"Top 10 of 2010" by Jen Michalski
Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 12:00PM During the first month of 2011, Dzanc Books will be sharing a number of "Best of 2010" lists written by our authors, our editors, and other affiliated folks. Today's list comes from Jen Michalski, who will have a book of stories published by Dzanc in 2013.
Top 10 of 2010
1. Stories II by Scott McClanahan - such a deceptively easy, palatable writing style, a disarming voice, and surprising stories.
2. Roots of Steel by Deborah Rudacille - great combination of oral histories and public documents exploring the demise of the Bethlehem Steel Company in southeast Baltimore. Rudacille doesn't point fingers at unions or management, but there's enough pain and heartbreak to go around.
3. Further Adventures in the Restless Universe by Dawn Raffel - love her voice, her rhythms, and I love that there’s nothing I can do to imitate them. Dawn so completely has made up her own syntax, her own meters, and it’s the pinnacle of a writing career, when you can do that and no one can figure out how to imitate you.
4. Collected Stories of John Cheever/Stories of Richard Yates - Was proud to finally have read all of Cheever's stories (except a few that I skipped) and a collection of Yates' work. Don't know why I wanted to so long! You shouldn't.
5. Words by Andy Devine - Having the balls to write your own manifesto, if you will, of what writing should be. And have it be wonderful. And kicking Janet Burroway in the shin to boot.
6. How They Were Found by Matt Bell - I love Matt Bell’s imagination and his lyricism, so How They Were Found was a treat. A strong, even debut collection.
7. Baby by Paula Bomer - Paula is the loveliest, most generous person alive with the biggest set of balls to boot. And she says, in the most acerbic, witty, and heartbreaking way, everything that anyone was ever afraid to say about marriage, children, mothers, and hip New York neighborhoods in her debut collection. All I can say is, thank goodness I only have pets.
8. The Book of Freaks by Jamie Iredell - I heard Jamie read from this earlier this year and it's been on my mind ever since. Preorders as available now, BTW.
9. City Sages: Baltimore (ed. by Jen Michalski) - Not a plug, really, just an awesome collection of Baltimore writers--dead and alive, famous and not quite yet. You won't believe how many great writers live in Baltimore until you read this book.
10. We Take Me Apart by Molly Gaudry - Lyrical and lovely and haunting.
Jen Michalski
Jen Michalski's first collection of fiction, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, is available from So New (2007), her second is forthcoming from Dzanc (2013), and her novella MAY-SEPTEMBER (2010) was published by Press 53 in October as part of the Press 53 Open Awards (1st place, novella). Her chapbook CROSS SECTIONS (2008) is available from Publishing Genius. She also is the editor of the anthology CITY SAGES: BALTIMORE (CityLit Press 2010), which won a 2010 "Best of Baltimore" award from Baltimore Magazine. She edits the literary quarterly jmww, and is cohost of the monthly reading series The 510 Readings in Baltimore.
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