Tyrone JAEGER

News

March

I've accepted a position as a Creative Writing Resident at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. I'm excited about the opportunity to work with the students and faculty at Hendrix.

Home base in Conway will be a concrete factory converted into a four floor loft-style residence. Lots of stairs to prepare my legs and lungs for hikes in the Ozarks. Lots of roof top reading.

Meanwhile, I'm preparing for a two week class with Tim O'Brien. I've been working on a story that I wrote some years ago that's about a man in love with a woman who joined Heaven's Gate .

“These Are My Arms” appears in the winter issue ofThe Literary Review ( link to the text). This story inspired the novel that I’m currently working on.

January 2008

Graffiti Mouth was a finalist for two more contests: The Katherine Anne Porter Prize (University of North Texas Press) and The St. Lawrence Book Award (Black Lawrence Press from NYC).

I've received Pushcart Nominations in poetry from Indiana Review and in fiction from PRISM International.

2007

My short story collection Graffiti Mouth was recently chosen as a finalist for the Tartt First Fiction Award. Though my collection failed to win, my story “Liar’s Lullaby” will appear inTartts 3: Incisive Fiction by Emerging Writers, an anthology that includes stories by the finalists. It will be out sometime this winter. Graffiti Mouth was also chosen as a semi-finalist for the Iowa Short Fiction Award.

Forthcoming work:

The Rio Grande Review has accepted my story "Legacy."

Short pieces are forthcoming in 580 Split. My friend Adam Peterson will also have work in the same issue.

Here’s some work that hit the newsstands in 2007:

“Ghost Image” appeared in the summer issue ofThe Portland Review.

The latest issue of Indiana Review(29.1) has a “Special Highlight on Short Short Fiction and the Prose Poem” that includes Stuart Dybek, Erin Soros, Denise Duhamel, Brenna Burns, as well as three of my prose poems (“Letter to You During This Our New Reincarnation,” “Specter,” & “The Third Flood”). If you go to the Indiana Review’s Under the Blue Light, you can hear me reading “Specter” (just click on “Posts” and then my name).

“Aiken’s Grief,” a short chapter from my (as yet unpublished) novel Dirty appears in the Bad Jobs issue (#46) of sub-Terrain, a magazine out of Vancouver, Canada. Note the subtitle of the magazine: strong words for a polite nation. Next, check out Arlea Ashcroft’s illustration of the chapter—I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but that sure looks like the north building of the Denver Art Museum that’s on fire.

The flash fiction pieces ““My Wife in the Bath,” “The Petrified Forest,” & “Trespassing” appeared in the winter 2007 issue of, PRISM International another journal out of Vancouver.

The short story “Flesh Wounds” appears in Descant (#136). This fine journal is out of Toronto. They love me in Canada like they love Jerry Lewis in France (and I love them right back).

“Spread Your Wings” appears in issue 25.1 of the Southeast Review. The issue’s cover has a man on a stepladder standing next to what I looks like a statue of Icarus about ready to take flight. My poem is about Charley, who received surgical wings but is afraid to fly. The voices at work in my office have been gossiping that this story/poem might be an inspiration for my next novel-length project, which is a rewrite of Rising City, a book that’s been taking on different forms for the last 7 years.

Two poems appear in the “Crossing Borders” issue (Spring/Summer 50.2) of Nimrod. The first poem, “Dear Precious Queen of Our Hearts” was based on an epitaph I read in a pet cemetery. “Parking Lot Prophecy” was originally a section from my novel Dirty.