"The Motions of the Heart": An interview at Fiction Writers Review

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Travis Kurowski at Fiction Writers Review about The Tide King and Could You Be With Her Now, and how I took a completely different approach to each work:

Both of the novellas in Could You Be With Her Now were sort of breakthroughs for me. I wrote them both in 2009, I think, and Michael Kimball was very influential in helping me discover my own “language” for them, the parameters of not only a particular piece, but my own parameters – words I would never use in my writing, words I would. So both “I Can Make It to California Before It’s Time for Dinner” and “May-September” were the first times I approached stories through language first — my first instinct is to use simile, metaphor, sentence structure. In the novellas, it was more of an effect of synesthesia — certain words had a certain color, weight, texture. It was all very physical, like painting, and very fitting, given the strong, raw subject matter contained in both novellas. It was almost as if they deserved a different approach.

To read more, go here.

8/1/13: NetGalley copies available of Could You Be With Her Now

Great news, guys! Bacon is now leaner than ever, and you can request an e-galley of COULD YOU BE WITH HER NOW free via NetGalley if you're interested in reviewing it for your blog or lit journal. You can sign up here! Seriously, we are interested in all reviews, big or small, good or bad (even the ones that say that CYBWHN is pure porn). You can also get copies of books by Merrill Joan Gerber, Kyle Minor, Alissa Nutting, and Matt Bell. A seriously good deal—

7/5/13: Review of Could You Be With Her Now at Coal Hill Review

The charming and jaunty Barrett Warner reviewed Could You Be With Her Now in Coal Hill Review. He said of "I Can Make It to California Before It's Time for Dinner" that

"I couldn’t turn pages fast enough to reach the conclusion of “I Can Make It to California before It’s Time for Dinner.” It’s rare that an author could give us so much existentialism, at least two answers for every three questions, and still build a story that has both pleasure and suspense."

He said of "May-September" that

"This novella is one of the most moving stories I've read this year, and Michalski shows herself to be a remarkably subtle writer of a kind of writing that seems impossible to teach or learn."

Darn, that's a good review. And now I can die happy. If you want to read the whole thing, you can go here.

5/15/13: Review of COULD YOU BE WITH HER NOW at The Lit Pub

David Atkinson wrote this very astute review of COULD YOU BE WITH HER NOW over at the Lit Pub.

"Sure, these two stories have a relationship (compromised lives of one sort or another) and combine together into an interesting whole. However, there is an impressive range of writing ability between the two. They are crafted quite differently, function differently, and impact the reader in different ways." 

 To read more, go here.

4/30/13: Excerpt of Could You Be With Her Now in New Graffiti

Thanks so much to Timothy Gager, editor of The New Graffiti, for running an excerpt of the novella "I Can Make It to California Before It's Time for Dinner" from Could You Be With Her Now. Specifically, this is the short story, "California," that originally was published in the Avatar Review and eventually became the aforementioned novella. It's great to see it given new life. Here's what I had to say about it:

This short piece, “I Can Make It to California Before It’s Time for Dinner,” eventually became the novella of the same name in my forthcoming couplet of novellas from Dzanc Books (Could You Be With Her Now ( January 15, 2013). I’ve never written a story, a 1000-word one at that, in which the protagonist kills someone. Did I mention that protagonist, Jimmy Dembrowski, is a developmentally disabled 14-year-old boy who strangles a teenage girl? The novella just gets worse and worse from there—not only a tragedy for the teenage girl whom Jimmy kills but also for Jimmy, who is taken advantage of and harmed after he runs away from doing something he doesn’t fully understand. We shouldn’t be afraid of what we write, and I’m not sure from where in the depths of my subconscious this story came, but I must still own it as part of myself. It’s part of my responsibility as a writer. However, I often wonder how people will respond to this piece. On one level, it’s about the dangers of living in a world while having a compromised reality, but when I think about what actually happens in the story, from the killing onward, I still cringe sometimes.”

