Famous by Kathleen Flenniken “[Famous] weaves together two seemingly antithetical themes: the comic indignations and attractions of minor celebrities, and the everyday joys and sorrows of family life. . . .  Ordinariness—our need for it, and our frustrations with it—becomes Flenniken’s signature subject: the quietest evenings ‘make you what you are.’ Flenniken . . . has fashioned a poetry comfortable with self-imposed limits. . . . She still finds herself searching after mysteries, in board games, novels, and her own life.” —Publishers Weekly Annex “At some point in our lives, most of us come to realize that we aren’t going … Continue reading Famous

  Starred ReviewMover of Bones by Robert Vivian “Vivian’s ability to fully inhabit his characters, to render their voices, their thoughts, their quirks and fears, is flawless. Indeed, the emotional intensity and unrelenting revelations of the interior life of its most banal people are exhausting. This is a Nebraska that would send Poe running for his life. Like the dead girl at its center, this tale is disturbing, horrifying and beautiful all at once.” —Kirkus Reviews “Vivian writes in a poetic, almost hallucinatory style. He clearly seeks to give consolation or redemption to those who have lost loved ones to … Continue reading Mover of Bones

A package was delivered to my porch yesterday from University of Nebraska Press. My son brought it in and the family stood around while I opened it—twenty copies of my first book, Famous. It is a beautiful thing. After a few minutes, the family wandered off, but I didn’t want it out of reach or sight, put one copy in the kitchen while I cooked and one in the office while I read email, and when it was time for bed I took one for my nightstand. Could this beautiful thing be mine? Creamy paper, elegant font, cover image I … Continue reading My Book Arrived

ere’s me, interviewing myself, with some of the questions people have asked about the writing of The Floor of the Sky. 

 

Did you grow up on a ranch?

No. I didn’t grow up around cattle or horses. In fact, I’m a lousy rider. When I’m on horseback, I feel like I’m on top of the Empire State Building. I’m a disappointment to myself, but I’d rather jump out of an airplane, where I’m in charge of pulling the ripcord on my own parachute, than ride atop all those pounds of uncontrollable muscle and hot wind. Not that I have ever jumped out of an airplane, but you see what I mean.
    I did, however, grow up in western Nebraska. My family lived in the country until I was 10; then we moved to a small town. I haven’t lived there for a long time, but I return every year to visit family. For some of us, an early landscape leaves a strong imprint. I love the prairie, the rolling hills and big sky and tumbleweeds and weaving grass. I have a Minnesota friend who grew up with trees and forest who tells me that she feels frightened on the plains, as if she could fly off the face of the earth. I feel exactly the same sensation, only I love being untethered and free. I can visit the woods and appreciate the beauty, but eventually I feel claustrophobic.

Continue reading “The Inside Scoop with Pamela Carter Joern”

ello, dearest little chickens.  I’m back!  I can only imagine how traumatic my absence has been for you all, and I promise such an extended departure from the UN Press Blog will never happen again.  I wish I could say that I have been traversing the Spice
Route in search of rare silks, or that I have been in the Amazon discovering a new
9-legged beetle.  But in truth, I’ve just been dodging the frenetic bullets of real life.

Enough about that.  If National Book Award nominee Kent Haruf ("The Tie That Binds," "Plainsong") dressed in drag and migrated his characters about 4 hours east of his fictional Holt, Colorado, he just
might write like Pamela Carter Joern.  Her novel, The Floor of the Sky, is part of the Flyover Fiction series, and is due out in September.  But where Haruf is a master of the crotchety, stuck-in-his-ways rural man, Joern’s gift is capturing the essence of Nebraska ranch women. 

Continue reading “Sandhills Lullaby”

f you’re a litblog junkie and a frequent visitor to the LitBlog Co-op, as I am, you probably already know that Michael Martone’s by Michael Martone (2005, Fiction Collective 2) is the LitBlog Co-ops Summer 2006 Read This.  My heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Martone!  The book seems very unconventional and fun.  You can get to an excerpt of the novel on LitBlog Co-op or at Fiction Collective 2.

Continue reading “LitBlog Co-op Summer 2006 Read This”

ritics talk a lot about "voice" in poetry, not so much in fiction. I’ve been wondering why after reading Brock Clarke’s Prairie Schooner Prize winning collection of short stories, Carrying the Torch (Bison, 2005). Did I say reading? I should have said eating.

It’s all about Clarke’s voice, which is wry, reflective (but not too), keen and loaded with yearning and regret. I’d say a male voice, though Clarke’s female narrators are persuasive.  It’s a voice that speaks clearly over all the other distractions (children asking please make dinner, we’re hungry, for instance). And if the voice wants to take me to suburban life in South Carolina, or a lake house in Connecticut, I didn’t know I wanted to go there until just now, but certainly I do.

Continue reading “Carrying the Torch”

his short story I published with Whetstone Literary Journal some years ago will soon be a short feature film from westbound films.  My old homie Isaac Lane is the director and it promises to be very serious indy hit.  If you dig the story, check out westbound films and the movie poster and more info at: www.westboundfilms.com

Continue reading “Out of the Blue (Film and Story)”

went to Seward, “Nebraska’s 4th of July City,” to celebrate our nation’s independence.  The downtown area, reminiscent of any Main Street, America, was decked out in patriotic digs and covered with vendors of all types. I went there for the parade.  I fought friendly crowds (Seward swells on Independence Day; Americans come from all over to celebrate in a small town way) and made my way to reserved seats on the parade route.  The main reason I was there was Ted Kooser — the famed poet was the Grand Marshal of the parade!  And how great is that?  A poet … Continue reading Kooser Sighting