Author: A KIND OF IN-BETWEEN; YEAR OF THE BUFFALO; STEPHEN KING'S THE BODY; BACKSWING Editor: HAD; WAS (Words & Sports); Short Story, Long (on Substack)
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Articles by Aaron Burch
No Longer There, Revisited
by Aaron Burch Like most days—like almost every day, save the occasional morning when, because you had a drink or three too many or because you went on an extra long run or because you did a few hours of yardwork in hotter-than-normal heat or because of any number of other factors that sometimes make you tired enough to sleep in—you wake up an hour or so before your girlfriend, give or take, and you’re quiet getting up out of bed and quiet tiptoeing out of the room and quiet moving your way...
"Your Life in Parties" by Amber Sparks
I’ve been an Amber Sparks fan forever, and this one jumped out as an immediate new fave. When I first read this one as a submission, I got to the end and immediately went back to the beginning and and read it all over again. It’s hypnotic, and a little sneaky, and just such a joy to read.
Moves by Aaron Burch — Terrazzo Editions
Karaoke? Pilot asks. Could be fun, I say. We’re walking through downtown, a little unsure what to do with ourselves. We’re used to baseball starting at 7, not this weird 6 p.m. Mountain time. Used to games lasting three hours, used to them not getting out until well after dark, used to a commute back home. Used to a baseball game being a whole night. Used to things always being the way they’d been when we were little.
The Attic by Aaron Burch
Some kind of a noise. Or a nudge, a push. Probably both. A “Babe, babe,” together with or followed by, enough of a jostle to wake me up while trying not to startle me. “Sorry,” Michelle said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” I startle easily. I gasp, my body jolts; everything a sudden burst of confusion. “I mean. I did mean to wake you. But I was trying to wake you without startling you.” It felt like I’d awoken mid-dream. Like maybe even the dream had woken me. I couldn’t remember the dream.
ORCAS, or LIFE & ART & MAGIC & BEAUTY by Aaron Burch
My buddy Pilot comes to visit. Says it’ll do him good to get out of town for a couple days—new scenery, change of pace, leave the normal life problems and complications and stresses behind. But also we’ve been wanting and meaning to hang out for a while. The new scenery and change of pace and leaving behind of life’s problems and complications and stresses are all bonus. Icing on the cake, cherry on top. All that. It’s sunny out, blue skies, warm.
To live and die and die and die again in LA
I have a personal rule of thumb when it comes to location-based entertainment: Books set in LA are better than books set in NYC. Movies set in NYC are better than movies set in LA. There are a few reasons for my rationale. First is LA is (generally) the land of filmmaking, and NYC is (generally) the land of publishing, so when you’re making art that doesn’t coincide with the prevailing regional medium, the results are going to be more compelling. Cinematically, New York just looks better on film.
"Swans" by Amy Stuber
I’m so excited to get to feature this one today. Amy Stuber’s collection, Sad Grownups, was one of my favorite books of last year. I read it slowly, the way I do all my favorite collections — one story a day, savoring it.
“Girl Meets Bird” by Gemma Kaneko
Every time I’ve reread this story over the last couple of weeks, I have been struck by how every element feels like it hits its note just right. And then! There are these wonderful moments of character — the way she imagines answering questions and narrating her life, as if it a “phantom reporter breathlessly covering the Ava beat”; the way she’d grown up always dreaming and wanting for some kind of fantasy world like from fairy tales and children’s stories — that feel even more just right.
DT ONLY READS MY STUFF IF IT’S REALLY SHORT BECAUSE HE’S A BABY WITH A WIFE AND KIDS AND ADULT RESPONSIBILITIES BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH — Autofocus Literary
My buddy, Kevin, texts me and our other buddy, DT, that he’s feeling a surge of hope and healing coming his way. DT texts us that he’s thinking of applying to a job, that he’s hitting the point where he hates what he does. I text them that I don’t know how long I can keep this up, but I’m feeling especially inspired and productive and like a new me.