To read the except, go here.

4/23/13: Toledo Reads Recommends Could You Be With Her Now (and other news)

Toldeo Reads has recommended Could You Be With Her Now in their spring reads section. It's always exciting when the word gets out from others about one's writing!

I also am finishing up an interview with Baltimore writer Elisabeth Dahl that will post on The Nervous Breakdown soon. Elisabeth's debut novel, Genie Wishes, a YA treat, just published this month this ABRAMS. I ask her about the challenges of writing literary versus YA fiction and why the books of our still hold so much power over us today. Stay tuned for it!

Upcoming readings, week of 4/21/13

I have been reading so much my tongue is on fire! Last week I was so thrilled to read a passage from one of my favorite books, My Antonia, during a pre-party at Atomic Books for World Book Day, which is tomorrow! My Antonia, along with The House on Mango Street and others, have been chosen to be distributed this year by givers to lucky recipients. The Baltimore City Paper did a little pre-writeup about the event here.

Unfortunately, I will not be be participating in World Book Day tomorrow  because I will be reading from Could You Be With Her Now at the Barnes & Noble, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins store. The reading is at 7 pm if you're interested in coming out! In addition to reading, I'll be talking a little bit about how I got to this point, my involvement in Baltimore's amazing literary community, and will also take questions! For more information, Hopkins has a public announcement here.

After getting back from Ohio yesterday (where I participated in a great reading with Scott McClanahan, Aubrey Hirsch, and Jason Jordan), I  stopped by the WYPR studios today to record an excerpt from my forthcoming debut novel The Tide King, for The Signal. The book will drop on May 14th, and the excerpt should air around then, too. Stay tuned!

4/10: Baltimore Magazine Feature

Baltimore Magazine ran a story on me in their April issue! I talk to Baltimore's veteran music, culture, and lit feature writer and critic Michael Yockel. But it's really not about so me: it's about Baltimore's fantastic literary scene. Read it to find out more about our town:

For Michalski, writing, more than anything else, crystallizes her sense of self. “I understand through writing the same way that some people understand through reading,” she says. “It’s part of how I interpret the world.”

 To read more, go here

3/31/13: Hello Giggles Review of Could You Be with Her Now

Lindsey Silken wrote a beautiful review of COULD YOU BE WITH HER NOW at Hello Giggles:

I'm a bit stunned.
Jen Michalski's Could You Be With Now, a book of two novellas, is one of the most writerly books I've come across in awhile. What I mean is, she gave a lot of thought to how she wanted to write these stories and then executed them so beautifully that that result is a piece of art to be admired as it is absorbed.

To read more, go here.

3/28/13: STYLE Magazine Review of Could You Be with Her Now

Celeste Sollod has written a lovely review of COULD YOU BE WITH HER NOW in STYLE Magazine:

Stewart O'Nan has written understandingly and movingly about the life of an older woman in Emily, Alone: A Novel. The novella "May-September" adds to the admittedly limited oeurvre with the inspiring story of a woman who can still come alive through love.

 To read more, go here:  http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/celeste_sollod/review_could_you_be_with_her_now_by_jen_michalski/

March 12, 2013: Review of Could You Be With Her Now at Sundog Lit

Jennifer Ray Morell writes astutely about the relationships between the two novellas in COULD YOU BE WITH HER NOW at Sundog Lit.

Together, these works illustrate how so often, we fail to go any deeper than the surface of those around us. Both in Jimmy and Sandra’s interactions with the world around them, there is a breakdown of communication, and a failing of those who are close.

The best part of writing sometimes is the dialog it fosters with other readers, who often seem to know more about what you're writing than you are.

