PRESS
List of “The Best ‘Funny-Sad’ Contemporary Novels” published on the book review website Shepherd.
New essay on Catapult: “On Beckett and Writing With a Brain Disease”
“When you’re sick, it’s tempting to yearn for how you once wrote. But thanks to Jess Thom, a British actor who performs in Beckett’s short play ‘Not I,’ I have begun allowing who I am today into my writing.” [read essay]
Major recognition for Against Death: 35 Writers on Living (Ed. Elee Kraljii Gardiner)
The anthology Against Death: 35 Writers on Living (Ed. Elee Kraljii Gardiner), which includes my essay “Let It Be Familiar,” has been shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award’s short story/anthology prize and is a finalist for both the Grand Prize and the Montaigne Medal. Also, visit the publisher, Anvil Press, for new e-book buying options—plus the same glorious paperback, also available wherever books are sold (including your favorite indie bookseller)
Literary Partners Program at Poets House in New York City announces book launch for Against Death: 35 Essays on Living (Ed. Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Anvil Press)
Poets House, an incredible—and gorgeous—public poetry library overlooking the Hudson River announces the United States launch of Against Death: 35 Essays on Living, featuring editor Elee Kraljii Gardiner and contributors C.M. Faulkner and Emma Smith-Stevens, as well as special guest readers Nick Flynn (I Will Destroy You) and Porochista Khakpour (Sick). Already named a Best Book of the Year in Canada, this Anvil Press anthology explores what it means to come close to death from an array of perspectives and conditions. Frequently funny, always incisive, the essays avoid aphorism and bromide in favor of figuring out how to live through—and after—a close call. A reception and book signing will follow.
The Australian Reviewed by Chase Burke in Black Warrior Review
It is a testament to Smith-Steven’s writing that the book’s efforts to dig into identity and masculinity are never bogged down by self-seriousness. In fact, The Australian’s strongest aspect is its levity. This is a funny and “quippy” short novel, its humor gentle but always present. Smith-Stevens’s sentences are full of sharp ironic barbs, but one never gets the feeling that she is mocking her characters. She simply points out various absurdities in worldview and the requisite criticism that comes with those views, while allowing her characters the leeway to believe what they want to believe, even if, in the case of the Australian, that is simply “to pretend to have faith” in himself. [more]
Fabulous reviews from the TLS to the Globe and Mail to O: The Oprah Magazine to the Guardian
Massive honors from LAMDA and Paste Magazine and the New York Times! Harper’s Bazaar! The Root! Vogue! Elle!
Accolades from readers including Kiese Laymon (Publishers Weekly), Elisabeth Egan (Glamour), Amy Carleton (WBUR).
Check out Roxane Gay’s website for more info.
The world of independent literature is booming as small presses get the chance to flower. There are so many great independent presses out there... Here, five amazing books recently published by indie presses that we can’t wait to get our hands on. [more]
How The Australian Inspired One Reader to Uncover the Mysteries of Her Heritage
Like most anxious writers, I have a Google alert for my name, and recently it lead me to a blog post both moving and unexpected. In “Heritage: What House Do I Belong To?” Shelby Cardell describes how and why reading The Australian empowered her to delve into the long-kept secret of her own family history, undergo DNA testing, and have a long-anticipated confrontation with her grandfather, who had forbade her from discussing—let alone investigating—her ancestry as a child.
