[08.05.06]—Here's an easy and inexpensive way to get little doses of mostly magical realist fiction in your e-mail inbox on a regular basis: a ShortShortShort subscription offered by Margin contributor Bruce Holland Rogers. Not only does he have a handle of magical realist writing (he publishes widely across mainstream and genre markets), but he also has a terrific handle on the short-short form, which lends itself especially to magical realist and other forms of "unreal" writing. Subscriptions are $10 (USD) annually payable through PayPal and include 36 stories a year delivered at a rate of 3 per month.

CELEBRITY NEWS

[08.02.06]—Fun and Games: Check out the entry for "Gabriel Garcia Marquez" on The Literature Map.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS

[08.02.06]—Work from one of Margin's most frequent poetry contributors, Maureen Tolman Flannery, will appear in the upcoming anthology, Collections, Fetishes and Obsessions (ed. Stephen Powers & Michalene Mogensen, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee). She joins Margin editor Tamara Kaye Sellman, whose work will also appear in the anthology.

BOOKS

[07.31.06]—On the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association list for the week of July 30: FOR HARDCOVER FICTION: #8, The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho (HarperCollins). FOR TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION: #4, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Vintage); #9, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin); #10, The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin); #11, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperSanFrancisco); #14, The Zahir by Paulo Coelho (Harper Perennial)

[07.26.06]—Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo (University of Texas Press) was recently featured in The New York Sun's "Readings" section by Eric Ormsby, whose take on the story, about a son in search of his father, serves to demystify an otherwise complicated text. Widely categorized as magical realism, the book "nevertheless stands in a category all its own," writes Ormsby. [He's right.]

MIXED MEDIA

[08.03.06]—Writes Nellie Andreeva for Reuters—"Fox is adding a sci-fi flavor to its development slate by committing to drama pilots about an undead attorney and a young cop who happens to be centuries old." Hmmm…I'm not sure how an undead attorney and an ageless cop are specifically sci-fi by definition, but we'll take it as a good sign that encounters with realism's secret varietals will continue into the next prime time television season.

[07.26.06]—The Fiery Angel (The Bolshoi Opera)—Writes Fiona Maddocks for The Evening Standard (sourced here for This is London—"…[E]ven a director of Francesca Zambella's ingenuity could not find an easy path through this episodic piece, where the magic-realist narrative leads us into bizarre territory, as in the sudden encounter with Mephistopheles and a Fortune Teller."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING…

YOU MAY NOTICE: We've changed our frequency to Mondays and Fridays. Mondays will feature MR News over the weekend and commentary, and Fridays will feature the week in review. Let us know if something works well or doesn't work at all. We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed, and all submissions have been processed. If you have not heard from us and you have a submissions that remains outstanding, chances are good it was lost in the mail. You can always check with us; we have sent you a reply, which could have been lost in the mail.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply Margin's MAGICAL REALISM NEWS RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

GENTLE REMINDER: Margin's staff is on hiatus through mid-October 2006. Any e-mail we receive during this time will receive replies as necessary, but there may be delays due to pool parties, novel revision, rib festivals or stargazing.