Self-Interview at The Nervous Breakdown

I had the pleasure of interviewing myself today at The Nervous Breakdown:

"Writers are not glamorous. We pretend to be on Facebook and Twitter, but mostly we’re sitting at home trying to be brilliant (or imaging what would happen to us if we actually were). I don’t own skinny jeans; I wear activewear and furry socks every day. And our spouses are publicly proud of us, but behind closed doors we get a lot of “you write all the time. You care more about your writing than [husband/wife/favorite child/favorite pet/favorite parent].” In that way, we are slightly above drug addicts and alcoholics on the obsessive behaviors scale. We’re self-absorbed except we don’t know it because we’re too busy being self-absorbed. We will be better people, we promise! 1) after we finish the novel; 2) after we get an agent; 3) after we sell the novel; 4) after we write the second novel; 5) after we win a prize for the second novel. 6) After we write the third novel, etc."

To read more, go here.

(You can also read an excerpt of Could You Be With Her Now at the same site here.)

Some new reviews of Could You Be With Her Now

Today was a good week on the writing front. Several reviews came out this week for Could You Be With Her Now, and they were very complimentary. It's funny that I didn't think I'd ever want either of the novellas in the collection to see the light of day, fearing they'd be ridiculed or, worse, ignored, considered gimmicky. So it's a relief that reviewers and readers have taken away from the novellas the same things I saw when writing them. Here's a sampling:



 In HTML Giant, Adam Robinson said that "Jen is an astonishingly sensitive writer." and that "It’s really great, reminds me of Joyce Carol Oates in a good way."

 Over at Electric Literature, Nik Korpin said that "Yet in tandem, [the novellas] inform one another, their threads entangling, ultimately affording a more complete reading of the collection as a whole."

At Ampersand Review, Cort Bledsoe says that "Michalski is just a damned good writer, and her subject matter is, at the same time, the most common story there is: love. She handles it beautifully, revealing herself as one of the finest writers working today."

At the [Pank] blog, Sara Lippmann says that "At the center of it all is Michalski’s masterful hand, at once compassionate and unflinching, possessed of extraordinary, aesthetic restraint. What she has given us are two lean bodies of incredible depth and ambition."

Finally, the wonderful Danielle Ariano interviewed me at Baltimore Gay Life: "As different as they are, each novella shows Michalski’s distinctive ability to explore difficult situations with a realistic and heartfelt sentiment."

Appearance at 2013 Fall for the Book

I'm very excited to add George Mason University' Fall for the Book festival to my list of fall reading engagements. Past readers have included Michael Chabon (who I saw speak last year and who was wonderful), Neil Gaiman, Laura Lippman, Emma Straub, Laura Ellen Scott, and Laura van den Berg. The week-long festival will be held from September 22-27, 2013. Check my Events page for updates on my forthcoming events. And don't forget! I kick off my 2013 book tour for Could You Be With Her Now this Saturday right here in Baltimore at the 510 Reading Series with Roy Kesey, Tara Laskowski, and Justin Sirois. Joseph Young will guest host.

Interview with Paula Bomer in Rain Taxi

A couple of summers ago, novelist Paula Bomer interviewed me in Rain Taxi about one of the two novellas that would eventually comprise the couplet in my collection Could You Be With Her Now. "May-September" had just one first prize in Press 53's 2010 Open Awards in the category of novella. Little did I know then that "May-September" would be destined for even greater things:

I think both the young and the old tend to underappreciate the other. Neither thinks the other understands their unique challenges, but we all sort of go through the same things. It was sort of a challenge to me, coming from a close-knit family, to write about a mother and daughter who aren’t close, and to write it from the mother’s point of view. But I understand their fear and pride in not extending the olive branch. I’ve seen so many broken families operate on this principle. And I feel so sad for them. It was hard to write Sandra and her daughter without wanting to make them kiss and make up at some point, but they never do.

To read more, go here:

Could You Be With Her Now received a nice review today from Baynard Woods and the Baltimore City Paper:

The two very different styles in Could You Be With Her Now, not only make the case for the novella as a form, but also for Michalski as a wise writer and a master stylist.

To read more, go here.