Meghan McClure includes "I Used To Be a Writer--Then I Got Sick" (Literary Hub) in a compendium to her chapbook Portrait of a Body in Wreckages
"Here lies a list of literature (& other bits & bobs) that features the body and/or the way it fails us." [more]
I am honored to have been nominated (by an anonymous party) for a prestigious USA Fellowship:
"We believe in artists and their essential role in our society. Each year, we award up to fifty $50,000 unrestricted fellowships to the most compelling artists working and living in the United States, in all disciplines, at every stage of their career." [more]
The Australian named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2017 by Book Scrolling
“What are the best Fiction books of 2017?” We aggregated 51 year-end lists and ranked the 571 unique titles by how many times they appeared in an attempt to answer that very question! [more]
Book Scrolling: The Australian, Best Fiction Books of 2017
Well, Ethan Hawke said in an interview: "The most romantic thing I have ever done is have sexual intercourse with a woman. It doesn’t get any better than that. You talk about candlelight? Being really connected to another person is about as good as it gets." I gave him a hot tip on Twitter dot com. [more]
My essay, "The Sun," will appear in the anthology Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture (Ed. Roxane Gay), forthcoming from HarperCollins
I am astonished and honored to be published along with so many writers I deeply admire. Here is a full list of contributors and their essays:
”Introduction” - Roxane Gay
”Fragments” - Aubrey Hirsch
”Slaughterhouse Island” - Jill Christman
”& The Truth Is, I Have No Story” - Claire Schwartz
”The Luckiest Milf in Brooklyn” - Lynn Melnick
”Spectator: My Family, My Rapist, and Mourning Online” - Brandon Taylor
”The Sun” - Emma Smith-Stevens
”Sixty-Three Days” - AJ McKenna
”Only the Lonely” - Lisa Mecham
”What I Told Myself” - Vanessa Martir
”Stasis” - Ally Sheedy
”Ways We Are Taught To Be A Girl” - xTx
”Floccinaucinihilifiction” - Sophie Mayer
”The Life Ruiner” - Nora Salem
”All the Angry Girls” - Lyz Lenz
”Good Girls” - Amy Jo Burns
”Utmost Resistance” - VL Seel
”Bodies Against Borders” - Michelle Chen
”Wiping the Stain Clean“ - Gabrielle Union
”What We Didn’t Say” - Liz Rosema
”I Said Yes”- Anthony Frame
”Knowing Better” - Samhita Mukhopadhyay
”Not That Loud” - Miram Zoila Perez
”Why I Stopped” - Zoe Medeiros
”Picture Perfect” - Sharisse Tracey
”To Get Out From Under It” - Stacey May Fowles
”Reaping What Rape Culture Sows” - Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes
”Invisible Light Waves” - Meredith Talusan
”Getting Home” - Nicole Boyce
”Notes on the Common Practice of Rape” - Bob Shacochis
”Why Didn’t I Say No, Stop” - Elissa Bassist
In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are “routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied” for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics, including actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union and writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz, Claire Schwartz, and Bob Shacochis. Covering a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation, this collection is often deeply personal and is always unflinchingly honest. Like Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, Not That Bad will resonate with every reader, saying “something in totality that we cannot say alone.”
Searing and heartbreakingly candid, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that “not that bad” must no longer be good enough.
*Order hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, or audio CD here (publication date May 1st, 2018).
The Australian is reviewed by Lauren "O’Brien in Shelf Awareness
“Smith-Stevens writes in a marvelously voyeuristic style, as if watching a lab rat from on high. The Australian can be shallow and clueless, but Smith-Stevens deftly avoids the potential for disconnect by injecting humor and insight into the human condition. The nameless man, both hero and no-hoper, is a poignant and pointed reflection of the imperfections that vex us all.” [full review]
The Australian by Emma Smith-Stevens proves that the picaresque will never die, not as long as there are characters like her titular, never-named fellow. It’s a bit like reading a loose biography of Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, if Jemaine were Australian instead of from New Zealand and an aimless git instead of a musician git, but the tone is the same: Droll, quick, and occasionally cruel... [more]
Largehearted Boy: "Book Notes" Emma Smith-Stevens, The Australian
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Lauren Groff, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Jesmyn Ward, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others.
"Emma Smith-Stevens' brilliant novel The Australian is one of the funniest (and smartest) debuts I have read in years.
In her own words, here is Emma Smith-Stevens' Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel The Australian... [more]
Excerpt of The Australian published in BOMB Magazine
"On the streets of Melbourne, the Australian parades around dressed as Superman, paying his way through university by posing for photos, conscious of the bulge of his cock..." [more]
The Australian receives starred review in Publishers Weekly
"In her mesmerizing debut, Smith-Stevens reveals the inner life of a man who describes himself as “the patron saint of trying.” The first view of the titular character (who is never given a proper name) is in his Australian homeland, where he’s a young adult parading around as Superman—living in the skin of a superhero, lapping up tourist attention." [more]
"Some Cool Heaven" nominated for 2018 Pushcart Prize by SmokeLong Quarterly
“‘Some Cool Heaven’ is a linear narrative: an account of a mother taking her son to the fair for the last time. She’s dying, probably cancer. It’s one of those types of stories that we get again and again, but the difference is that Emma Smith-Stevens’ attention to detail is moving and so intelligent. This story has something to say, and it says it perfectly–in each and every line.” -Christopher Allen
The Australian named one of the "Most Anticipated Small Press Books of 2017" at Big Other
"Emma Smith-Stevens’ debut novel The Australian (Dzanc) is a sui generis mutation of the coming of age story, bearing us through topographies at once recognizable and remote, physical and mental, with a compass set in “defamiliarize” mode. I was fortunate enough to read an earlier draft, but am eagerly anticipating it in its final incarnation." -Tim Horvath
The Australian included in Electric Literature’s "The Great 2017 Indie Press Preview"
A comprehensive look at what’s in store for small presses in 2017 [more]
I am honored to announce that my short story collection, Greyhounds, has been selected as Grand Prize Winner of the 2022 Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards judged by Deesha Philyaw!
