A few steps from the midway of the novel, the short story lurks (and the allegory lurks around this description...but that’s another story). It’s in little tents or booths or cul de sacs with straw on the floor. You’re not going to spend your entire day at the sideshow, but this doesn’t diminish from the sideshow’s greatness. Far from it. Without the illustrated man, seal girl, and lord-knows-what-else, the rest of the carnival isn’t complete.
The Sideshow, as can probably be garnered by now, is an online home for discussing, poking at, and being passionate about short stories under the aegis of the Modern Word. We hope to provide eclectic, thought provoking commentary with a generous, albeit honest, approach. The four of us have harbored a love and passion of the short story – especially odd, challenging, and off-kilter short stories – for a long time. We all have loved reading short fiction of a fabulist, experimental, and/or postmodern bent. We also hope that our tent is wide enough to encompass all sorts of, well, freakish proclivities. There is so much quality short fiction out there that excites us, that it seems inexhaustible; and at the same time, easy to miss.
Finally, we also really don’t put much stock into genre boundaries of whatever sort, and we have high hopes for the fire-breather and the aquatic woman to play cards together after the show is over.
Review copies of appropriate anthologies, magazines, and short story collections can be sent to:
Alan DeNiro and Kristin Livdahl
528 Granite Ave.
N. St. Paul, MN 55128
Not all received material will be able to be reviewed, but we’ll try. We’ll try. Review copies from small and micropresses encouraged. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us. And welcome to the Sideshow.
Sideshow Editor & Writer. Alan’s stories have appeared in One Story, Fence, Trampoline, Polyphony, 3rd Bed, Santa Monica Review, and elsewhere. He is a regular contributor to Rain Taxi, and co-edits the Rabid Transit series of chapbooks.
Barth’s short stories and articles have appeared in venues ranging from Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and Mojo Conjure Stories to The Cooperative Business Journal, Rain Taxi, and Seattle’s alternative weekly The Stranger. His short stories have been honorably mentioned in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology and nominated for the Spectrum Award.
Christopher has published stories in a variety of magazines and anthologies including Nerve, Realms of Fantasy, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Strange Horizons, The Vestal Review, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Descant, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, and Ideomancer. He lives in Youngstown, Ohio, but will soon be moving to Japan. Recently he has completed a novel called One For Sorrow.
Kristin’s work has appeared in the Zines Say... and Flytrap and in Minnesota Crossroads, a street newspaper she founded. For the last ten years, she has been working with people who are homeless in Minneapolis.
