Personal essay for New Yorker
My essay “The Power and Limitations of Victim-Impact Statements” was at newyorker.com this summer. Read it here.
News
Study with Rebecca
I teach in the low-residency MFA program at Sierra Nevada College (on Lae Tahoe! it’s beautiful!); I teach in Northwestern University’s MFA program (the one in the School of Professional Studies — there are two programs, it’s super confusing); and I teach StoryStudio Chicago’s “Novel in a Year” workshop. Applications for the latter are typically open early each summer.
I also love talking about craft with library groups and other groups of writers. These and other visits can be arranged by emailing me at rebeccamakkai@gmail.com.
2017 Pushcart Prize
My story “The George Spelvin Players,” originally published in Pleiades, as been selected for a Pushcart Prize and will appear in the 2017 anthology, out later this fall.
MFW a finalist for Society of Midland Authors Award
Music for Wartime was selected as a finalist in the fiction category for the Society of Midland Authors award. The SMA mercifully announces the winner ahead of time rather than making us find out at the ceremony, and this year’s prize is going to a very deserving Joe Meno for Marvel and a Wonder; the other finalist was Bonnie Jo Campell’s Mothers, Tell Your Daughters (a collection I can’t recommend highly enough). The banquet is May 10th; tickets and more info here.
Music for Wartime named one of BookPage’s Top 10 Collections of 2015
BookPage has kindly named Music for Wartime one of the top ten short story collections of 2015, writing “Makkai’ s novels… have established her as one of the most talented literary voices today… Now the acclaimed writer returns with Music for Wartime, an anticipated collection of short stories, several of which were inspired by the lives of her paternal grandparents.” Read the full list here!
One City, One Book Lake Forest
The Hundred-Year House has been chosen as the Ragdale Reads Lake Forest book for fall, 2015. The citywide reading program includes several public events, including a tea at the legendary Ragdale artists’ colony (10:30 am, Thursday, October 15) and a reading and conversation (6 pm, Wednesday, October 21st, Lily Holt Reid Memorial Chapel, Lake Forest College). More details to come; information here.
Interviews about The Hundred-Year House at The Rumpus and The Millions
I’ve recently done interviews at both The Rumpus and The Millions about The Hundred-Year House, Olympian gods, galley slaves, and what’s next. Click through to read!
THYH wins Chicago Writers Association’s Fiction of the Year Award
Please join us on January 24th at The Book Cellar in Chicago for a reading featuring me, nonfiction winner Samantha Irby, and others. Official announcement and details are here.
THYH named a best book of 2014 by BookPage and others
The Hundred-Year House has been named a best book of 2014 by BookPage, Chicago Reader, PopSugar, Chicago Book Review, Read Her Like an Open Book, and Newcity (Top 5 Novels by Chicago Authors), among others, and was on The Quivering Pen’s list of the best first lines of the year, and on Slate’s list of the 22 Best Lines of 2014. The Chicago Tribune included it on their Notable Chicago Books list, and The Huffington Post included it on this list of “7 Books to Read While Basking in a Food Coma,” which is pretty awesome but probably won’t make it onto the back of the paperback.
New York Times Book Review on The Hundred Year House
I had this awesome dream where the New York Times Book Review said some really nice stuff about my novel, and nobody’s bothered waking me up yet, so it’s all good. From the review: “Makkai guides her twisty, maximalist story with impressive command and a natural ear for satire. Equal parts screwball comedy, intellectual sex farce, historical drama and old-fashioned ghost story, “The Hundred-Year House” sometimes feels like the precocious love child of John Irving’s “The Hotel New Hampshire” and a rousing game of Clue.” Read more here. Please don’t pinch me.
