salinger and esme

Sunday morning and listening to Tom O’Bedlam’s reading of J.D. Salinger’s short story. One of my all time favorite. More and more I’m relying on fiction audiobooks to make it through the day and O’Bedlam’s voice draws me in. I’ve always been struck by young Esme’s thoughts on the fiction and reading she prefers:

“It doesn’t have to be terribly prolific. Just so that it isn’t childish and silly. I prefer stories about squalor. Make it extremely squalid and moving.”

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john paul jaramillo

John Paul Jaramillo’s debut story collection The House of Order was named a 2013 Int’l Latino Book Award Finalist, and his most recent work Little Mocos is now available from Twelve Winters Press. In 2013 Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature listed Jaramillo as one of its Top 10 New Latino Authors to Watch and Read. He is currently a professor of composition and literature at Lincoln Land College-Springfield, Illinois.

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