Interview at Necessary Fiction

Thanks to Amber Lee for interviewing me at Necessary Fiction about Could You Be With Her Now (Dzanc Books), which just released today:

How do you decide when a piece you’ve written is “finished” enough to publish?I think they tell you. I think all stories have their own souls, or flames, and sometimes they’re very fragile and apt to extinguish if you don’t work fast and ride their waves all the way to shore. I’ve even abandoned short stories during later revision stages because the energy that drove their initial writing has dissipated. There’s just nothing to be done then, no matter how you try and fix it—you can tell when a story has lost its soul and a writer keeps revising it over and over anyway. Thankfully, I’ve finished a lot of stories before their flame went out. But it is something I need to be aware of—that when the inspiration strikes, I’d better stop what I’m doing and start writing.

to read more, go here.

Review of Could You Be With Her Now at Chamber Four

Today is the release date of my collection of novellas, Could You Be With Her Now, from Dzanc Books, and what better way to celebrate than this thoughtful, intelligent review by Charles Rammelkamp at Chamber Four. I'm really thrilled to share it:

Above all, I Can Make It to California is an impressive feat of imagination. May-September is a different narrative altogether, much more complex, subtle, and original...

This is an admirable and original book.  Michalski is a skilled storyteller.  I look forward to her novel, The Tide King, due out later this year from Black Lawrence Press.

To read more, go here:

Now is the Time to Preorder Could You Be With Her Now!

Seriously, wouldn't it make a last-minute holiday gift for some special bibliophile in your life? Here's what Paula Bomer, Ben Loory, Laura van den Berg, and James Magruder had to say about Could You Be With Her Now:

“Michalski writes differently than most people these days. She reminds me of Flannery O’Connor and Alice Munro, and there is a calmness and dignity to her prose, despite its darkness, which is almost antithetical to anything else I’ve read. She never takes the easy way out; she always walks straight into the storm." – Ben Lorry, author of Stories for the Night and Some for the Day 

"With these two brilliant novellas, Michalski shows us that she is an enormous talent, one to be reckoned with. Using an impressive range of voice, and a serious grasp of human frailty and beauty, she tackles the very mystery of our human existence. These are extraordinary graceful books." – Paula Bomer, author of Nine Months and Baby 

“Jen Michalski is a stunning writer. The two novellas that make up Could You Be With Her Now are everything you could want them to be: urgent, darkly funny, devastating. Every moment, even the most seemingly ordinary, crackles with danger and surprise." – Laura van den Berg, author of What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

"Michalski's novellas are a beautiful one-two punch to the heart. They astonish with their wisdom, sly grace, and trenchant insights into the price of happiness." – James Magruder, Sugarless

You can preorder from Dzanc Books here. When you order, you'll receive a copy of the paperback when it publishes on January 15, 2013, and the ebook version as soon as it is available.

Thanks so much to Steve Himmer and Necessary Fiction for posting my research notes about Could You Be With Her Now: 

 The two novellas in Could You Be With Her Now are like water and vinegar. One (“I Can Make It to California Before It’s Time for Dinner”) is the first-person point of view of a mentally challenged 14-year-old boy who accidentally kills someone. The other (“May-September”) is about a romance between a young woman and a much older widow. But, like all stories, they share common elements, like love and loss, risk and regret, and they germinated in somewhat-similar ways. Of course, I realize now I’ve finished writing this note, that it would have been easier to talk about my forthcoming novel, The Tide King (Black Lawrence Press, May 2013), which is filled with all sorts of stuff I knew nothing about before I wrote it (World War II, wild herbs, partition-era Poland, country music, and smoke jumpers). But I think the emotional landscape that the writer winds up mining — in imagery, half-remembered dreams and daydreams, the unexplainable collision of plot with the emotional beat of the narrative — is equally important, albeit not always as eloquent. In those gauzy spaces, the two novellas in this collection were formed. 

 To read more, go here