A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #203
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For September 22-28, 2021, a roundup of the week's finest prose and prose humor-related news.
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Some new neighbors just moved in across from Humorous Readings Headquarters (HRHQ) and we're preparing a little gift basket to welcome them to the neighborhood! It's raised an etiquette question for us: how long do you have to wait to send a neighbor a new draft of a piece you want feedback on? A week? Two weeks? Or can you start leaving stacks of print-outs outside their door immediately?
What We Enjoyed This Week
Quiz: Can You Get Your Invoice Paid? by Emily Delaney (McSweeney's) Emily cleverly builds a small narrative within the structure of this quiz, but also leaves space for fun one-off jokes.
3 Books About Really Sad Women, You Miserable Fuck by Sumayya Bisseret Martinez (Reductress) An aggressively antagonistic narrator is a funny way to add depth and some extra layers of humor to a piece. It can sometimes be a lot to juggle, but Sumayya does a nice job of presenting the premise, while also berating the reader in the fun voice of the narrator.
QUIZ: Do You Not Believe in Ghosts or Are You Just Hurt None of Them Want to Talk to You? by Damien Kronfeld (Reductress) Not to get too AP English about this, but this piece has the same basic premise and underlying tension of the best early Gothic horror novels.
An Old Favorite
This week's Old Favorite pick and writeup come from Keith James, who has a new novel out, Greg Maxwell's Inferno. Thanks for writing in, Keith!
Poorly Researched Men's Fiction by Evan Allgood (McSweeney's) Keith writes, "This piece is an unrelenting hammering of the game. This piece could be terrible in the wrong hands, but Evan crushed it with specifics that scratch the remote part of your brain retaining every Elmore Leonard western. I revisit this piece every couple months so I can remember what it feels like to be hit with a train of good writing."
Do you have an Old Favorite of your own? Let us know by filling out this form and we may run your pick in a future edition of the newsletter.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Nothing from us this week! We'll let you know what kind of notes we get from the new neighbors.
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it and want to support the work we do putting it together, you can send us a tip here. Any amount is greatly appreciated, and 1/3rd of each donation will go to Stand Up To Cancer.
If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is!
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
This newsletter is free, but if you enjoy it and want to support the work we do putting it together, you can subscribe to our paid tier, or you can send us a tip here. Any amount is greatly appreciated, and 1/3rd of each donation will go to Stand Up To Cancer.
If you'd like to place an ad in the Newsletter, please fill out this form.
If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is!