Reading Recs

• Carol Keeley's essay "The Culture of Fire." Carol is a friend and wonderful writer/person. She also has a story ("Cremains") in the current issue of Ploughshares. The issue was guest edited by Elizabeth Strout, and features some big names: Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Bausch, Mary Gordon and Amy Hempel. Congratulations, Carol!

• Amelia Gray's story "Go for It and Raise Hell." She read this at AWP a few weeks ago. Multiple people have cited it as the event's best reading.

• Roxane Gay's story "I'm Going to Cook a Quiche in My Easy-Bake Oven and You Are Going to Like It." Roxane is smart and funny and always insightful. I also really enjoy her posts on her own blog and the Pank blog.

• Steve Almond's essay about Chuck Prophet. This is an excerpt from Almond's recently released book Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. It's good to see Mr. Prophet get some love. I saw him perform many, many times when I lived in San Francisco. Besides his indisputable musical skills, he's also a master of handling hecklers.