There are a lot of people out there that can tell a good story. Between the Internet and small publishers, these gems no longer fester in someone’s file cabinet, but can make change (and yes, that includes our teary eyed presidential candidates).
I’ve been following Ron Lopez’s Kensington Stories. His vignettes about the neighborhood where I grew up in Brooklyn ring true – the Buzzarama slot car birthday parties, the old movie theater, Scotto’s, bagels, and more. I went to the local parochial school IHM, so I didn’t have the public school experiences he had, but of course each person has their own takes on things. He comes up with these fantastic hooks – strawberry shortcake and goal setting, sunsets on rooftops and unrequited love, and a happy reason to go to the funeral home on New Year’s Eve (needed some extra seats for the party). Recommended.
Stumbling through some other websites, I find a college friend (actually the very first person I met at orientation in college) running a literary magazine in Park Slope called One Story. Simple concept – the subscription-only zine publishes only one thoroughly vetted story every three weeks. They’re already into issue 100, and have been recently written up in the NYT, Time Out, and the Brooklyn Papers. I’ve signed up!