“The 23 stories in Emma Smith-Stevens’ Greyhounds center on power struggles in relationships—between two young sisters playing a dangerous game, a hetero coupling in a BDSM relationship, a wife and her husband who accidentally ran over a teenager with his car, an incarcerated man and a woman volunteer, someone driven mad by dueling forces within him, and others.
Greyhounds draws strength from the stories’ wild array of both content and form, equally powerful aspects of storytelling that Smith-Stevens deftly utilizes to expose what magnetizes us, wounds us, transfixes us, and tears us apart.”
COMING JUNE 3RD, 2025!
My essay “On Beckett and Writing With a Brain Disease,” published in Catapult, is listed as Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction in Best American Essays 2021 (Ed. Alexander Chee).
My essay, “On Beckett and Writing With a Brain Disease,” published by Catapult, is featured in a July 2021 edition of the International Autoimmune Encephalitis Society’s bi-monthly newsletter, The Herd [view]
Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal, a excellent, practical, and action-oriented guide to all the ins and outs of publishing, promoting, and surviving your first book—which includes insights from many authors, including myself—has been published by Catapult. This is essential reading for writers, truly an invaluable resource—and not just for those navigating the publication of their first book!
Literary Partners Program: Book Launch for Against Death: 35 Essays on Living readings by editor Elee Kraljii Gardiner and contributors C.M. Faulkner and Emma Smith-Stevens
My essay “Let This Be Familiar” featured in anthology: Against Death: 35 Essays on Living (Ed. Elee Kraljii Gardiner)
Purchase: Anvil Press ~ Indigo ~ Amazon ~ Archambault
I’m beyond thrilled that my essay, “Let This Be Familiar,” is included in this riveting and powerful anthology, brilliantly curated and edited with immense wisdom and artistry by Elee Kraljii Gardiner, and published by Anvil Press.
A note from the anthology’s editor, Elee Kraljii Gardiner:
Against Death is a natural outgrowth of my experience with vertebral artery dissection and stroke. The adage “write the book you need” applies here: as I thought about my own experience and processed it, I understood how helpful it would be to connect with others who have grappled with mortality, too. Building this community in writing helped many of us figure out how we relate to our familiar circumstances with a radical shift in perspective.
Three of our contributors died before they could see their words in print. John Asfour, Susan Briscoe and Harry Langen were enthusiastic and curious participants in recording their experiences, and it was an honour to learn with them. I send their families and communities much love and hope their words here are a comfort.
Contributors: Adrian M Zytkoskee, Aislinn Hunter, Amanda Earl, Angela Rawlings, Becky Blake, Ben Gallagher, Bruce Meyer, John Asfour, Joe Average, Emma Smith-Stevens, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Harry Langen, Jane Mellor, Jennifer Van Evra, Susan Briscoe, Jennie Chantal Duguay, Jessica Michalofsky, Jill Goldberg, Kateri Lanthier, Kerri Power, Kiera Miller, Laurie Lewis, C.M. Faulkner, Lisa Neighbour, Maureen Medved, Mikaela Asfour, Moira MacDougall, Nikki Reimer, Rabi Qureshi, Rachel Rose, Rebecca Fredrickson, Sarah Lyn Eaton, Susan Cormier, Tanis MacDonald, Vera Constantineau.
Advanced praise:
Pam Houston
The writers of these essays are courage embodied, honesty defined, strength incarnate. They refuse to look away, to be polite, to soften the blow. If you are willing to go where they are brave enough to take you, you will emerge awake and aware, a little joyful, a little frightened, and determined to live a little bigger every day.
—Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek, Finding Hope In The High Country, and Cowboys Are My Weakness
The nimble, serious play of the title, Against Death: 35 Essays on Living, is an accurate reflection of the range of tones, approaches, and experiences with death (which is to say, living) inside this vibrant, tender collection. While one need not be grieving to find resonance here, those who grief has touched will not feel silenced or pushed outside. In eloquent, luminous prose, these essays will be a companion to many and will be a collection to return to (again lives inside against). As editor Elee Kraljii Gardiner reminds us, “To be against something can be to reject or refute it. But to be against death can also mean to be in contact with, pressed up next to, to be intimately proximate with mortality.” This is all of us. I am grateful for this gathering and for this expansive (re)framing.—TC Tolbert, author of Gephyromania and co-editor of Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics
TC Tolbert
Kelly Weber covers AWP Panel, “Chronic Illness and the Writer,” for the Center for Literary Publishing
In “Books, Bodies, and Blossoms: Notes From AWP 2019,” featured on the Center for Literary Publishing’s website, writer and Colorado Review editorial assistant, Kelly Weber, recounts highlights from the conference, including highlights from the panel I was on, “Chronic Illness and the Writer,” along with Ilana Masad, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Lorraine Berry.
