Kirkus Review: You'll Be Fine

 

Very excited to receive a Kirkus Review for You'll Be Fine, which called it "an enjoyable story about an adult trying to grow up." You can read the whole review here (and, if you'd like to request an ARC, they're available on NetGalley here).

My review of Laura Lippman's Lady in the Lake (Washington Post)

Super excited to see my review of Laura Lippman's latest, Lady in the Lake, in The Washington Post!

"Everyone knows the dangers of being in the news business these days, but Laura Lippman’s new novel “Lady in the Lake” is a powerful reminder that the search for the truth has always been a precarious and underappreciated one."

To read more, go here.

Review of The Summer She Was Under Water at The Nervous Breakdown

Kurt Baumeister reviewed The Summer She Was Under Water as part of his Microbrew Reviews at The Nervous Breakdown.

"The Summer She Was Under Water is a quick, dark book, one in which life offers many questions, few answers. Lurking always are Sam’s memories of her brother Steve, memories that have come to dominate every aspect of her life, from her work to her relationship with her boyfriend, Michael. Both in terms of prose and dialogue, Michalski’s writing is vivid and true to life, perfect for a world in which connections to other humans seem tenuous, always one wrong word or action from being cut, perhaps forever."

To read more, go here.

"How to Host a Reading Event" in LitHub

I'm honored to partake in Lithub's new series on literary events, "Reading Across America," curated by Franklin Park Reading Series organizer and overall badass literary organizer Penina Roth. My piece is "How to Host a Reading Event," and I talk about my experiences as a host for both the 510 Reading Series (now defunct) and my current series, Starts Here! in Baltimore:

"To me, the most important thing about a reading series is not the readers, but the listeners. You aim to create not only a unique, exciting event, but also a welcoming one."

To read more, go here.

Win a Copy of The Summer She Was Under Water from Goodreads!

My second novel, The Summer She Was Under Water, will be released by Queens Ferry Press on August 9th, and we're giving away five free copies from Goodreads! Entries open at midnight on Sunday, July 23rd.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Summer She Was Under Water

by Jen Michalski

Giveaway ends August 31, 2016.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

July 16, 2015: Series 4 of Collaborative Work at Pair-Shaped Journal

The fourth and final in a series of collaborations between Elizabeth Crisman and me is up at Pair-Shaped Journal. Here is Elizabeth's photo, and my response, the short "Baggage":

So many things are forgotten, or forgiven.

To read the entire story, go here.

July 14, 2015: Series 3 of Collaborative Work at Pair-Shaped Journal

The third in a series of collaborations between Elizabeth Crisman and me is up at Pair-Shaped Journal. Here is Elizabeth's photo, and my response, the short "Swan Lake":

So much depends on what is never spoken and also what is. So much depends on where you are waiting and how open you are to what comes along.

To read the entire story, go here.

July 7, 2015: Series 2 of Collaborative Work at Pair-Shaped Journal

The second in a series of collaborations between Elizabeth Crisman and I have are up at Pair-Shaped Journal. Here is Elizabeth's photo, and my response:

Definitely not husband. He speaks, an unremitting monologue to which I respond in monosyllable. I hold the poems of Anne Sexton open on my lap. If I read, if I pretend to read, it does not matter. He will repeat aloud amusing signs, the mileage left to San Francisco, to Sausalito, to Petaluma, to Santa Rosa. He will muse about dinner, three hours away, where we will stay, at least five. Should we drive the whole night through?

No man is an island. He is a peninsula and a small package of value.

To read the entire story, go here.

Review of From Here in Baltimore City Paper

A new review of From Here posted today in the Baltimore City Paper:

It’s the sort of witty, on-point observation that populates all of the short stories in “From Here,” which depict a huge range of characters and situations, all of them inspecting the ideas of dislocation, belonging, and the meaning of home from a different angle. While the perspectives vary, they’re all told through the lens of Michalski’s sharp eye for detail and beautiful prose. 

And this:

It culminates with a beautiful, devastating finish, the sort that left me rereading the last paragraph over and over with my breath hitched in my chest. 

Thanks, Anna March and the City Paper, for such an insightful piece. You can read the whole review here.

The Sunday Rumpus Book Review of From Here

So excited to see From Here reviewed by Heather Partington in this past Sunday's Rumpus Book Review! I have been such a fan of the site for the last five years (even while writing for its semi-competitor, The Nervous Breakdown), and it's a dream come true to see my name on the site (with such kind words from Partington, to boot):

Many authors’ stories blend together across a collection; they struggle to convey a unique voice in each piece. Not so with Jen Michalski’s From Here. Though her characters share common experiences—dashed hopes, disappointments, misunderstanding by loved ones—the voice in each story of From Here is fresh and specific.

and

Jen Michalski excels in subtlety that is made possible by her nuanced understanding of voice.

Yay! To read more, go here.

The Illustrated From Here

I had so much fun illustrating the beginning of my story "Neighbors" (from my forthcoming collection, From Here) over at Book Puke:

"Never Forever: Where Does the Story End?" at HTMLGiant

I wrote about when to know how to end it over at HTMLGiant:

In college I was introduced to Raymond Carver, not in a class, but by a roommate who loved the short story "Fat." When I first read it, I was confused; a waitress recounts to her fellow co-workers her revulsion and confusion over a recent, extremely obese diner, a man who eats more than she has ever witnessed anyone eat and refers to himself as “we.” The story mysteriously ends with the waitress, speaking to the reader: "It is August. My life is going to change. I can feel it."

To read more, go here.

"How Jen Michalski Became a Writer" at Ph.D. in Creative Writing

Thanks to Kelcey Parker and Melanie Page for letting me talk at "Ph.d" in Creative Writing" about how I "became" a writer.

Can you tell me about a writer or artist whose biography inspires you?

Without coming off as incredibly pretentious, I've always been struck by Beethoven, who began to go deaf around 26, when he was working on "Pathetique." He wrote to his brothers about wanting to commit suicide but decided to continue living and creating art. At one point, he didn't even know that his work reviewed a standing ovation until he turned around and saw everyone in the music hall clapping. If Beethoven didn't throw in the towel, then how can the rest of us? And I think we should work in that vacuum as well, deaf and blind to applause, to reaction, good or bad.

To read the entire interview, go here.

Close Encounters now available in e-book!

Courtesy of Dzanc Books, you can now order my first collection of fiction, Close Encounters (2007; originally published by So New) on Kindle! Thanks to Dan Wickett and the other great folks at Dzanc for making my work available digitally. You can order from Amazon here or Open Road Media 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—

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

4/9/2013: My article on Baltimore in Poets & Writers

Poets & Writers magazine was kind enough to invite me to write about the best city in the world, Baltimore, and I detail its literary greatness:

Baltimore is warm but pleasant...I belong here, where everything is civilized and gay and rotted and polite.― F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Fitzgerald's famous quote about Baltimore might convey a town of Southern Gothic leanings to outsiders, but as a Baltimorean, I think it means that you can stroll through a neighborhood of stately, preserved brownstones while watching a rat leisurely cross the sidewalk. Or visit the Patterson Park Observatory (called the Pagoda by locals because its Victorian design is often mistaken for Asian) and throw away a box of fried chicken someone left behind on its steps. Like an imperfect gemstone, Baltimore’s real value lies in it being one of a kind. Established in the 18th century as part of the tobacco trade, Baltimore has always been known as a gritty harbor full of wharf rats and stevedores, a place where the newspaper would just as likely be used for fish-wrap as for reading."

 To read more, you can access the article 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: