My story “The Miracle Years of Little Fork,” which appeared originally in Ploughshares, has been selected for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016. The anthology, which will appear in October, benefits the 826 literacy organizations.
My essay “The Power and Limitations of Victim-Impact Statements” was at newyorker.com this summer. Read it here.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
