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  A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers, Marcy Dermansky has compiled an impressive list of credentials in a relatively short period of time. She won the 2002 Smallmouth Press Andre Dubus Novella Award and the 1999 Story Magazine Carson McCullers short story prize. Her work has been published in a number of prestigious literary [...]

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While crappy publicists get the attention (such as the poor soul who provided fodder for every book blogger by emailing folks about the greatness of Pamela Anderson’s new novel) and celebrity publicists get all the headlines (such as Lizzie Grubman’s automobile antics), the truth is that good publicists do a yeoman’s job in letting the [...]

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I have some pages ripped out of an old Playboy magazine. They’re a little brittle from age and from all the moving around I’ve done since this 1997 issue hit the newstand. Looking at those pages now, the ads and cartoons are amusing, and amazing at how much has changed in just 8 years. Ads [...]

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Slushpile favorite Will Christopher Baer recently interviewed comic, sci-fi, and horror god Neil Gaiman. This fantastic interview was posted at Chuck Palahniuk’s official website, The Cult. Be sure to check out this great discussion between two fantastic writers here.

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The setting sun against the cyclone wire fence casts a glare that momentarily blinds me as I open the envelope. It’s late afternoon, clocks are being punched out, and I hear car radios blare from the road as factory workers and pipe fitters screech out of warehouse parking lots. I see an old Camaro, once [...]

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Joe R. Lansdale is one of our most prolific writers. Author of twenty books, and more published short stories than my mathematically challenged brain can count, Lansdale effortlessly moves between the horror, science fiction, humor, western, and literary genres. I’ve only recently begun to delve into his immense pile of work and I think it [...]

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I recently spoke to an aspiring author who was obsessed with developing his “signature style.” This well-intentioned person knew that to make it in publishing, you have to present something different, something special. He kept referring to this something as his signature style. I suppose he saw it as his version of the secret sauce. [...]

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Administrator of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi, David Galef is a jack of all literary trades. Creative and hard-working, Galef is a pragmatist who understands the inner workings of literature. He takes a mechanical approach with his students, teaching fiction the way music is taught, by learning the small [...]

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To cap off our coverage this week of the Phineas Poe omnibus release, Zack Wentz steps up to pinch hit for me by conducting a great interview with Will Christopher Baer. Wentz is the author of the forthcoming The Garbageman & The Prostitute (published by Chiasmus Press) and a drummer and vocalist for Kill Me [...]

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Jeff Kleinman is an agent that believes in a personal touch. He makes quick decisions on submissions, (always a blessing in the eyes of authors), he is clear in his guidelines, and he is someone that truly follows his heart in publishing. Kleinman isn’t after big bucks or celebrity names necessarily, instead, he just wants [...]

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Ace Atkins writes stories like he played football: with sweat, determination, and grit. A big believer in hard work and never settling for “good enough,” Ace is always quick to offer realistic advice and suggestions while remaining optimistic and supportive.  It should be noted that this interview was conducted before the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina [...]

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Many noir or crime novels start right off with the dastardly deed. Frequently, there’s a dead body, or a strategy for robbing a bank, within the first twenty pages. Vicki Hendricks, however, manages to draw the reader in long before there’s ever any criminal activity. The author of Miami Purity, Iguana Love, Voluntary Madness, and [...]

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It’s 93 degrees, with high humidity that chokes like a punch in the throat. I sit in the car, sweating, unable to turn on the ignition, just needing to digest. Part of me wants to call every friend I know and another part of me wants to go mute, to withhold speech for days, just [...]

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The discussion of just getting started writing, don’t wait, don’t talk, just jump in, is a perfect segue into this week’s interview. I thought it might be interesting to talk to artists in other art forms and see how their lives, frustrations, and aspirations parallel those of authors. I’ve always been a guitar lunatic and [...]

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