Jessica Anthony’s Best Story Ever

I first discovered Jessica Anthony when I heard her reading from “The Rust Preventer” at an event for Best New American Voices 2006 (which is also how I met Amber Dermont), by the way). Jessica’s work has also appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, McSweeney’s, New American Writing, Mid-American Review, and many other fine publications. Her first novel is dangerously close to completion, and when asked to tell Beatrice readers about her favorite short story, she took a clever tack (along with her unique author picture).

Dear Reader,

The best thing about writing an essay like this (“Name a Short Story Or Novel That Has Influenced You And Why”) is that the assignment carries with it a whiff of elementary school’s classic biftek: “What I Did Last Summer.”

The problem was that I never really did anything over the summer. I grew up in a small agricultural community. I had a dog and a backyard. I climbed trees. Do children even climb trees anymore? I ran around in shorts with my shirt off. I played a lot of badminton. Mostly, I read. But “I read” is not a very exciting answer for “What I Did Over the Summer,” so I often made a few important embellishments to my essay which included things like rescuing puppies from high places, throwing rocks through the window of a limousine, and accidentally setting the carpet on fire.

But that’s not why I’m here today. I?m here to talk about a short story or novel that has influenced my writing, and you have been very patient to wait so long, and so without further ado, I present to you the title of the aforementioned, extremely influential story. Here it is:

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AONEHUNDREDYEARSOFULYSSES.

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AONEHUNDREDYEARSOFULYSSES is a tragic tale of desire. It’s got heartbreak and wily creatures and survival against all odds. It’s got loads of doomed characters that find themselves in unusual and oftentimes crippling situations. It’s got love, death, murder, hyper-realistic situations, people in bad moods, endless wars, high-octane murder trials, nurses, sex and many, many alcoholic beverages. Sometimes the characters pull through; often they don’t.

There is also a lot of well-described scenery.

But as a writer, I would have to say the best, most influential part of METAMORPHOCATCHHARRISONMOBYLOLITARTISTNOT
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AONEHUNDREDYEARSOFULYSSES is that it’s got a narrative voice that surprises and teaches and makes you feel like you have to write as if your life depended on it.

I have to go now. There is a tree with my name on it.

Yours truly,
Jessica Anthony

10 February 2006 | selling shorts |