Since, for once, I’m not working on my own novel (O blessed rare summer!) I’ve managed to do a bit of reading myself. Here’s what I’ve picked up and been absorbed by: Jonathan Franzen’s essay collection FARTHER AWAY; Ben Fountain’s hilarious, inventive and harrowing Iraq War novel, BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALF-TIME WALK; Amor Towles’ glorious novel of late 1930’s New York THE RULES OF CIVILITY, and Marilynne Robinson’s essays WHEN I WAS A CHILD I READ BOOKS. I’m looking forward to John Lanchester’s CAPITAL and Jess Walter’s BEAUTIFUL RUINS. I’m also just finishing a fascinating history of Susan B. Anthony’s northwest suffrage work, called SOWING GOOD SEEDS, by G. Thomas Edwards, and rereading Alice Munro’s stories in RUNAWAY. So delicious.
Anna Keesey is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and has held residencies at MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Yaddo, and Provincetown. Keesey teaches English and creative writing at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.
