Nick Rees Gardner

Night Ginkgo Essential Writing from the DMV

Quick reminder to DMV area writers that we're looking for submissions at Night Ginkgo Press! If accepted you receive payment and a print anthology! Not much better out there. Details below

nightginkgo.com

manageable #awp25 book haul. excited to dig into these lit journals, along with a collaboratively written novel by Katie Jean Shinkle and Jessica Alexander @astrophilpress.bsky.social, and collections by @nickreesgardner.bsky.social and @deeshaphilyaw.bsky.social

Headed to LA!

So pumped to bring this project into the world! There’s always room for another indie press.

This review of Hey You Assholes by is so thoughtful and impassioned that my wife asked me if I had written it under a pseudonym. No, I told her. @nickreesgardner.bsky.social is the realest dude around.

independentbookreview.com/2025/03/04/s...

A Drug Story Is Never Just About Drugs | An Interview with Nick Rees Gardner By Gene Kwak

“I can kick it at a dive bar & crack jokes with a group of roofers or bitch about a bad tipper with a fellow bartender.”

📌 ICYMI Gene Kwak talked w/ @nickreesgardner.bsky.social about his new collection DELINQUENTS & OTHER ESCAPE ATTEMPTS southwestreview.com/a-drug-story...

So cool!

This awesome group is reading & reviewing small press books this year to raise the visibility of great, often overlooked presses & authors. Follow them all! go.bsky.app/E6oomtn

#100smallpress

Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2025 - Longreads Kickstart your reading year with 10 short stories selected by longtime contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj.

Today we're featuring 10 short stories—all freely available to read online—including work from @electriclit.bsky.social, @thesunmagazine.bsky.social, @wwborders.bsky.social, @bostonreview.bsky.social, and more.

longreads.com/2025/01/14/t...

You didn’t hear it from me.

DELINQUENTS and other Escape Attempts, linked stories by Nick Rees Gardner

Drug Magic Now that Abe no longer shoots heroin, he sounds like a fifty-dollar self-help and the problem is I’ve seen this all before. The problem is that my life these days is a series of dips and dives while my brother, despite his past, keeps thriving. The problem is he won't shut up about it. Abe tells me it's not luck but Drug Magic, that all his previous wrongs have undergone a reversal. He says, "No, Mags, Drug Magic's not pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Its like you ask the universe for what you need, and you get it." He lies on his creeper under a Honda Civic ravaged with rust. He grunts, punches. A bolt cracks. He says, "Hand me the breaker bar, Mags." I don't hand him the breaker bar because who the hell knows what a breaker bar is and because I'm headed off to the community college where I'm working on my nursing degree so I can one day move beyond in-home healthcare, beyond a raggedy-ass house on the East Side. I could really use some Drug Magic now that rent is due and my last charge, Gertrude, is dead. I corner my Buick and beg the universe like Abe's

Finished this this morning. The final story is a helluva closer. Congrats, @nickreesgardner.bsky.social!

Thanks so much!

My final interview of rhe year is live. It’s been a wild 4 months since Delinquents hit the shelves!

www.forewordreviews.com/articles/art...

Haha I skipped over your intro to read the story this morning and didn’t even see the shout out. Thanks! Love the Westin story and you’ll definitely love Deagler’s novel! One of my favorite reads this year.

Besides Delinquents And Other Escape Attempts?
I’m still thinking of Jim Roberts’ debut, Of Fathers And Gods.

And Téa Franco’s collection: You Could Be That Kind of Girl, from Word West kicks ass too.

Tradition. But that’s not what I came to tell you about.

Short Story, Long | Aaron Burch | Substack Longer short stories, published biweekly. Click to read Short Story, Long, by Aaron Burch, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

Going to open up submissions for Short Story, Long in December. Have a longer (~3k-8k words) story you think I'd like. Get it ready to send my way!

ashortstorylong.substack.com

Is “Two Dollar Radiohead” a thing?

Lifers, Locals, Hangers-on Once again, Lissa found herself at a party, tipsy, playing therapist to her best friend. Apparently, Glory's most recent ex, a younger guy and a senior in the BFA, had tried to teach her about line breaks--imagine that! Glory! the most prolific poet Westinghouse, Ohio had ever known! The two women sat squished together in the dip of the thrifted couch, faded floral stitching merged with wine stains under their asses. Another Literati House party. Another cohort meet-and-greet for the budding creatives who didn't have the scratch to make it on one of the coasts. Every fresh batch of students employed the same excuse: it was cheap here, lowbrow, DIY. As if they were better than middle America, but conceded to condescend. What they didn't realize was that the Midwest was fine without them. Glory was on one: If you've got such a hard. on for traditional forms, then go publish in Poetry Magazine like the other stuck-up White dudes. I'm too old and Black for that shit. I'm here to innovate. I want to feel. Lissa told her friend, Hell yeah! and, Right! and nodded for emphasis, but half her attention was fly papered to the cowboy…

hand holding paperback of DELINQUENTS and other Escape Attempts, linked stories by Nick Rees Gardner

Nov. 16 story: “Lifers, Locals, Hangers-on” by Nick Rees Gardner

The title story is probably the attention-grabber, but I preferred this one (although this is dumb, no need to compare or “vs.” them). Really great story, great fun Saturday morning read.

Fuck yeah! Thanks.

recent faves:
literally JUST read “Lifers, Locals, Hangers-on” in @nickreesgardner.bsky.social’s DELINQUENTS, and it’s great
in new BASS, really loved Daniel Mason’s “A Case Study” and Lori Ostlund’s “Just Another Family”

Happy 3 months to Delinquents And Other Escape Attempts!

You can still get your copy here:

bookshop.org/p/books/deli...

Yes!

Because tedious tasks are my therapy right now: are you a short fiction writer (flash or short stories only, please) publishing in litmags or aspiring to? I'd like to make a starter pack of short story and flash people! Comment here and please share for visibility #writingcommunity

Been making jokes about beets all dinner long and I’m pretty sure they’re the lowest hanging fruit of all root vegetables.

Alright. I’m here now too.