I am thrilled to be attending AWP in Portland, OR this year. Especially since I’ve been mostly housebound due to illness the last 3+ years, this is a major leap forward. It’s exciting to visit a city I love so much and most of all to have the opportunity to connect with writer friends (new and old), and to read alongside some incredible writers, participate in a fascinating and important panel discussion, and sign copies of my debut novel, The Australian.
* Schedule *
“Chronic Illness and the Writer” with co-panelists Ilana Masad, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Lorraine Berry ~ AWP: Portland, OR [info]
When: March 28th, 2019 // 3pm-4:15pm
Where: E141-142, Oregon Convention Center
***
Dzanc Reading (off-site) with co-readers Julia Dixon Evans, Jason Tougaw, Alice Hatcher, Jac Jemc, Chrissy Kolaya, Robert Lopez, Jarrett Middleton, and Lance
Olson ~ Portland, OR [info]
When: March 29th, 2019// 7pm-9pm
Where: Erickson Gallery
***
Emma Smith-Stevens: The Australian Book Signing ~ Portland, OR
When: March 30th, 2019 // 9:30am-10:30am
Where: Dzanc Books @ AWP Book Fair, Booth #6010, Oregon Convention Center
***
6th Annual Rock & Roll Reading: Hosted by Daniel A. Hoyt ~ Portland, OR [info]
When: March 30th, 2019 // 1:30pm-3:30pm
Where: Mississippi Studios
Please come by any/all of my events and say hi! I won’t bite (unless you ask nicely). Also, I’m a maximalist book signer. If you come to my scheduled time at Dzanc’s AWP book fair table with your copy of The Australian (available for purchase), you’ll find out what I mean.
I am completely wowed by this news! Also: moved, startled, grateful, and so many other things. Tremendous thanks to Roxane Gay for including me in this vital, timely, but also--tragically--timeless anthology. I hope all who can will read it. Also, every single one of us contributors read our essays for the audiobook, and Roxane Gay reads her introduction--so that's well worth checking out, in addition to the paperback.
**Trigger Warning: Not That Bad contains graphic and deeply affecting depictions and discussion of rape, molestation, harassment, and other forms of sexual abuse, assault, and harassment.
The Quivering Pen
“My First Time: Emma Smith-Stevens:” essay on The Quivering Pen
After I graduated from a college two hours north of New York City, where I’d grown up, I felt exceedingly lucky to have a job lined up in Los Angeles. I’d never been there. My friend Molly and I drove across the country with my dog Phil in the backseat. I’ve got this great snapshot of my passenger-side rearview mirror reflecting Phil’s head stuck out the window, ears flapping, and the Hollywood sign straight ahead of us... [more]
Smokelong Quarterly: "One Sentence at a Time: An Interview with Guest Reader Emma Smith-Stevens"
"Along with 'Show, don’t tell,' which is super confusing and often instills in writers the idea that clarity and directness are to be avoided at all costs, 'Write what you know' is a tragic bit of instruction. I want to travel outside of myself when writing—to bridge my way to characters who may seem distant or opaque or foreign, and whose circumstances could not differ more from mine. Why not write into curiosity and the unknown?" [more]
The Australian named a “Favorite Book of 2017” by Largehearted Boy
David Gutowski writes:
2017 was another great year for the novel. These are the 11 novels I have most recommended to friends, family, and anyone else who has crossed my path this year (my personal metric for "favorite").
Emma Smith-Stevens' brilliant novel The Australian is one of the funniest (and smartest) debuts I have read in years. [more]
Joseph Dante's Recommended Reading #7
Essay "I Used to Be a Writer--Then I Got Sick," originally published in Literary Hub, including on Joseph Dante's Recommended Reading #7--along with work by Ocean Vuong, Richard Siken, Joanna Valente, Melissa Goodrich, and others. [more]
"I Used to Be a Writer--Then I Got Sick:" essay published in Literary Hub
"I was a writer because I made art from my imaginings and from my past. I sought through language to understand circumstances and lives and bodies that seemed remote and fascinating and necessary to me. Through writing I left myself, immersing instead in characters or memories. When I wrote, I was never aware that I had a body. As a writer, your body is something that you can forget..." [more]
The Australian named one of ten "Bookclub Best Bets" By NoveList
Engaging, discuss-worthy, fiction from a variety of genres--perfect for your next book club read! [more]
HITTING THE SHELVES #45: The Australian by Emma Smith-Stevens at Fiction Advocate
The Australian by Emma Smith-Stevens comes out today! It’s a hilarious debut novel about a smiling, suntanned, backpack-wearing Australian (you know the type) and his search for meaning. We asked the author one question.
Fiction Advocate: Emma! How are you celebrating the publication of The Australian? [more]