New Fiction in Day One

My story "Reunion Briefing" was published by Day One today along with a poem from Kyla Marshell and original cover art by Maryanna Hoggatt. You can purchase the issue here.

"Reunion Briefing" is another short story in a series I'm writing that is dedicated to my best friend, Army 2nd Lieutenant Peter H. Burks, who was killed by an IED just outside the Green Zone in Baghdad on November 14th, 2007. 

Day One, featured on the Ploughshares blog yesterday as a literary journal to watch, showcases one writer and poet each week, with issues delivered directly to Kindles or Kindle reading apps. I hope you'll give it a look.

Thank you to Day One editor Carmen Johnson for publishing this story. She had a real heart for this piece of writing and I can't thank her enough for seeing it to publication.

Thank you for reading!

Short Piece in McSweeney's

On this Christmas Eve, McSweeney's published my short humor piece "Your Great Aunt Is Not Making Another Green Bean Casserole for Christmas." I'm thrilled to have a piece on their site. Big thanks to Tendency Editor Christopher Monks for publishing my work! You can read it here.

Families Among Us made Necessary Fiction's Year-End Recommended Reading List

Families Among Us made Necessary Fiction's year-end recommended reading list, along with great books from Chang-Rae Lee, Jenny Offill, Julia Elliott, Dorthe Nors, Christy Crutchfield, Aaron Burch, and Mike Meginnis. Big thanks to Steve Himmer and Brian Seemann for including me!

I'm humbled to be the only chapbook on this year-end list, surrounded by books published by Riverhead, Vintage, Graywolf, Tin House, Melville House, Coffe House Press, and Two Dollar Radio. Big thanks to Black Lawrence Press for publishing my chapbook, which has been released to more sales and praise than I thought imaginable. So thank you to everyone who has bought a copy, the little chapbook that could.

And if you'd still like to buy a copy of Families Among Us, you can do so here. Thanks! 

Families Among Us: Great Review at Small Press Book Review

Thank you to Mel Bosworth and The Small Press Book Review for this great review of my chapbook, Families Among Us. Here is a short excerpt:

Lovely and Majestic...Using fantastical elements that push effortlessly through the narratives, Kimzey has fashioned six allegories about the inevitability of change, people trying to love what is different from themselves, and the hardship and heartbreak that comes with being part of a family.

You can read the rest of the review here. And if you'd like to buy a copy of Families Among Us, you can do so here.

Two Author Interviews

Thank you to Kim Winternheimer, fellow fiction writer and founding editor of The Masters Review, for interviewing me about my chapbook Families Among Us (Black Lawrence Press, 2014). Kim asked me some really thoughtful questions that I had a lot of fun thinking about and answering. Topics include putting a chapbook-length collection together, naming characters, transformation, and writing fully into setting. You can read it all here.

Jack Hill also interviewed me for American Microreviews & Interviews. Jack asked a lot of wonderful questions. We talk about forgotten weirdness, layered fiction, Barthelme, radio adaptation, loss and the Iraq War, and what's up next for me. You can read it all here.

Families Among Us: Great Review in Fiction Southeast

I'm thrilled to share this great review of Families Among Us, published in Fiction Southeast today. Here is a short snippet:

Families Among Us is a daring book. It’s not just that Kimzey writes about kids (and adults) turning into animals or magical creatures, taking off their clothes and scurrying or flying into the wild. No, it's that each of these disquieting stories force the reader to experience familiar emotional realities with the wonder and surprise of a child. Kimzey's world is new and dangerous, even sobering, precisely because its strangeness drives us into the heart of the familiar, into childhood's loneliness and consuming anxiety.

This, I suspect, is just what Kimzey wants. Each story, even those told from the perspective of adults, affects a dream-like quality, though not necessarily one of nightmare. This mood is achieved though natural, unobtrusive, even quietly beautiful prose. The understated prose allows us to engage the fantastic without distraction.  And it’s these surprises themselves which meet us again and again in Families Among Us and become the collection’s most immediate source of delight.

As with Kafka’s work, after living in these stories for a couple days, they get even stranger, and new layers emerge.

You can read the rest of the review here. I can't thank Fiction Southeast or reviewer Joel Looper enough for these kind words!

And if you'd like to purchase the book, you can do so here. Thanks for reading!