I hear the elevator doors open. The wheels of a hospital bed bump down the linoleum and I run over to the tiny window in my reinforced door. There is a man covered in tubes, lying on a stretcher by the nurses' station.
"Look!" I yell to my roommate, Erica. "Look, look, look!"
Erica gets out of her bed and stands on her tiptoes next to me. We are both patients at The Terrence and Miriam Wexler Wellness Center and Spa, located on the top floor of the County Hospital . The Wellness Center is actually a women's psych ward. They call it a "spa" to make us feel better about ourselves. Other than our psychiatrist, Dr. Molina, we have not seen another man in a month.
We are supposed to be focusing our energy on ourselves; we are supposed to be turning inward, owning up to the particular problems that plague us. We are supposed to be making sustainable life-changes that can actually be sustained. We are not supposed to be worrying about mysterious, unconscious men who have olive skin and large biceps.
"What's he doing here?" Erica asks.
I look at the man—his head held in a metal halo, his leg cast up to his hip. I watch as they roll him into the room across the hall from us.
"He's here," I tell Erica, "to fall in love."
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- Friday, December 5th, 2008
Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum reading at Pianos - Friday, January 9th, 2009
Allison Amend reading at Pianos - Friday, January 30th, 2009
Rachel Cantor reading at Pianos - Friday, March 6th, 2009
Andrew Porter reading at Pianos - Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Rebecca Barry reading at Pianos - Friday, May 1st, 2009
Tania James reading at Pianos
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A customizable version of our online submission management system is available to publishers through the Council of Literary Magazines and presses ( CLMP). Several magazines (Fence, Jubilat, Ploughshares, A Public Space and Unpleasant Event Schedule) are already using the system, and quite a few others will be coming online soon. If you've got questions about Submission Manager, please contact us. |
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 One Story is a non-profit literary magazine that features one great short story mailed to subscribers every three weeks. Our mission is to save the short story by publishing in a friendly format that allows readers to experience each story as a stand-alone work of art and a simple form of entertainment. One Story is designed to fit into your purse or pocket, and into your life. Because we like a challenge we will publish each writer one time only. This prevents us from relying on a stable of writers and helps us find new and exciting voices. Between September and June, all writers can submit their work. In the past five years we have grown to have over 3000 subscribers. Many of the stories we have published have won awards, and many One Story writers have gone on to publish their first (or third, or tenth) books. But what keeps us going is the community we have created. Please join us: subscribe, come to an event, or chat on our blog.
posted by: Elliott Holt
2008-11-18 18:01:03 ET
The National Book Foundation's annual "5 Under 35" celebrates five books of fiction by five writers under the age of thirty-five. As most people know, thirty-five is the minimum age for a President of the United States. To the Founding Fathers, with their limited life expectancy, thirty-five years seemed sufficient time to accrue the experience necessary to be Chief Executive of this fledging nation. In our contemporary society, where forty is the new twenty, thirty-five still seems awfully young. It's hard to imagine electing a thirty-five-year-old President. (People were worried about Obama's experience and he is 47.) Still, the 5 Under 35 celebration is a reminder that one should never underestimate youth. The work of the five writers feted at Tribeca Cinemas last night already displays great wisdom and maturity. As Mary Gaitskill said of the title story in One Story author Nam Le's astonishing collection, The Boat, it would be extraordinary if it had been written by a fifty-year-old author, but the fact that Nam was just twenty-six when he wrote it makes it all the more remarkable. There is no doubt that writing is hard, and that with maturity and experience and yes, practice, most writers' work does get better. So it's exciting to imagine what this year's 5 Under 35 will write in the next thirty-five years or so. In the meantime, buy the books they have already written. Each of the five young writers is always selected by a previous National Book Award Fiction Finalist or Winner. Here are the 5 Under 35 for 2008, who were introduced by the writers who selected them: Matthew Eck, The Farther Shore. (Selected by Joshua Ferris, 2007 National Book Award Finalist for Then We Came to the End.) Keith Gessen, All the Sad Young Literary Men. (Selected by Jonathan Franzen, 2001 National Book Award Winner for The Corrections.) Sana Krasikov, One More Year. (Selected by Francine Prose, 2000 National Book Award Finalist for Blue Angel.) Nam Le, The Boat. (Selected by Mary Gaitskill, 2005 National Book Award Finalist for Veronica.) Fiona Maazel, Last Last Chance. (Selected by Jim Shepard, 2007 National Book Award Finalist for Like You'd Understand, Anyway.)
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