5 under 35

These five writers have each been selected by a previous National Book Award Finalist or Winner as someone whose work is particularly promising and exciting and is among the best of a new generation of writers.

that's what the National Book Foundation announced.

they have a bio of each writer on their webpage, but somehow, they didn't include any links. curious as i am, i googled for interviews and short stories. out came an interesting reading trip.

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Matthew Eck - The Farther Shore
"I joined the army because I always knew that I wanted to be a writer. I’d been reading Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien and Ernest Hemingway and it just seemed like the right thing to do to gather life experience and meaning and understanding." - Matthew Eck

interview: litkicks - interview
book review: New York Times - A Soldier's Tale
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Nam Le - The Boat
"Maybe I’m old-school in that I still believe the finest thing a story can do is move its reader—to set off a little sob in the spine, as I think Nabokov called it. I don’t believe in technical self-limitation. I do believe 21st century consciousness is a complicated thing—and that its complications are without precedence. At bottom, I believe it’s a tough but good time to be writing." - Nam Le

interview: Luna Park - interview
short story online: Zoetrope - Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice
author/book webpage: NamLeOnline
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Keith Gessen - All the Sad Young Literary Men
"I'm not exactly sure where the idea of it being a "serious literary" book came from--from Gawker? From things I said to the Times? I don't know. And I do have serious intentions with the book, don't get me wrong. But the *form* of the book is primarily satirical." - Keith Gessen

book review: Herald Tribune - All the Sad Young Literary Men
interview: The YM Keith Gessen Q&A
interview on n+1: New York Inquirer - Blogs, Beef, and Babyshambles
blog: Keith Gessen Blog
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Sana Krasikov - One More Year: Stories
"It’s often when we think we have a very clear grasp of our reality that everything changes. Which makes me wonder if there’s a fractal-like quality to some motifs, or if the experience of “not seeing” that’s being explored on a very small scale in the stories is, in fact, reflective of a bigger, mass experience of uncertainty." - Sana Krasikov

book review: Bilateral Commitments - New York Times
interview: 3 Guys 1 Book - Story Interview
essay: Sana Krasikov: 2 stories worth the challenge
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Fiona Maazel - Last Last Chance
"I started reading up on the Vikings and learned — to my delight — that much of Norse mythology is about language and poetry and storytelling. He who is best with words always wins. Since much of the novel is about story-telling as it dovetails with some principles of your average twelve-step program (you tell us your story, I’ll tell you mine), it all started to work out." - Fiona Maazel

review & interview: Fiona Maazel's Got the Human Condition
book review: Bad Habit - New York Times
book page: Last Last Chance
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