The Good News Caboose by Adam Petty
As an incredible sucker for well-told stories of growing up and coming of age, the beginning of this story got its hooks in me pretty immediately. An awkward sixteen-year-old youth group kid in the 90s becomes friends with a more assertive, defiant, swearing, Nine Inch Nails t-shirt-wearing kid, and they go together to their local county fair, the “highlight of the social calendar in our small town”?
The Disc by Jessica Lévai
There’s something about the confidence of the declaration this story opens with — “It is one of the great secrets of the universe that the best interpretation of ‘My Heart Cries the Melody’…” — that immediately grabbed me, pulled me in, made me curious. Curious why THIS was the best interpretation, why the story started here, where the story was gonna take me next.
Writer, teacher, and editor Aaron Burch on seeing failure as necessary
Writer, editor, and teacher Aaron Burch discusses how he's learned to embrace his craft as a hobby and evolve from the little failures that lead to success. Writing, Failure, First attempts, Success, Focus Part of: Starting something new Overcoming adversity Staying on track Highlights on You’re a teacher and you’ve opened and run a couple of successful literary magazines, but you’re also regularly publishing your own work. Can we hear a little bit about how you balance doing all those things?
Another Poem About Nostalgia & Misunderstandings & Growing Up & All the Other Same Ol’ Everything by Aaron Burch
After David Wojciechowski I read a poem about immortality only misread it as immorality. I learned about both as a child — from my parents, from church, from the world at large. I keep running over that phrase — at large — trying to misread it as something else. Sometimes things just are what they are; no degree of reconsideration — purposeful or not — can turn them into something else. And other times, no matter what you do, a thing won’t stay what it’s supposed to be.
Notes on How to Write a Novel: Anthology Contributors Actually Mention Writing and Share Some Books They've Learned From — Autofocus
One of my biggest pieces of “craft” advice is to be collaborative. Which I mean and think of both literally and loosely. Almost everything I read is, in one way or another, collaborating with what I am currently working on. Every time I borrow a writing move or strategy or whatever from a favorite book or author is a kind of collaborating.
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Aaron Burch
I’m on my knees on the floor of my childhood bedroom, sifting through boxes of my stuff my parents never threw away, when my phone rings, cracking the shell of my nostalgia trip. Pulled back to earth, back to the town where I grew up, back into the house, the very room, of my youth. Crack. Just like that. Sobered up, it all looks like I’m in the epicenter of a detonated bomb of growing up.
The House on Dead Confederate Street, by Jim Ruland
I’ve known for years. His book, Big Lonesome, is 18 years old (wait, that can’t be right?!) and I still think about some of those stories often, as I do his amazing haunted casino novel (tell me you don’t want to read a haunted casino novel!), Forest of Fortune. (He told me he was gonna send me his newest, Make It Stop, but he hasn’t (👀), so I can’t rave about that.) His essay, “Ode to Joy,” was one of the best things I published in 20 years of doing annual baseball issues with Hobart.
Man Woman Egg Bird, by Ben Loory
Ben Loory’s stories always surprise me, always make me smile, always make me rethink what a story can do and me. They almost always send me to my own writing, inspiring something new or a fresh look at something older, one of my favorite responses to a short story. I can’t recommend his two story collections, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day & Tales of Falling and Flying, enough.
Two Tacos, by Aaron Burch
I ate the first taco right there at the drive thru window. “What size drink?” a voice asked. Staring at the half-eaten Doritos® Locos shell filled with seasoned beef and lettuce and cheese in my hand, I wondered if it was asking, or was it the other half, the half still in my mouth, the half currently in the middle of being chewed. It was hard to tell. “What size drink?” again. I looked to my left and the drive thru employee who had handed me my bag of salvation was staring at me.
Two Tacos, by Aaron Burch
I ate the first taco right there at the drive thru window. “What size drink?” a voice asked. Staring at the half-eaten Doritos® Locos shell filled with seasoned beef and lettuce and cheese in my hand, I wondered if it was asking, or was it the other half, the half still in my mouth, the half currently in the middle of being chewed. It was hard to tell. “What size drink?” again. I looked to my left and the drive thru employee who had handed me my bag of salvation was staring at me.
