“The Long In-Between” by Adam Wilson
Recommended by Heidi Julavits
Issue No. 90
In August of 2006, during Israel’s relentless bombing of Lebanon, and days after Mel Gibson said his piece about the Jews, I came to New York City to live with a woman who had once been my college professor. Her name was Elizabeth, and she was staying, for the summer, in a SoHo loft previously occupied by an internationally famous daytime talk-show host. The Host had since moved one flight up to the building’s penthouse, where he threw lavish parties, audible through the floorboards, a weekly reminder of New York’s immutable social infrastructure. No matter how high you climbed, there would always be someone above you.
Read the rest of the story at electricliterature.com.
About the Author
Adam Wilson is the author of the novel Flatscreen, a National Jewish Book Award finalist, and the forthcoming collection of short stories What’s Important is Feeling. His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, VICE, and The Best American Short Stories, among many other publications. In 2012, he received The Terry Southern Prize which recognizes “wit, panache, and sprezzatura” in work published by The Paris Review. He teaches creative writing at NYU and Columbia and lives in Brooklyn.
About the Guest Editor
Heidi Julavits is the author of four novels, including the PEN-award-winning The Vanishers. She is the co-founder of the highly influential cultural magazine The Believer, and is currently, along with Leanne Shapton and Sheila Heti, editing a book called Women in Clothes. An associate professor at Columbia University and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she lives in New York City and Maine.
About Electric Literature
Electric Literature is an independent publisher working to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction, accompanied by a Single Sentence Animation. Single Sentence Animations are creative collaborations: the author chooses a favorite sentence and we commission an artist to interpret it. Stay connected with us through our eNewsletter (where you can win weekly prizes), Facebook, and Twitter, and find previous Electric Literature picks in the Recommended Reading archives.
From the forthcoming book WHAT’S IMPORTANT IS FEELING: Stories by Adam Wilson. Copyright © 2014 by Adam Wilson. To be published on February 25, 2014 by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
