Archive - Narrative Surprise

What Makes Fiction Worth the Bother?

Preaching the Gospel of Regional Writers

Jun 20 •

Preaching the Gospel of Regional Writers

On April 5 two years ago, my good friend Tina Carlson and I drove from her home in Santa Fe to the Scissortail Literary Festival in Ada, Oklahoma.

Jun 6 •

May 2025

Underwater Narrator

As a devotee of film noir, I’ve long forgotten the first time I encountered Sunset Boulevard—or how many times I’ve seen it over the years.

May 26 •

Peeling an Apple Without an I

On February 8, I arrived an hour late for the Bad Mouth reading here in Albuquerque.

May 2 •

April 2025

Two Daughters, their Fathers

On October 12, 2022, I was glancing at fiction shelved on the wall of books in our great room when I spotted a novella I had no memory of purchasing, no…

Apr 18 •

Aching for Touch

Let’s begin with a short poem: Uncovering Rhizomes After Neglect The yellow bearded iris hides its face. Not one stalk in dozens of green blades, not…

Apr 11 •

March 2025

Surprise on the Oblique

Let’s start with flash fiction at its best: I Think About Ordering In When I ask my father how life is these days with my mother, a cavillous woman of…

Mar 21 •

Kinship’s Thorny Heart

Let’s begin with a poem: My grandfather teaches me how to flay the heart It was considered ritual in our family. The cleaning of the spiny thistle.

Mar 7 •

February 2025

The Neighborhood We

For my seventy-fifth birthday, at the close of 2023, my good friend Debra Monroe gave me a copy of Scott Blackwood’s We agreed to meet just here, winner…

Feb 21 •

What a Risk to Love

Here’s a poem for you: Dark Praise My sister had to cut off her breasts.

Feb 7 •

January 2025

“Two of Her,” from The Hungry and the Haunted, a remarkable new story collection by Rilla Askew, opens by quickly explaining the story’s title: “There…

Jan 17 •

Number Magic: Three

Here’s a poem for you: At Zero Hour the bullring is halved into sunlight, shadow.

Jan 3 •

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