Fall 2022 | LIGEIA Magazine
author of Night of the Living Rez author of When They Tell You To Be Good
Running On and On
I opened up the socials this morning, never quite sure where they will lead on a day like today, and found people sorting through layers of life and memory, sharing the same pictures and profiles that get passed around each year under the cumbersome nature of grief and guilt, both personal and collective, and yet, there too, is the writer’s reminder of our very basic need for storytelling to make sense of this world and our place within it.
The Last Few Years...
By Aaron Burch I turned 40 and got a promotion and went to a lot of movies and watched a lot of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and the state where I live legalized recreational marijuana then I turned 41 and went to the Kentucky Derby with my wife and to Fort Lauderdale with my wife and then I bought a new car and drove across the country by myself, east to west, and spent the summer with my childhood best friends, then, at the end of the summer, drove across the country by myself again,...
A Good Idea
“Is this a good idea?” I keep saying. Over and over: “Is thisa good idea? Is this a good idea? Is this a good idea?
Classic Monsters on Their Way to/from Dunkin by Aaron Burch — NO CONTACT
Aaron Burch is the author of the memoir/literary analysis Stephen King’s The Body; the short story collection, Backswing; and the novella, How to Predict the Weather. He is the Founding Editor of Hobart and HAD. His first novel, YEAR OF THE BUFFALO, will be out Spring 2022.
Watch Her Go - [PANK]
listen to this story “I’m not always there when you call—” She makes the telephone sign and presses her hand against her ear. “—but I’m always on time.” She points to her wrist, grinning. You think she’s clever. You wouldn’t have thought of doing that first part with the telephone. She does a slow hip swivel towards the couch you’re sitting on, pointing, first at herself, and then at you.
Attachments by Aaron Burch — NO CONTACT
or, A Short Essay About Email That Turned into a Metaphor for Any Number of Things (see: Divorce, Family, Writing, Regret, (Fill in Your Own Blank)) by Aaron Burch A warning banner along the top of my email tells me “you’re out of storage space and will soon be unable to send or receive emails until you free up space or purchase additional storage,” and although I like the idea of not being able to receive any more emails, the freedom of it, the actual idea of not being able to send or...
Planter's Choice Bonsai Starter Kit by Aaron Burch — NO CONTACT
Two weeks ago, I planted seeds for four different bonsai trees. Pinus Aristata, Delonix Regia, Jacaranda Mimosifolia, Picea Abies North America. Two weeks before that—exactly one month ago today, as I write this—I received a mass email notifying me that I would no longer be able to access my office on campus. The English building, among others, would now be accessible by essential employees only.
The Idea Of It All
Nearly every time I go home, my dad mentions the knife I gave him. A filet knife given for birthday or Christmas or Father’s Day. I was proud of the gift at the time, how he used it on the very next fishing trip we went on together, and am proud of it now, how he still uses it all these years later, how he makes a point of mentioning it. I can’t remember much about the last time we went fishing together. It wasn’t that long ago.
Writers’ Guidelines by Siân Griffiths, Dave Housley, & Aaron Burch
The Lost Sock Spare us your obvious and exotic. We want work that hides in the crevices, collects cobwebs in forgotten corners, and crimps itself deep between the cushions of your couch. We want odor, grime, and the infuriating feeling that somewhere, the other half of this piece exists. We want to know that the other half is warm and clean and found—but we’re not interested in that piece. We want the one that remains elusive and unlocatable. We do not accept stories with dentistry.
Interrobang by Aaron Burch
“Why would you do that, question mark exclamation point.” Kelly did that sometimes—she speech-to-texted so often that sometimes it slipped into her regular speech. Comma, period, lol, question mark. Open quote, unquote, when retelling a story about something stupid one of her coworkers or friends said. “Interrobang,” I said. “What?” “That’s the word for it, for the combination question mark-exclamation point.” “You ate a ball of raw meat exclamation point.” This time she caught herself.
fearless literature
You Think About That Or You’re staring at the wall of books. You want to leave them all, everything. Move on, wipe the board clean, start anew. “What are you going to do with them?” you ask, though you know. You also want to take them. Because you’re you, because it’s your nature. Because she wants to get rid of them so you want to do the opposite. You hear her ridiculing your desire to hoard, to hold onto the past, though she isn’t. You’re unsure if this makes you want to take everything or none of it.
