D. A. Hosek

Just another writer

  • 2018 in reading

    I’ve noticed that over the past few years, the number of books I’ve read each year has been in steady decline. This year I read just 67 books (which, I suppose is still a fair amount). My favorite reads for the year, in alphabetical order, were: Best American Short Stories 2018 edited by Roxane Gay and…

  • 2018 in rejections (and acceptances)

    After a few years of trying, I’ve finally hit my goal of 200 rejections (and then some). This meant that I got a lot more submissions out. The year started strong with a short story acceptance each month from January through April (plus a poem accepted somewhere in there), but then things went quiet for…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Nnedi Okorafor

    She got that plant to do the opposite of die. Nnedi Okorafor, “Tumaki.” 

  • Beautiful Sentences: J. Courtney Sullivan

    Live long enough, and life teaches you that God is not your lucky rabbit foot. J. Courtney Sullivan, Saints for All Occasions.

  • Beautiful Sentences: Katie Kitamura

    Translation is not unlike an act of channeling, you write and you do not write the words. Katie Kitamura, A Separation.

  • Beautiful Sentences: Brit Bennett

    She couldn’t stop calling or writing or driving past the house. That was what it meant to love someone, right? You couldn’t leave them, even if they hated you. You could never let them go. Brit Bennett, The Mothers.

  • Beautiful Sentences: Julia Álvarez

    Perhaps this is the only way to grieve the big things—in snippets, pinches, little sips of sadness. Julia Álvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies.

  • “A Pilgrimage”: The Story Behind the Story

    “A Pilgrimage” is one of those stories that originated by reading off the page. In this instance it was a Mexican short story that I was reading in Spanish. I don’t remember the story details very well, other than being somewhat lost in the Spanish. As a consequence I began imagining the story that became “A…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Uwem Akpan

    The light surrounded him like a halo that was too big for a saint and had to be shared by all who were near. Uwem Akpan, “Say You’re One of Them.”