Aaron Burch

Love Jonas Myers' story, "War Games," that I got to pub on SSL last week, and yesterday I published a really great interview with him about the story.

ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/a-short-in...

Love that it grew out of this prompt:

I think BIG MACHINE is one of the great underrated novels of the century.

Lucinda Rosenfeld Reads Annie Ernaux The author joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss the story “Returns,” which was published in a 2022 issue of The New Yorker.

listened to this on my drive to WriterCamp last week. great reading of, and discussion about, a really great story. inspired me to spend some of camp writing a "Last time I saw..." story.
(I couldn't believe Rosenfeld & Treisman never mention Cheever's "Reunion"!)

www.newyorker.com/podcast/fict...

Putting it together for Short Story, Long, probably later this month!

C) Is there anything else you wish I’d asked about or want to talk about w/r/t the writing of the story? I can’t think of what question you could have asked to produce this response, but when I started working on the road trip section, but when I started writing the road trip section, I texted a friend “I’ve either just figured out how to fix this story or I’m now writing a hypothetical buddy comedy for Taylor Swift and Rosario Dawson,” and I think in fact maybe both of those things were true.

Sometimes, if you ask your fave writers ever if you could interview them they’ll say yes, and sometimes they’ll give you answers better even than anything you could have hoped for.

Danielle Evans on “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain”:

I've recently noticed him pop in eps of Golden Palace and Picket Fences, but I do't remember noticing (or watching?) those at the time.

I remember seeing Jack Black in The Jackal and taking note.

The Mind of John McPhee (Published 2017)

from this really great McPhee profile from a few years ago

www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/m...

Rereading Emily Nemens' The Cactus League for class, and was reminded of these two John McPhee essay structure diagrams.

cover of BACKSWING by Aaron Burch, showing a closeup of a yellow line on a road

back cover of BACKSWING, with blurbs: Throughout Aaron Burch’s debut full-length collection of fiction nearly everyone is seeking some kind of perfection. Despite their attempts falling short, going stray, or sometimes not even making it off the ground, they keep swinging—at latent nightmares and glaring domestic lives, at severed limbs and redemptive baptisms, at the awe of what has been taken and the bewilderment over what remains. Nevertheless, in these stories ranging from the magical to realism, from Biblical allegory to everyday relationships, the characters of Backswing, faithful that forward motion will someday strike, keep driving toward grace. "Reading Backswing, you find yourself laughing, no–waying, reaching out to give bro–hugs and clappy high–fives to an author you swear must be standing beside you, so present is his voice. Burch is the bard of the American dude." —Adam Levin, author of The Instructions and Hot Pink "Aaron Burch’s Backswing is a terrific debut, fast, funny, at times fantastical, a diverse, deft collection of stories about becoming a man and other unsolvable mysteries." —Jess Walter, author of We Live in Water and Beautiful Ruins "In his new collection, Aaron Burch’s achievement isn’t only in the masterful storytelling, it’s how through each character’s yearning and loneliness he succeeds in making us readers feel less alone. Even in the surreal, the creepy, the sad, the lusting, we recognize ourselves. Backswing is full of characters trying to find themselves, journeys you’ll feel privileged to join." —Lindsay Hunter, author of Daddy’s and Don’t Kiss Me "At the driving range of American fiction, Aaron Burch crushes his stories deep into the haunted night. Backswing is brave and odd and very human." —Sam Lipsyte, author of The Subject Steve and The Fun Parts

I completed a new short story collection, so have been thinking about my first, BACKSWING, lately.

I say this every now and then over on Twitter and so am taking the opportunity to post here: it's out of print, but I'm happy to send a PDF to anyone who wants one! dm me, reply here, email me, etc.

that Doyle essay is such an all-timer

@misternagel.bsky.social kinda seeming like he's leaning into some Berninger energy

How to Write a Novel

👀🎉🎉

A fave recent personal story. Huge thanks to @doricliterary.bsky.social & @courtlandavenue.bsky.social! And to any of y’all who’ve read it and shared kind words!

doric-literary.com/2025/01/01/r...

👀🎉🎉

A fave recent personal story. Huge thanks to @doricliterary.bsky.social & @courtlandavenue.bsky.social! And to any of y’all who’ve read it and shared kind words!

doric-literary.com/2025/01/01/r...

Rereading over my manuscript in progress just to get back into it, but also can’t help but to strikethrough a word here, phrase or sentence there. That pleasure of sharpening a sentence like a blade, feeling it clicking into place.

The only thing I think I would kick ass at is something like editing a journal like HAD, or Short Story, Long (or my Hobart), and I’m not so much extremely unlikely to get that so much as that is extremely unlikely to ever make me any money.

It is! Gotta say, my patience for Earth Crisis, here in my late40s, comes and goes… but this album kinda rips.

What a treat to put this in and be blasted with the memory that it opens with Earth Crisis covering “Sunshine of Your Love.” You know this, @danielmiller.bsky.social?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bnj...

photo of two pages of old 90s l-style CD book with CDs from hardcore bands Coalesce, Stain, Trial, Undertow, and Snapcase

found one of the portals to being ~17 again

screenshot of Saved podcast eps (all New Yorker Fiction episodes): Richard Ford Reads John Cheever T. Coraghessan Boyle Reads Tobias Wolff Tobias Wolff Reads Stephanie Vaughn Thomas McGuane Reads James Salter

screenshot of Saved podcast eps (all New Yorker Fiction episodes): David Means Reads Raymond Carver Anne Enright Reads John Cheever Sam Lipsyte Reads Thomas McGuane Tea Obreht Reads Stephanie Vaughn

screenshot of Saved podcast eps (all New Yorker Fiction episodes): Jennifer Egan Reads Mary Gaitskill Richard Powers Reads Steven Millhauser Mary Gaitskill Reads John Cheever

Roadtrip buddies.

Yes! Pretty fast, easy read, and I think it's fun. I've taught it twice in "sports novels" themed intro lit courses and it's gone really well.

Screenshot of gmail email preview: Michigan Research 6m ago U-M Goes All-In on Al Research news from the University of Michigan July 2025 View this email in your browser This month, we spotlight how the University of Michigan is going...

*Andy Samberg on Brooklyn Nine-Nine voice* “Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Coolcoolcool.”

I can't. This notebook is 16 years old. I apparently thought it was important at the time though! And I still like the sound of it now.

I think essentially what it is getting at is just precision in word choice. Is the word (in this case, verb/action) the best one? What you really mean/want to say?

"For every clause in your story, find the main verb. Figure out if it really is the main verb, or only standing in for the real thing."

written in my margin: *single best piece of writing advice from Rick* (Richard Powers)

Photo of a stack of 7 paperbacks: Howling Women, Shelby Crapalachia, Scott McClanahan Headshot, Rita Bullwinkel End Zone, Don DeLillo Fat City, Leonard Gardner The Natural, Bernard Malamud Fresh, Green Life, Sebastian Castillo On the Calculation of Volume I, Solvej Balle

Last 8 reads. Some bangers, some rereads, some interesting but not necessarily faves, some I just didn’t connect with.

Found my old notebooks of notes from Richard Powers’ craft class from 2009.

“Characters have values. Values compelled choice. Choice generates plot. Plot changes characters.“

Love a smart summary of and take on a story!

Read this one now!

(for HAD)