Since I am from Miami and run on what we in Miami like to call “Cuban time,” it is only appropriate that this report on the Miami Book Fair come to you a full two weeks late.

On Sunday, November 15th, I joined up with the very cool Marc Fitten, Editor-in-Chief of The Chattahoochee Review, to man the CLMP booth at the fair. Together we gave out wine and literary journals to unsuspecting passersby.

About an hour into the afternoon, after several requests for comic books or the location of Elmo’s book signing, I realized we had our work cut out for us. While Marc bellowed out, “GET YOUR LIT MAGS HEERE!” like the best of baseball game vendors, I quietly explained that One Story is a magazine that publishes just one short story every three weeks. One Story is a magazine that publishes just one short story every three weeks. One Story is a magazine…No, it is not for Jehovah’s Witnesses. No, it is not a free pamphlet. Yes, you can have wine, even if you don’t care for short stories. Here, just take some wine. Your welcome. (We gave out so much wine–about two cases–so quickly, I have no pictures to show for it.)

We also sold a few things. One of which was our clever “beach-themed five pack,” which was a hit.*

Of course, a few One Story fans did stop by. Among them were the lovely staff of Gulfstream, the literary journal at Florida International University, and short story writer Lynne Barrett. OS authors Ben Greenman (“The Tremulant,” Issue# 113), Kate Walbert (“Good Luck,” Issue #71) and Roxana Robinson (“A Perfect Stranger,” Issue #55) also read that day; Roxana was nice enough to come by the booth and say hello and sign copies of her issue. Other authors making appearances included John Hodgman (“Villanova,” Issue #1), Jonathan Lethem, Sherman Alexie and Dan Chaon.

All in all, it was a good Sunday. The weather was great, the free wine was flowing, and then, what Miami event would be complete without mariachis? None!

Thanks to everyone that came out! Until next year, Elmo. Until next year.

*”A hit,” in this context, meaning they were so well-packaged and beautiful they were to remain on display and not purchased or taken home. Not ever.

As announced last night at its annual gala in NYC, Colum McCann took home the 2009 National Book Award for fiction. His novel, Let the Great World Spin, was the favorite going in. The plot centers on a group of 1970′s New Yorkers and features a cameo appearance by Philippe Petit, famous for his daring tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. McCann was nominated alongside Jayne Anne Philips and Marcel Theroux as well as two short story collections: Bonnie Jo Campbell’s American Salvage and Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. For full coverage on the awards, including the winners for poetry, nonfiction, and young adult fiction, visit the NBA’s official website. Also announced at the Awards dinner was the reader-chosen “Best of the National Book Awards” which went to Flannery O’Connor’s career spanning The Complete Stories. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Congratulations to One Story author Laura van den Berg for the publication of “What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us” (issue 102) in the Pushcart Prize XXXIV: Best of the Small Presses.

Congratulations are also in order for the many other One Story authors who received a Special Mention for Fiction: Katherine Karlin for “Muscle Memory” (issue 103); Robin Black for “Harriet Elliot” (issue 104); Jean Thompson for “Wilderness” (issue 105); Ramona Ausubel for “Safe Passage” (issue 106); Thomas Grattan for “Foreign Girls” (issue 108); and Andrea Barrett for “Archangel” (issues 114 and 115).

One Story is proud to have contributed to this 34th edition of the Pushcart, and we hope you enjoy all the great fiction.

Long live the short story!

One Story and The Center for Fiction (47th St. between 5th Ave. and Madison) are hosting the second part of “Craftwork: Lectures on Writing” at 7pm on Thursday, November 19.

Writer A.M. Homes will discuss the importance of revision in short stories and fiction and talk about the process in her own work. Homes is the author of the short story collections The Safety of Objects and Things You Should Know, as well as several novels and a memoir. She is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Bomb, and Blind Spot.

Admission is $5 for One Story subscribers and members of the Center; $7.50 for nonmembers.

Check out the glowing review of Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” in The New York Times.  This should get the literati good and riled up.  All hail Stevie, keeping literature fun since 1974.

Congratulations are in order for our beloved editor-in-chief Hannah Tinti and our equally beloved authors,Charles Lambert (Issue #64) and Roxana Robinson (Issue #55). Each of their novels made the longlist for Dublin’s International IMPAC Literary Award–Hannah’s The Good Thief, Charles’s Little Monsters and Roxana’s Cost.

The Award was established by the Dublin City Civic Charter in 1994. Nominations are made by libraries in capital and major cities throughout the world. Titles are chosen on the basis of high literary merit; participating libraries can nominate up to three novels each year for the Award. Previous winners include Edward P. Jones’s The Known World, Orphan Pamuk’s My Name is Red, and David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon. The prize is 100,000 euros.

The shortlist will be announced in March. See the entire 2010 Award longlist here.