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Interview with Patty McNair

3/9/2018

 
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This Far Isn't Far Enough: An Interview with Lynn Sloan
03/09/18
We met at a faculty retreat, Lynn Sloan and I, quite a number of years ago. Lynn taught photography at Columbia College Chicago, where I teach creative writing, and I still remember her speaking about the potential for narrative in series of photographs. (I wonder if she really did talk about that, or if I have revised that memory in order to encapsulate both her evocative photographic images and her deeply engaging fiction?) Our paths cross often in Chicago, this remarkable literary city, and each time we meet, I am reminded of her kindness and curiosity, two traits a writer of any merit should have, I think.
We had the chance to talk story a bit, on the eve of the release of Lynn’s new short story collection, This Far Isn’t Far Enough from Fomite Press. These stories—full of “powerful yearning” (her phrase, not mine, although I wish I could claim it)—are so smart and so masterfully crafted, it was delight to hear her talk about how they came to be.
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Patty McNair: Your stories are populated with characters we readers feel we might know. They could be our neighbors, our colleagues, a friend of our mother, a customer, a family member. These are people engaged in the daily business of their lives, but often at a moment when a choice must be made, an action taken. And therein blooms the drama. I wonder, Lynn, what comes first for you? Character or dramatic moment?
Lynn Sloan: I suppose that it’s dramatic moment, in this sense: what comes first for me is a question: Why?
 
To read more click:

This Far Isn’t Far Enough launched at Women & Children First

3/3/2018

 
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​Thanks to Women & Children First Bookstore for hosting a spectacular evening for the book launch of my story collection, This Far Isn't Far Enough. Thanks to the terrific booksellers who made everything flow smoothly, thanks to my friends, old and new, and those I didn’t know, to everyone who came to listen to me read. An SRO crowd and all books sold. Thank you to Sarah Hollenbeck and Lynn Mooney, the generous, savvy, and wise ones who are behind all the success of Women & Children First. Thank you. 

March 03rd, 2018

3/3/2018

 
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To read click:

Interview with Christi Craig

2/21/2018

 
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Books, Personally reviews This Far Isn't Far Enough

2/17/2018

 
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Grief is not the exclusive province of death and dying in Lynn Sloan's poignant short story collection This Far Isn't Far Enough. Rather, we experience loss, deeply, in the many ordinary gaps and failures of our lives, over and over again.

To read this review click:

Book Launch at Women & Children First

2/5/2018

 
Event date: Friday, March 2,
                              7:30 pm 

Event address:
Women & Children First
5233 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60640
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For details click.

Small Press Picks reviews This Far Isn't Far Enough

1/26/2018

 
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To read more of Small Press Picks review of This Far Isn't Far Enough click.

Windy City Reviews on THIS FAR ISN'T FAR ENOUGH

1/9/2018

 
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I am grateful to Hallie Koontz for her in-depth and generous review.
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She concludes:

​"This is a collection of exceptional stories by a talented writer who understands that emotions are sometimes indefinable and conflicting, that facing adversity can require more than just courage, and that human feeling is complex and intricate. If you are in the mood for a layered exploration of both human weakness and strength, this is a good book for you." 

To read the entire review click here.

Story Circle Book Reviews This Far Isn't Far Enough

1/8/2018

 
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I am thrilled with Susan Schoch's generous review of This Far Isn’t Far Enough that appears in 
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Story Circle Book Reviews.

“Sloan uses the language with care and creativity. In the small worlds created by the limits of short fiction, This Far Isn't Far Enough offers realities that are recognizable, yet the outcomes are not predictable. The book leaves a flavor that lingers--not sweetness, but the mineral clarity of a deep well. It's a satisfying swig of human longing and learning.”

To read the Susan Schoch’s review click.

Compulsive Reader previews This Far Isn't Far Enough

1/4/2018

 
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Centered On Books reviews THIS FAR ISN'T FAR ENOUGH

12/16/2017

 
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Thank you, Jaclyn Bauer of Centered on Books, for your pre-publcation review of my story collection,
This Far Isn't Far Enough
This Far Isn’t Far Enough encapsulates perfectly the feeling in every one of Lynn Sloan’s new short stories. The stories in Sloan’s collection are tragedies that nearly break your heart, or often do. Every sad ending, it seems, is the result of someone not going far enough or something not being quite enough: someone trying but not hard enough, someone succeeding, but not in the way they imagined, or someone simply being swallowed by the reality of their incapacity to evoke change in their lives.
Though the underlying theme seems to be the same across stories, Sloan does a superb job of diversifying her characters and setting each scene on a new and fresh stage. There’s the story of Ollie, the chef betrayed by his partner, friend, and lover Donnie. Ollie who is given a chance at a comeback after a scandal at his previous restaurant. But is this new chance enough? Will Donnie always haunt Ollie even in his glory – haunt him through others and through Ollie’s own memory? Is a new restaurant enough to erase the pain?
Then there’s “A Little 1,2,3;” the story of Betty, a window confined to an assisted living home with not only the memories, but the visceral visions of her recently deceased husband beckoning her towards death. If only he hadn’t slipped while cleaning the gun. All Betty wants is to be with her husband, to escape the reality of all that she can’t remember and all that she can. But will death be enough to find happiness? Could death at the hands of the same gun that killed her husband save her from her misery?
Every one of Sloan’s characters is a monument to “what if” and “if only” and they remind readers to stop, to erase this ever-present message in humanity’s mind, because even under the guise of “if,” it could still not take you far enough. Life could still be just what it is or just what you don’t want it to be. Sloan’s characters remind us to make the effort, to live fully in what you have, and to cherish everything without the “if.”

"Nature Rules" appears in SHENANDOAH

11/28/2017

 
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​. . . Sandro? Sandro, thickset and old? She’d never imagined him aging. She ducked back—he couldn’t have seen her—and reached for her shotgun. . . 

I am thrilled that my story "Nature Rules" appears in the fall 2017 issue of Shenandoah,​ a prestigious literary journal that began publishing in 1949.

Chicago chapter of Fomite

10/20/2017

 
Last night we Chicago authors published by Fomite had a fun evening with Donna Bister, manager of Fomite. Great conversation on topics ranging from singing, food, childhood stories, and the state of publishing.

Left to right: Maggie Kast, author of the novel A Free, Unsullied Land, Donna Bister, Fomite manager, Jan English Leary, author of the novel Thicker Than Blood, and the forthcoming story collection Skating on the Vertical, and me, Lynn Sloan, author of Principles of Navigation and the story collection This Far Isn't Far Enough, coming out February 20, 2018.
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A great discussion about today's small press

8/19/2017

 

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At Northwestern University Summer Writing Conference 2017, Marylee MacDonald, author of Montpelier Tomorrow, a novel, published by ATTM Press and Bonds of Love & Blood, a story collection, published by Summertime Publications, and I, author of Principles of Navigation, a novel, published by Fomite, spoke about the ways the new publishing landscape created by small presses and how this new landscape has built new and supportive communities for writers. The large audience asked great questions and offered insightful comments.

Preparing for NU's Summer Writing Conference

7/31/2017

 
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