Issue # 99 & 100: “Beanball” by Ron Carlson

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Hannah Tinti

I’ve been a fan of Ron Carlson’s work for years, but the first time I met him was at Breadloaf in 2004, where he gave the best lecture on the writing process that I had ever heard. I actually bought a recording of it, so that I could listen to it again and take notes. I was thrilled when Ron finally sent us a story, and even more thrilled after I’d read it. “Beanball” embodies a kind of classic storytelling: beautiful prose, great characters, dynamic plot twists and an all-American subject: baseball. We felt it would work perfectly for our 100th publication, and because of its size, we decided to make it a special double issue. Soon after we were approached by Josh Wolf Shenk, the director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College, about making a letter press edition of a One Story issue. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Now we have a very special handmade book to commemorate our 100th issue. If you’d like to read about how the letter press edition of “Beanball” was made, go here, and if you’d like to buy a copy, visit our store. Regardless, we hope you’ll write in and let us know what you think about issue #100.

The process of putting out a literary magazine requires an incredible amount of work. First there is the mountain of manuscripts to wade through–days and months of reading to find that perfect gem. Then there are edits with the author, going back and forth to polish the story into the right shape. Then there’s the copyediting, and layout, and proofreading and then printing and finally distributing to our subscribers. It’s hard to believe that One Story has gone through that entire process 100 times. In many ways the past six years have been a blur, but whenever I look at all of our issues spread out across a table, as I recently did, when we moved into our first office space, I remember all of the details of working with these excellent writers, and each special circumstance when I read their stories for the first time. There is a thrill when you read a good short story. It usually happens on the first page. Sometimes it even happens in the first paragraph. But when it comes, it’s clear as day: This is a One Story story.

Colson Whitehead reads for One Story

Posted on February 9, 2008 by Elliott Holt

On Friday, February 8th, Colson Whitehead came to Pianos to read a hilarious chapter from his latest novel (as yet untitled) which will be published next spring. You can listen to the reading here but I warn you that it will a) make you hungry and b) make you think about gerunds in a whole new way. In my introduction, I attempted to sound intelligent by comparing the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (something I’ve been following very closely lately) to the one between the Empiricists and the Intuitionists. If you’ve read Colson’s first novel, The Intuitionist, you know that those are the two factions of the Department of Elevator Inspectors: the first group relies on rigorous by-the-book analysis while the second operates mostly by instinct. In Colson’s vividly imagined detective story, the Empiricists are threatened by the star Intuitionist, Lila Mae Watson, whose impeccable inspection record defies their plodding methods. It’s a measure of the book’s brilliance that it has become a lens through which I view the current fight for the Democratic nomination, but it remains to be seen which faction of the Democratic party will be going all the way to the top.
One Story reading series coordinator Elliott Holt & Colson WhiteheadColson uses a “visual aid” while reading“Visual Aid” close-up [You'll have to listen to the reading to understand]The crowd at Pianos is entranced

AWP: Mission Accomplished

Posted on February 5, 2008 by Marie-Helene Bertino

[The One Story booth @ the AWP Bookfair]

The AWP conference was one hot event this year. Literally. As if meeting three whole floors of our lovely readers, writers, and literary magazine comrades in The New York Hilton wasn’t enough excitement, a fire alarm interrupted our 100th issue reading at the Sutton South Lounge on Friday with Brock Clarke, N.M. Kelby, Paul Yoon and Ron Carlson. Reading at the time was the unflappable N.M. Kelby, who had barely gotten to the second page of One Story Issue #54 “Jubilation, Florida” when the alarm went off and a robotic voice over the loud speaker announced an investigation was being held to the cause. N.M. admonished those who grabbed their bags to leave, yelling, “Don’t leave! We’ve got sex in here!” I don’t know if that makes her One Story’s most viable candidate for Fire Marshall, but it definitely makes her our most bad ass writer. To read an account of this written by someone who thinks people who run from possible fires are cowards, go here or visit galleycat, who posted this video. Those people who stayed were treated to the rest of her reading, and Ron Carlson’s reading from “Beanball,” One Story’s special double issue (99 and 100). “Beanball” is a thrilling baseball murder mystery that spans two continents. It is only a matter of time before Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio are duking it out to play the main character on film, and we are thrilled to share it with our readers for our 100th issue. I heard Ron’s reading was brilliant. I didn’t hear it. I was one of the cowards who ran.

After the reading on Friday, we trekked down rainy, windy Manhattan to our warm, dry 100th issue party where we continued the fire theme and answered the question: is packing the upstairs at Pianos with hundreds of literary folks a fire hazzard? One Story authors and friends from Tin House, Ploughshares, Post Road, Redivider, Bomb, Mississippi Review, Open City and the newly launched Luna Park and other lit mags were on hand to party with us until we drank enough to forget that issue #101 sadly won’t edit, publish and distribute itself.

[One Story staffer Marie Bertino & One Story author, Amelia Kahaney @ One Story's 100th issue party]

[One Story author Brock Clarke charms the locals]

[Editor, Publisher & Webmaster yuck it up]

[One Story magazine takes the mike]

There was no time to nurse hangovers on Saturday. Ron Carlson chatted with our readers Saturday morning at a special reading and signing at the One Story table. There, he also signed all 100 copies of our special letter press edition of “Beanball,” which was lovingly blogged about here.

[Copies of "Beanball" and Ron's new novel, Five Skies on sale]

[Ron Carlson throws a pitch to Josh Wolf Shenk, director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House (which put together our beautiful letter press edition of "Beanball"]

Of course it wasn’t all glamourama at AWP, there were also some serious strategic talks about food. Our dedicated reader Jesse Hassenger and I discussed etiquette for approaching an AWP table for the sole reason of obtaining candy. Jesse informed me that it was prudent to scout the table out first, lest you ask a table clearly marked “Latina Lesbian Novella Writers from Idaho literary magazine” what kind of stories they publish. We decided a friendly “how’re things over here?” would suffice before helping yourself to a handful of tootsie rolls. We loved Alimentum’s food balloons, though we found out the hard way they weren’t edible.

[Fans stop & read short stories @ One Story Booth]

Before the fire alarm, before the hangovers, before picking pieces of mylar out of our teeth, Hannah explained to the crowd at the Sutton South Lounge why she and Maribeth began One Story five years ago. They wanted a forum that showcased one story and one story writer at a time. In a time when short story collections that dare to be unlinked are going the way of the dinosaur, we are more proud than ever to be fighting the fight. Thank you for joining us. See you next year, in Chicago.