Young writers.

I am now no longer in my mid-twenties. That means, to me, that I am old. People/writers I look up to are younger than me. Lamenting my transition into the "late twenties," I'd like to celebrate a few younger writers, who have accomplished far more.

Cote Smith is 25. His friendship means more to me than he knows, I bet. He recently had a crushingly good story published by One Story called "Hurt People." Here is an excerpt from the story and a chance to support Cote and One Story by subscribing. Here is one of the editors' blog entry about Cote's story, his "concerns," and his talents. It is probably more interesting than anything I would say.

Alli Warren is probably somewhere around 25 (maybe I am way off), but I know she is younger than me. She is way more successful than me, that is for sure. Ron Silliman called her "one of those poets." It seems like she has been writing good poems forever; for example, here are some poems from 2005-ish in EOAGH. Here is a more recent e-chapbook from Duration Press called No Can Do (warning: PDF download in link). I will have the privilege of publishing a chapbook by her via Mitzvah Chaps very soon. Other info on Alli-chaps can be found here, here, here, and here.

Sam Pink is 25 or maybe 26 depending when his birthday his--his book I Am Going to Clone Myself Then Kill the Clone and Eat It was published in 2008 and it says that he is 25, which is a weird thing to put in his bio since it will only be true for less than one year, unless the book was published on his birthday, then it would be true for one full year. Sam is published damn near everywhere on the internet. His stories aren't really "stories" sometimes, sort of in the way that Lydia Davis's stories aren't really stories sometimes. That's not to say that the "content" or "style" of Sam's work is anything like that of Davis, but it's pretty good.