After Losing My Father, One Direction Helped Me Find Joy During Grief | Maggie Soares-Horne
People who loved One Direction loved them hard. We loved them so hard that the boys (always “the boys”) broke records. We loved them so hard that they churned out an album a year, and we still weren’t satisfied—there was a running joke that the band was never able to release an album without it first being leaked online. Their fourth album, Four, came out when I was eighteen.
Name Your God
I see the shirt from afar, like the midway full of people parted just for my sightline. BLEED THE FREAK, it says in big, blocky, bright red letters. I’m not sure what it means, but it doesn’t feel right. Something about the violence of the phrase, the awkward but hypnotic syntax. The words worm their way into my brain like a song, bleed the freak, bleed the freak, bleed the freak. I’m 16 years old, at the Puyallup Fair with my church youth group. It is 1994.
I'm not like them, but I can pretend (Obviously, this is an essay about Kurt Cobain and Nirvana)
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Confronting the Myth and the Reality of Soccer as Another World Cup Begins | Bryan Washington
This is Asides and Offsides, a 2018 FIFA World Cup notebook by . Last Saturday, en route to a doctor’s appointment, I caught Iceland’s World Cup opener at a bar beside the clinic. It was the country’s first tournament appearance . They’d been matched to play Argentina. Inside, after I’d found a seat, a big dude in a Mexico jersey posted up behind me—he said he’d actually arrived moments before, and for that particular seat specifically. He absolutely had to sit there.
“If a Girl Isn’t Pretty”: When Beauty Is the Ideal and Humor the Fallback | Katie Fustich
In the final scene of the 1968 movie Funny Girl entertainer Fanny Brice (played and entirely embodied by Barbra Streisand) sits before the mirror in her dressing room, reflecting on her life as one of the most celebrated stage performers of her generation. Despite her fame and fabulous leopard hat, there is a tangible melancholy in the air: Fanny is about to see her husband, the smooth-talking gambler Nicky Arnstein, for the first time following his stint in prison.
Joyland Magazine | The Midwest | Oysters
Pilot went first. First because it was his family’s cabin, first because he was going to show us proper form, how to do it. First because he always went first. The bulkhead was maybe five feet tall, but we could still see a good two feet of above the water. The tide had come in but was still pretty shallow, is what I mean. Only a couple hours before, there’d barely been any water at all. A few hours and a couple sixpacks split between the four of us earlier and we’d been walking around down there.
Sunday Stories: “The Plan”
The plan was to cull our money together. Cull? Pool? The plan was to pool our money together and buy a car. A boat of a car. A boat like for a pool. A lake of a pool. The plan was to drive across the country—one corner to the other, one hometown to another, here to there. That was the plan. The plan was for our plan, as hasty as it was, to not fall apart, but that’s what plans do. They fall apart, drown in pools, drive away; they cost money we’d never planned for.
Infographic - VR and AR in Healthcare
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are both being used in a variety of industries, including education, sports, tourism, and even healthcare. The video game industry is projected to earn the highest revenue at $11.6 billion, but the healthcare industry is right behind them with $5.1 billion.
Stephen King'S &Quot;The Body&Quot; (An Excerpt)
The below is an excerpt (the first, short chapter, and then two chapters from the middle of the book) from my forthcoming addition to Ig Publishing's new Bookmarked Series. "The Bookmarked series focuses on a famous work of literature that left a powerful impression on an author (hence the name, Bookmarked—a book that left its mark).
Things Heard During John Cage’s Folsom Prison Performance of “4’33”."
See all articles from this column “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die for this?” “Sure, he’s avant-garde, but I’m the avant-guard.
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