Five things I didn't know about Dave Eggers

The New Yorker does take submissions, good ones that is, and they read almost everything, at least according to a writer I know who has been published there.

 

I hope this doesn't violate a trust, but Eggers said a lot of the best stuff they get is from the New Yorker. Someone there thinks it is good, but they get so much it all ends up going into a big pile and it may not see the light of day, so it gets passed on to McSweeney's and they take it from there.

 

Agni Magazine ring a bell to anyone? I'm almost sure Eggers wrote a 25-30 page story in it a few months ago. I'll search it out.

 

Found it. It's Paul Eggers who does the story I'm thinking of.

http://newpages.com/magazinestand/litmags/2006_7/julylitmagreviews.htm

This isn't the story, just a link to the reference of it. A tall cup of hot coffee and chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream at Borders is a great way to spend an hour reading it.

 

About a year ago, I swear to god I read a story (I thought it was linked on Poynter) where the New Yorker ficiton editor was quoted as saying she couldn't imagine publishing an unsolicited story, and Eggers was quoted as scoffing at this, but I cannot find any evidence at all of this on the net (even on nexis) so perhaps I made the whole thing up. Or maybe it was about The Atlantic or Harpers.

I did, however, find a scathing article where former New Yorker ficiton editor Bill Buford said he could not remember ever publishing a story from the slushpile during his tenure there, but his successor, a woman, was much better about finding new voices.

 

Publishing from the slush pile is overrated. Yes, it would be a better, shinier world if more people were given chances out of the blue.

But the whole idea of soliciting manuscripts promotes the search for a good agent, etc. Generally this can be a good thing.

 

the guy i was referring to didn't get published out of the slush pile, but by one of his friends, i believe, emailing a story to an editor, who liked it and published it. they are a little more welcoming of unknown writers. i'm sure roger angell would wipe his ass with an non-requested story.

 

My two cents:

I respect the major literary journs and mags. Part of their function, at this point, is to serve as a counterpoint to the complete bullshit fiction that lines most bookstores. That means these publications are going to tab the biggest, most talented lit fiction names they can find. If a writer keeps getting rejected by the bigs, they can either:

1. Aim for smaller publications that crave good work and can springboard into landing a sweeter publication slot

2. Write the aforementioned shit that makes so much money.

Do The New York and Atlantic Monthly repeat themselves? Sadly, yeah. The writing is often overdone, or trendy.

Now, Dave Eggers…

Eggers is a gifted writer. He is. But You Shall Know Our Velocity is a bore. A repetitive, juvenile bore. When Fitzgerald was 29, he produced The Great Gatsby. When Oates was 30, we got Expensive People. Let's be real clear about what we're dealing with here.

I am interested in his next book because Eggers attempts the voice of a Sudanese man. I'm intrigued to see if he can pull that off.

 

I'm not sure I believe that "The Jump" was his idea. Would Ian O'Connor agree to that? I mean, I guess it's possible, but while there wasn't much of a precedent for a high school point guard jumping to the league at that time, I don't know that the idea for the book was so revolutionary. Not trying to knock it, because I thought it was well done, just saying..

That being said I had no idea that Eggers was into sports, on any level. That's pretty cool.

Alma- I've got to disagree re: The New Yorker. One of the reasons the magazine is so great is because generally the writers don't overwrite. Not that there aren't exceptions, but I find the prose to be a lot more transparent, than, say, Harper's. I guess it's a matter of preference, but the fact that The New Yorker is so readable is one of the things that keeps bringing me back to it.

 

I think he meant (The "Jump" was his idea) the Jump as a section in ESPN the Magazine. I don't think he was taking credit for a book about Sebastian Telfair, that in truth, is basically a continuation of Darcy Frey's book on Marbury.
But he also said, like Dr. Evil's dad, that he invented the question mark.

 

Chessnuts are lazy.

 

OK might as well do the whole thing:

The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.