Losing a whole week

Good things happen to people that open Dirt! If you’re getting this email, you open Dirt more than 50% of the time. 

I took most of last week off because I am maybe a workaholic and I’m trying not to make it everyone else’s problem. I spent less time on social media, so it was cool to see which links actually found their way to me. I read Daisuke Shen’s forthcoming short story collection Vague Predictions & Prophecies (run don’t walk to preorder it, I’m so serious), saw Ethel Cain cover Bette Davis Eyes in Central Park and sent Third Eye Blind Live at Red Rocks to pretty much everyone in my phone. ICYMI, Dirt contributor Becca Schuh also explored the meme-ification of Anthony Bourdain. 

We just wrapped up Dirt’s third ever Fiction Week with short stories by Suchandrika Chakrabarti, Erin Somers, and Jordan Gisselbrecht. Below is the list of short stories I shared on Twitter when we announced that we were open for submissions. They all represent different approaches to the genre that I admire. (I think I like stories about realizing you’re not special, never were. But now you’re something even better—you’re free.) Keep scrolling if you want more links and new music. — Daisy Alioto 

DAISY’S SHORT STORY SYLLABUS

• Dancing in the Moonlight by Ottessa Moshfegh (Paris Review)

• Grace by Lisa Taddeo (Esquire)

• Comme by Paul Dalla Rosa (Granta)

• Los Angeles by Emma Cline (Granta)

• Waugh by Bryan Washington (The New Yorker)

• Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers (Joyland)

• Tolstoy by Joshua Hebburn (Have Has Had)

• Solo Poly by Sophie Frances Kemp (Granta)

• Molly Sussman by Alexandra Tanner (Baffler)

• Withdrawal by Luke O’Neil (Hell World) 

• What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? by Lauren Groff (The New Yorker)

• Candy by Natasha Stagg (Mal)

• Story of the Guy by Rachel Rabbit White (Triangle House)

• The Mayor of Leipzig by Rachel Kushner (LitHub) 

• In Heaven Everything Is Fine by John Doe (Joyland)

• The Remainder by Caleb Crain (n+1)

• Wants by Grace Paley (the internet, darling)

• Boyfriend by Laurie Stone (Electric Lit)

• A for Alone by Curtis Sittenfeld (The New Yorker)

• Bottlenose by Shuang Xuetao (Astra, RIP) 

• The Third Reich by Roberto Bolaño (Paris Review)

LINKS FROM THE DIRT DISCORD

• Eileen Gray’s Famed Cliffside Villa in the South of France Is Returned to Its Modernist Glory from 1stdibs (h/t @iamnothere) 

• Addictive Izakaya Style Salted Cabbage (Yamitsuki Shio Cabbage) from Sudachi (h/t @vince) 

• why you can't afford the ✨hot girl✨ candles from Answer in Progress (h/t @bobojojo)

• Queer Artists Brought Pain, History, and Hope to the 60th Venice Biennale from ARTnews (h/t @chriserikthomas) 

• Why Men Are ‘Rawdogging’ Flights from GQ (h/t @soltolina)   

NEW MUSIC 

• taking a break from my phone by Argo Nuff

• Seasons Change by The Alchemist 

• Annihilation by Wilco 

• In Silence by DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