Month: November 2015

I agree with Buzzfeed: I love the cover of After the Parade. Check out their list of 34 beautiful covers here.

Kirkus’ Best Fiction of 2015!

This time around (Scribner re-issues the collection in February), Kirkus has reviewed The Bigness of the World, and what a lovely, encouraging (starred!) review it is: “But despite these stories’ pervasive, powerful sadness, which always requires reflection and pause at each of their closings, their flawless execution—all tenderness, dark humor, and full realization—compels the reader onward. Ostlund will certainly soon be marking her place among writers like Michelle Huneven, Shirley Jackson, Alice Munro, Dorothy Allison, and Karen Joy Fowler—masters of their own devastating, immersive universes. An achingly beautiful collection as unpredictable and resonant as life itself.” The full review is

B&N asked me to write an essay about the setting of After the Parade, so I wrote about growing up in small-town MN. Essay here.

I appreciated everything about this New York Times Book Review review: the thoughtfulness of the reviewer’s discussion, the way that she placed After the Parade in a historical context, her consideration of my story collection, and the drawing that accompanied it. And, the following week, NYTBR Editors’ Choice! (Right next to Michael Cunningham!)