fox
Camera and Editing: James Roland

For more info:
Jacket Copy post on Joe Hill.
Joe Hill's official website.

Roundup

As the Literary Saloon notes, Michel Houellebecq's MOM has written a book about him. And it doesn't sound nice.

I don't want to be this old when I publish my first book. (Also, I really don't want it to rhyme.)

From the Guardian, Jonathan Franzen has called Michiko Kakutani, the lead fiction reviewer for the New York Times, "the stupidest person in New York City." But with the way Kakutani dishes it out, she has to expect this kind of vitriol.

Pranksters try to wheedle cash out of independent bookstores. (via Counterbalance)

I can't resist the premise: Over at Booklist, in addition to the book reviews there is now a short story: a book-reviewer-cum-detective, tracking down the case of the missing crime book.

Howard Junker of ZYZZYVA criticizes editors who include their own work in the pages of the journal they edit -- for instance, Bret Lott, editor of the Southern Review, and Keith Gessen, editor of N+1.

LA Times Festival of Books Author Interviews: Part 2

L.A. Times Festival of Books - Author Interviews Part Two from RedFence on Vimeo.

Review of Jim Krusoe's "Girl Factory"

My review of Jim Krusoe's "Girl Factory" is up at California Literary Review.

Also, despite a harried schedule, the second half of the LA Times Festival of Books author videos (many more great answers, same authors) should be up by late tomorrow.

LA Times Festival of Books -- Author Interviews

RedFence: Festival of Books - Author Interviews from James Roland on Vimeo.

John Fox interviews T.C. Boyle, Judith Freeman, Marianne Wiggins, Mark Sarvas, Tristine Rainer, Shelley Jackson, Steve Erickson, Aimee Bender, Keith Gessen, and Richard Lange.

LA Times Festival of Books Photos (More On Jump Page)

Mark Sarvas

LA Times Festival of Books -- Man on the Street Interviews -- Part I

RedFence: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books - Day One from RedFence on Vimeo.

LA Festival of Books Panel: Women of Slipstream

Panelists:
Rob Spillman (editor of Tin House, and moderator, and the only non-female)
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Kelly Link - Shelley Jackson
Miranda Mellis
Aimee Bender (pictured -- photo credit, Ben Ross)

First off, no one on the panel knew exactly what Slipstream meant. Although that's not really any discredit to them, seeing as how the appellations for the genre change faster than an auctioneer speaks. We've gone through fantastic fiction, fabulism/fabulous/fabulists (which always sounded too upper east side: "that story is fabulous darling, just fabulous"), magical realism, speculative writing, the new weird, paraspheres, bizarro, and just plain old fashioned fantasy. And so when an audience member asked them to distinguish between some of the terms, the panel just shrugged their shoulders.

I was disappointed that Kelly Link wasn't able to make it -- I love her "Magic for Beginners" collection of short stories -- but Shelley Jackson, exuberant and sporting green strands of hair, more than took up the slack. She argued frequently for the benefits of applying limits to your writing, to tell yourself that you can't use the letter "e" for two pages, or avoiding commas or certain words, because the act of limitation forces you as a writer into new highways and byways of syntax. I've seen how this works in other genres. I once watched a documentary called "Five Obstructions" where Lars Von Trier challenged Jorgen Leth to remake a short documentary five times, each time with a different obstruction -- for instance, no shot could be longer than eight frames, which is half a second. The worst attempt? When Trier gave Leth no obstructions at all. Limitations -- even crazy ones -- actually helped Leth to make better films.

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum talked about the process of how to create stories that weren't gimmicks for gimmicks sake -- a type referred to as "what our students write." She made her point through several different phrasings, all with similar ideas: Treat the absurd seriously, apply logic to the fantastical, and treat it with the tools of realism. For example, a Kelly Link story was cited in which Zombies came out of a crack in the back of a convenience store. Of course. Naturally. And once this fundamental proposition was accepted, the rest of the story proceeds with the rather logical, believable sequence of events unfolding from that initial proposition.

If you haven't already, check out the LA Times blog Jacket Copy which is posting a huge number of blogs posts on the events going down on the UCLA campus.

Also, I interviewed a large number of authors today (including Aimee Bender and Shelley Jackson), as well as attendees, and am working on all the editing. As soon as I'm finished, I'll post the video here.

LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA

So I'm thrilled to go to the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend, where I'll get to see a bunch of friends I haven't seen for a while and reconnect with some great authors. I've got a couple of things going. First of all, I have -- in my editing-grooved, keyboard-calloused hands -- the inaugural issue of the Southern California Review, so I'll periodically be at the USC booth selling fresh-off-the-printer copies and soliciting contact information for a raffle we're doing to give away signed copies of the journal (I know Judith Freeman will be signing her short story, and Lee Wochner, and perhaps a few other contributors as well).

And I'm also moonlighting as a roving correspondent for an online magazine, Red Fence, so you'll see me chatting up authors in informal video interviews.

And then also, of course, there's all the wonderful panels going on (too many concurrently!), which makes it so difficult to decide who to see. But somehow -- somehow! -- I will stuff it all into a weekend. So. If you see me walking around with a mike and a dude with a video camera behind me, make sure to say hi.