Some exciting news:
My second book, a novel titled Little Known Facts, will be published by Bloomsbury USA in February 2013. (Cover image below)
If you'd like a preview, the first and second chapters have been published in The Southern Review, Winter 2012 (Chapter 1, "Relations") and Spring 2012 (Chapter 2, "Flattering Light.")
The 2012 PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories Anthology is now available as both an e-book and in hard copy. A story of mine published by the New England Review in Winter 2010-11, "The First Wife," is among the 20 stories selected for inclusion. Stories by Yiyun Li, Alice Munro, John Berger, Salvatore Scibona, Miroslav Penkov, Lauren Groff, and 13 others are also included.
The Chicago Writers Association chose my story collection, Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry, as the Book of the Year in the traditionally published fiction category! Below are two photos, the second with Randy Richardson, director of the Chicago Writers Association, from the awards ceremony, which took place on January 14, 2012, at the Book Cellar, an independent bookstore in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago.
The Chicago Tribune's Bill Hageman wrote a profile about me in January 2012 for the Tribune's "Remarkable Woman" column, which is published in the Sunday magazine each week. It was an honor to be among the other women who have been profiled here since this column debuted in 2010. The full article is here.
Storyville, an excellent app for iPads and iPhones, which The New Yorker recently chose as a Digital Pick of the Week, has published my story "Quality of Life" as its selection of the week - December 27, 2011. Consider subscribing ($4.99/six months, 48 stories/year) through the iTunes/iPhone app store - a new story each week from writers such as Jennifer Egan, Charles Baxter, Anthony Doerr, Yiyun Li, Flannery O'Connor, Barry Hannah, Mavis Gallant, Joe Meno, Belle Boggs, Patrick Somerville...
A recent interview about Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry, conducted by the funny and lovely Aspen Matis for NYC's 12th Street Online.
Ploughshares literary journal has awarded Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry the 2011 John C. Zacharis Award, an annual prize for a first book by a Ploughshares contributor. The prize alternates between poetry and fiction each year. Akshay Ahuja, one of the MFA fiction students at Emerson College, where Ploughshares is based, interviewed me over the summer, after I learned that my book had won the award. The transcript of the interview can be read here.
For Ex-Libris, DePaul University's English department newsletter, graduate student Maria Hlohowskyj recently wrote an article about Portraits of... You can access the article here.
"The First Wife," a short story published in the Winter 2011 issue of New England Review, was chosen for the 2012 PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories anthology. The publication date is set for April 2012.
New stories:
"Relations," is now out in the winter 2012 issue of The Southern Review. This is also the first chapter of my forthcoming novel, Little Known Facts, which concerns a successful Hollywood actor and the effects of his fame on his two ex-wives and his two grown children, especially his son.
"Ladylike," a story about two actresses, one young, the other middle-aged, both successful, is in the current issue of Barrelhouse, issue #10.
"The Goddess Complex," the first chapter of a novel-in-progress, is in the Summer/Fall 2011 issue of Notre Dame Review. The main character is a young woman who has just begun her freshman year of college and falls for a guy she knows she shouldn't want but does anyway.
"Litany: Four Men," is in the summer 2011 issue of Massachusetts Review, a four-part story about angry men in the modern world.
"Beach Vacation," is out in the summer 2011 issue of The Southern Review, a story about a mother and teenage son vacationing on Captiva Island, FL, and the arguments and recriminations that ensue when the mother realizes just how much attention her son is attracting from the ladies, some quite a bit older than he is.
"The River," is in the summer 2011 issue of TriQuarterly Online, a story about a teenaged girl witnessing the demise of her parents' marriage, in an economically strapped Wisconsin mill town.
"Roger Weber Would Like to Stay," spring 2011 issue of The Literary Review, a story about a woman who flirts with a charming ghost, but soon things get a little complicated...
"Fortune," in storySouth, Issue #31, Spring 2011, a story about a man who realizes that he can profit from the gullible by telling their fortunes, but then he must cope with the fact that he seems to have the frightening ability to make accurate predictions.
"The Prettiest Girls," in the Winter 2010-11 issue of Ploughshares: a story about a man who works for a Hollywood film studio. He falls for a young Mexican woman and brings her back to California. Happily ever after? Well...
"Twelve + Twelve," a story about a woman and a man, love, car wrecks, a 24-year age difference, in Glimmer Train, #76. Read it and weep? (No, but maybe you'll like it.)
"Student, Teacher," a story about a college professor, a bodyguard, and a film star who has decided at age 32 to go back to college, is out in Pleiades, #30.2.
"Passion!" a young man, several women, romantic turmoil and even a few styrofoam heads with wigs on them! In New South, Summer 2010, Vol. 3, #2.
"Interview with the Second Wife," available in full-text format at the New England Review site, Vol. 30, #4. This story was also one of the 100 distinguished short stories named in The Best American Short Stories 2011.
Read an interview with Christine regarding the Chicago Cubs and her contribution to an anthology of Cubs-related prose, artwork and poetry: Cubbie Blues.
(An enormous thanks to Randy Richardson for his invaluable help establishing and maintaining this site).