Tin House Rejection Spring 2015

We have all been rejected and we have all rejected. This is especially true for writers. In this issue, through poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, we'll celebrate, lament, and explore rejection in all its forms: personal, emotional, sexual, medical, spiritual, ethical, professional and beyond.

We have all been rejected and we have all rejected. This is especially true for writers. In this issue, through poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, we'll celebrate, lament, and explore rejection in all its forms: personal, emotional, sexual, medical, spiritual, ethical, professional and beyond.

Tin House's Summer Reading brings you all the things you've come to expect from the acclaimed literary journal. Packed with thrilling fiction, introspective essays, and artful poetry, this issue is perfect company for an afternoon in the shade. Summer Reading 2015 features previously untranslated work from 2014 Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano on Paris and a timely essay from Lewis Hyde revisiting the 1964 murder of two young black men in Mississippi. In addition to these works by established authors, this issue also presents work from five New Voices in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Featuring fiction from: Jodi Angel, Smith Henderson, Greg Hrbek, Tara Ison, Patrick Modiano, Matthew Socia, and Sarah Elaine Smith Poetry by: Catherine Barnett, Cody Carvel, Diana M. Chien, Rita Gabis, Robert Duncan Gray, Kimiko Hahn, Ed Skoog, and Jenny Xie Nonfiction by: Mary Barnett, David Gessner, and Lewis Hyde Lost & Found: S. Shankar on Agnes Smedley, John Reed on André Gide, Jessica Handler on Berton Roueché, Jonathan Russell Clark on H.D., and Rachel Riederer on Barbara Grizzuti Harrison.

What is memory? How does it work? Reliable, unreliable, manipulated, historical, contradictory--from pure speculation to hard cognitive science, this issue brings you fiction, poetry, interviews, essays, and memoirs that explore memory.

WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD WINNER OF THE PETER LOVESEY FIRST CRIME NOVEL CONTEST Friday Night Lights gone dark with Southern Gothic; Eli Cranor delivers a powerful noir that will appeal to fans of Wiley Cash and Megan Abbott. In Denton, Arkansas, the fate of the high school football team rests on the shoulders of Billy Lowe, a volatile but talented running back. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his mother’s abusive boyfriend. Billy takes out his anger on the field, but when his savagery crosses a line, he faces suspension. Without Billy Lowe, the Denton Pirates can kiss their playoff bid goodbye. But the head coach, Trent Powers, who just moved from California with his wife and two children for this job, has more than just his paycheck riding on Billy’s bad behavior. As a born-again Christian, Trent feels a divine calling to save Billy—save him from his circumstances, and save his soul. Then Billy’s abuser is found murdered in the Lowe family trailer, and all evidence points toward Billy. Now nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the whole town apart on the eve of the playoffs.

Tin House is an award-winning literary magazine that publishes new writers as well as more established voices; essays as well as fiction, poetry, and interviews.

An Indies Introduce Pick, Indie Next Pick, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month, A Key to Treehouse Living will introduce you to a modern Huck Finn—an unforgettable voice that will stay with you long after you finish the final page. A Key to Treehouse Living is the adventure of William Tyce, a boy without parents, who grows up near a river in the rural Midwest. In a glossary-style list, he imparts his particular wisdom on subjects ranging from ASPHALT PATHS, BETTA FISH, and MULLET to MORTAL BETRAYAL, NIHILISM, and REVELATION. His improbable quest—to create a reference volume specific to his existence—takes him on a journey down the river by raft (see MYSTICAL VISION, see NAVIGATING BIG RIVERS BY NIGHT). He seeks to discover how his mother died (see ABSENCE) and find reasons for his father’s disappearance (see UNCERTAINTY, see VANITY). But as he goes about defining his changing world, all kinds of extraordinary and wonderful things happen to him. Unlocking an earnest, clear-eyed way of thinking that might change your own, A Key to Treehouse Living is a story about keeping your own record straight and living life by a different code.