Catapult Staff Picks

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado knocked me over from the first story. That this collection is STUNNING isn’t news to anyone, but I have loved Machado’s writing since I discovered it in the Watchlist collection we published last year, and have sought it out wherever I could find it.

I also wanted to mark an important personal anniversary by rereading the story collection Cowboys and East Indians by Nina McConigley. The story “Curating Your Life” serves up a huge slice of humble pie for me, but returning to Nina’s writing just reminded me what a searing observer of human behavior she is, and how aptly she captures a feeling of being in-between communities of belonging.

—Jennifer Abel Kovitz, Associate Publisher

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I’m reading Ru by the Vietnamese-Canadian writer Kim Thuy. It’s translated from the French by Sheila Fischman.

On refugee parents:

“For us, they didn't see the blackboards they wiped clean, the school toilets they scrubbed, the imperial rolls they delivered. They saw only what lay ahead.”

—Megha Majumdar

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The Future is History by Masha Gessen,

—Morgan Jerkins, Contributing Editor, Web

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Every so often, I go on a binge of Russian-themed works, usually by immigrants from the former Soviet Union or first-generation Americans who are exploring this aspect of their identity. I recently finished Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis, a short story collection about a family of Jewish immigrants from the perspective of their young son.

I also recently picked up Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. I actually already watched the film (twice), so I’m really excited to finally read the book. Another upcoming read is Yiyun Li’s Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life. I originally read an excerpt from this book in The Best American Essays 2014 and was enthralled.

—Hannah Rozenblat, Intern

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I’m looking forward to reading Scott McClanahan’s The Sarah Book this weekend. (And not just because of the title!)

—Sarah Baline, Events Coordinator

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I just read the new edition of Richard Chiem’s You Private Person, reissued by Sorry House Press. It’s cool when you reread a book that you loved when you were young and stupid and find that now that you are a little less young and—hopefully—a little less stupid, the book is just as good as you remembered, if not better. I remember reading “Sociopaths,” which is the first series of linked stories in the collection, over and over again the first time I read the book. This time around I did the same thing.

I’ve also been reading Andrea Lawlor’s Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl and CAConrad’s Ecodeviance: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness, the latter of which includes the following brilliance:

you said too much poetry
I said too much war
the biggest mistake for
love is straining
there was a
door marked
MISTAKE we
entered
you said too much fooling around
I said fuck off and die

—Allie Wuest, Editorial Assistant, Web

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The Bitter Southerner recently published one of the most chilling and interesting ghost stories I’ve ever read. It’s called “We Salted Nannie.” It’s full of surreal ghosts like a two-dimensional man who disappears into walls, a human-sized column of smoke, and a warped old lady who smiles at the tenants of the house from the doorway of the kitchen. Here’s the line that stuck with me hardest: “Other outside things, not readily identifiable as human, moved around the perimeter of the house counterclockwise.”

—Kelli Trapnell, Production Associate

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