The State of Stephen Dixon

For me, Steve Dixon, as a man and writer, defines sincerity. If you question the literary value of sincerity, read a Dixon story. Edward Mullany just published one, “Wife in Reverse” (the shortest one that Steve has ever written, apparently), up at the excellent Matchbook (I just found this site – strong set of short pieces, all with authors’ critical comments). It’ll wake you up better then two shots of Windex right up each nostril. Easily one of my favorite of the many, many things I’ve read from Dixon.

Then, a month or so ago, Fantagraphics, that beast of comics, announced that they’d be publishing a 900+ page volume of Steve’s stories. Fantagraphics is one of my favorite presses, but I had no idea they’d started publishing prose fiction. Seems like a great match.

And Steve is, of course, working on new book. It’s called His Wife Leaves Him. It just feels good to know that his work is as vibrant as it ever was.

(If you’ve never read his one piece of “critical writing,” be sure to check his “essay” on Thomas Bernhard from Rain Taxi, published about 12 years ago. I think this is what turned me on to Bernhard in the first place.)

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5 comments

 No.1 
John Levi Barnard:

Leave it to Dixon to be influenced by Bernhard IN REVERSE. Thanks for the link to that essay, which is essential Dixonism, especially in its enthusiasm for crabbiness. Anyway, I fully agree about the value of his sincerity.

January 14th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
 No.2 
John Dermot Woods:

You said it, JB. After reading that essay a few years ago, I let Thomas Bernhard into my home. He’s been breaking all of the furniture since.

January 14th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
 No.3 
Andy Linkner:

Been a huge Dixon fan for at least 15 years and, as a great admirer of “The Complete Collection of People, Places and Things” it doesn’t surprise me to find Dixon acolytes here on this site. The upcoming publication of Dixon’s uncollected stories in May is truly a watershed event.

I’d read almost all of Bernhard’s work in English translation at the time Dixon’s piece on him appeared so it was fun seeing one of my literary heroes paying homage to the other, but it should not go unnoticed that a very important Bernhard publication is also slated for May release, namely his 1967 collection of stories “Prose” from Seagull Books.

January 15th, 2010 at 6:15 am
 No.4 
John Dermot Woods:

Wow, Andy. I hadn’t heard about that. More Bernhard short pieces? Those Voice Imitator pieces are so singular in his body of work, so I’m really interested to see more of how he operates in the short form. I wonder if they’ll be longer than the VI pieces?

January 15th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
 No.5 
Andy Linkner:

My understanding is that these fictions from the 1967 collection are pretty standard short story length rather than the micro-fictions of VI.

January 17th, 2010 at 5:13 am

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