Eaton Hamilton

the problem with being trans is cis people. The problem with being queer is straight people. The problem with being disabled is abled people. The problem with being Black is white people. In other words, prejudice.

Tag: Russell Banks

Ann Beattie’s favourite short fictions

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I grew into a writer as an admirer of Ann Beattie’s astringent, generous short fiction. Here’s a recent NY Times interview.

Ann Beattie

In the meantime, here is a list of her most-loved short stories with, indeed, some of my favourites among them:

“What are your all-time favorite short stories?

Among them: “Twilight of the Superheroes” and “Your Duck Is My Duck,” by Deborah Eisenberg; “Way Down Deep in the Jungle,” by Thom Jones; “Oxygen,” by Ron Carlson; “Nettles” and “The Albanian Virgin,” by Alice Munro; “The Fat Girl,” by Andre Dubus; “We Didn’t,” by Stuart Dybek; “Tits-Up in a Ditch,” by Annie Proulx; “Bruns,” by Norman Rush; “Escapes,” by Joy Williams; “Yours,” by Mary Robison; “The Dog of the Marriage,” by Amy Hempel; “The Fireman’s Wife,” by Richard Bausch; “The Womanizer,” by Richard Ford; “Helping,” by Robert Stone; “No Place for You, My Love,” by Eudora Welty; “Are These Actual Miles,” by Raymond Carver; “People Like That Are The Only People Here,” by Lorrie Moore; “Last Night,” by James Salter; “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” by Russell Banks; “Hunters in the Snow,” by Tobias Wolff; Rebecca Lee’s collection, “Bobcat.””

List ten short stories you’ve found memorable…

Pam Houston has done it.  Salmon Rushdie has done it.  Come on, everybody.  Jump onboard.  Which short fictions have had the most impact on you?

Here are some of mine:

Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story, Russell Banks

People Like That are the Only People Here, Lorrie Moore

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor

A Worn Path, Eudora Welty

The Year of Getting to Know Us, David Leavitt

A Small, Good Thing, Raymond Carver

Meneseteung, by Alice Munro

Edison, NJ, by Junot Díaz

Hills Like White Elephants, Earnest Hemingway

Selway, Pam Houston

My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn, Sandra Cisneros

Nashville Gone to Ashes, Amy Hemple

We Walked on Water, Eliza Robertson

The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien

Father, Lover, Deadman, Dreamer, Melanie Rae Thon

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, Joyce Carol Oates
White Angel, Michael Cunningham

Why I Live at the P.O., Eudora Welty

Gold Star, Siobhan Fallon

Telling Stories

I’ve just read Chekhov’s “The Student,” Kafka’s “The Sirens,” William Carlos William’s “The Use of Force,” David Leavitt’s “Gravity,” and Russell Bank’s “Just Don’t Touch Anything.” This is good use of sleepless, cranky, sick time. Go, boys, go. (From “Telling Stories,” ed J C Oates, 1998, Ontario Review)
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