Thursday, July 5, 2007

The Headmaster Ritual and New Stories From The South 2007

Taylor Antrim, a past winner of our Winter Fiction Contest, just released his first novel, The Headmaster Ritual, in June. I meant to point this out earlier, but frankly, I got busy with other things. Anyhow, I haven't been able to find any reviews of the book yet, but I did find a sort of glowing profile/review thingy in The New York Observer by Sara Vilkomerson.

The profile begins with groups of words that say things like "Even for someone as painfully—ridiculously—attractive as author Taylor Antrim, the process of picture-taking can still be painful" and "He may have felt uncomfortable, but Mr. Antrim looked downright Gatsby-like" and "Patrician-boned Mr. Antrim." Anyhow, I thought that was funny.

And then, as the article goes on, Sara sort of relaxes the language a bit and lets Taylor do a lot more talking on his own. We hear about the book, about his prep school background, about his jobs, etc, and I think that's when the article gets more interesting.

Forbes has excerpted the novel here.

In related news, Joshua Ferris' story "Ghost Town Choir" from Prairie Schooner was selected by Edward P. Jones for inclusion in the upcoming volume of New Stories from the South. This may be old news, since Dan Wickett posted the information in February, but I figured I'd highlight it again.

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