Colin Winnette

Today, Rolling Stone France compared COYOTE to Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan, saying, “Murky, mysterious, shrouded in an almost gothic aura, Coyote is the confused account of a deeply disturbed woman, a powerful tale of pain and insanity. A literary gut-shot.”

Snag a French copy here.

COYOTE is getting some great coverage over in France right now, which is super exciting. There was a new review in Le Monde, which Google Translate tells me says things like:

We can only admire the novelist who succeeds not only in describing the manifestations of madness, but also in making us share this experience by distilling doubt on the meaning of what we are reading. Such is the feat that the young American author Colin Winnette succeeds with COYOTE .

Also, France Culture did a short audio segment on the book. My research tells me they call it strange and brutal... 

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-emois/coyotte-de-colin-winnette

If you haven’t picked up a copy of COYOTE just yet, why not go for it?

Sirs and Madames, I’m going to start emailing people about writing-related things that are coming up or going on. Books are coming up, stories are coming out, a tour is in the works, and weird shit is on the horizon... If you’re interested in hearing about those things as they happen via email, sign up: 

https://tinyletter.com/cwinnette.

"Books that feel close to “real life” have a unique tension to them, because some readers can’t help wondering what’s real and what’s not. Although this book is fiction, because of the autobiographical details, I’m sure some readers will read it as if it’s close to some kind of lived experience. That tension is compelling.”

***

Today over at Playboy Magazine, I talked with Alexandra Kleeman about my story in the September issue, “Whereabouts”.

She says: “Thoughtful and precise, he gives the impression of a person whose dreaming mind does not shut off completely when he wakes and whose imagination leaves vivid traces even in his descriptions of mundane bits of life."

I say: “I think, on some level, we each live in a world that is distinct from everyone else’s, and I’m just as interested in that as I am in the ways in which our experiences overlap.”

I have a new story in my buddy Brenna Kischuk’s mag, Pioneertown, and it might be the closest thing to sports fiction I’ll ever write.

Check it out, if you like weird kids who freak out sometimes:

I read from a long poem called THE ANIMALS and talked to Denton’s own Courtney Marie about making writing on her new Pariah Arts podcast: Spiderweb Salon.

I wrote a story about a man who’s lost his wife for the September issue of Playboy Magazine. Here’s to the dads! And to all the soon-to-be-disappointed pre-teens who will sneak this out from between two National Geographics in the bathroom magazine rack! 

The review also intelligently examines the issue (or problem) of calling HAINTS STAY a western in the first place. 

I’m reading with this guy tonight (8/1) at Green Apple Books, along with Uzodinma Okehi. We knock down the tower at 7:30 sharp. 

Wake the Deaf says HAINTS STAY “possesses not just heft and weight but also an undeniable beauty,” in a new review, accompanied by a killer playlist. 

Somehow missed this, but nonetheless happy for it: Coyote was listed among the Washington Independent Review of Books 13 Best Novels of 2015.

Greetings from Florence (not pictured)! 

The event in Rome last night was great, but also very strange. But also great. I spoke with two translators, and by spoke I mean drank a Corona while they talked at length in a language I’m too dumb to understand. It’s great because in most of the pictures I look very serious, even angry! But I’m actually just trying to identify one word out of the several hundred that I can make sense of. Also, when people translate you at a live event, they translate your gesticulations and odd little mannerisms. So a very intelligent and professional Italian was sitting next to me, performing all the weird little physical things I do when I speak without realizing it.

Tonight, Florence! 9PM and Libreria Clichy, if you are in Italy.

But, my reason for posting: we’re starting to bang the drum for the next short story workshop I’m teaching in San Francisco via Writing Pad. It runs for five weeks, from mid-June to mid-July. We’ll write some stories together and talk about ‘em. It’ll be great.

Here are the details: http://writingpad.com/five-week-short-story-workshop-in-san-francisco/

If you’ve got a friend who’s interested, or might be, it’d make one hell of a present.

Greetings from the road! 

A semi-quick dispatch from the London airport to let you know that an interview I did with the great Sarah Marshall just went up at Late Night Library. Read it here. 

If you haven’t read Sarah’s work before, I suggest you treat yourself to her brilliance immediately. Visit her website, or read a personal favorite, her Best American essay on Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan (originally published in the Believer).

We talked about my high school obsession with John Cusack, as well as westerns, the movie Ravenous, and what a big scaredy cat I am. 

The trip has been beyond perfect so far. CrimeFest was a trip (thanks to No Exit Press and Kevin Wignall for making it a spectacular trip). A highlight was our tour of the incredible Bristol Old Vic (many, many thanks to Charlie Coombes for your hospitality). The Bristol Old Vic is turning 250 this weekend. 250 years ago it was an illegal theater that you had to enter via the house of man named Mr. Foot. Check out their officially legal programming next time you’re in Bristol.

Here’s a photo of their ceiling. Above it there’s a bunch of wooden slides, down which they used to roll a metal ball to generate the sound and feel of thunder throughout the theater.