More Good Reads

Last week I attended an event at Joe's Pub in New York City, featuring Nathan Englander, Jennifer Egan and Karen Russell. I really wasn't familiar with Karen Russell's work but found her amusing and entertaining at the event, so I decided to pick up Swamplandia! her critically acclaimed novel, and I'm enjoying it so far. It's a quirky tale of a precocious preteen growing up in a family who runs an alligator theme park on an island near Florida.

I've also been enjoying the stories in Etgar Keret's פתאום דפיקה בדלת of late, when I feel like reading Hebrew. And I was delighted to learn that none other than Nathan Englander himself is translating it. Look for "Suddenly a Knock at the Door" some time next year.

I found Jennifer Egan to be refreshingly humble about her writing. Especially for a Pulitzer winner. She seems like a genuinely nice and likeable person. My wife enjoyed "The Keep" which I look forward to reading in the near future.

My story "Once an Undine" appears in Scarlet Literary Magazine

Scarlet Literary Magazine's second issue includes one of my short pieces "Once an Undine", inspired by a story written by Ingeborg Bachmann. You can read it at the following:

http://scarletzine.wordpress.com/gus-ginsburg/

This story is of a different character than my usual dark humor.