New short fiction at Pangyrus
June 29, 2021 § 2 Comments
Great to see my new short story, “The Tawny-Green Steppe,” up at the beautifully edited and produced Pangyrus literary magazine. The story, a reimagining of Charles Darwin’s adventures in Tierra del Fuego and the Argentine pampas, was shortlisted for the 2021 Fish International Short Story Prize.
My focus over these last few years has been on novels, so it’s wonderful to be back in the short fiction game. Link to full story here.
New short fiction out
November 25, 2018 § Leave a comment
A freshly-minted short story (one of the first to appear post-A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing) is out in Western Press Books’ wonderful new anthology, Manifest West: Transitions & Transformations. The story is titled “Gunnison Gorge.” It concerns a lonely traveler who gives a ride to a mysterious couple on his way to a remote fly fishing river in a wilderness area of central Colorado. He worries that the woman may be in some kind of trouble, and believes himself well-positioned to do something about it.
To read “Gunnison Gorge,” at least for now, you have to order the anthology. But that’s a great thing to do anyway, especially if you want to support literature and/or are interested in writing about the contemporary American west!
Paperback release, Douro River, Eastern Cuba, and other news
April 24, 2018 § Leave a comment
Dear friends,
It’s been a year since the release of A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing in hardcover. This is just a quick post to let you know that the paperback launches today! It’s a nice little book I think, and I’m pleased to report that since the hardcover release there’s been plenty of good news. It’s been shortlisted for two international book awards (one of which is still in process—please keep your fingers crossed), has resulted in a lot of good press including interviews on both Vermont and New Hampshire Public radio (links to both podcasts here), and has continued to garner favorable reviews.
Another bit of news that I’m thrilled to share is that I’ll be starting a job this June on the core faculty of a new low-residency graduate writing program: the “Newport MFA in Creative Writing,” based at Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island (and Havana!). This is the brainchild of my friend, the brilliant Ann Hood, and it’s an exciting new venture in the writing world. If any of you’ve been contemplating a writing MFA, I highly recommend that you check it out!
The coming year is also shaping up to be exciting in terms of travel: I’ll be the National Geographic featured lecturer on a new Douro River cruise navigating from Porto, Portugal, to Salamanca, Spain and back (Sept 23 – Oct 3). I’ll be leading a new off-the-beaten-track program in Eastern Cuba in collaboration with my publisher, Green Writers Press (Nov 5 – 12). And in May, 2019, we’ll be offering the fourth annual Cuba Writers Program in Havana and one other Cuban destination (TBA).
If you’re interested in any of these and/or in other adventures in the months and years to come, you can find details and keep track of evolving dates here. Maybe we’ll see you out in the world! (And don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like explore ways to organize an affordable custom trip to Cuba.)
Here’s a photo I just took of the new paperbacks. If you want to get your hands on a copy, now’s an auspicious time to buy one! A wave of purchases around the release date can trigger algorithms that can make books more visible to the public, which is of course extremely helpful for ambitious and little-known authors such as yours truly (as are reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, by the way).
As always, thanks for being out there. I’m deeply grateful for your friendship and support. Please don’t hesitate to send a note if you want to run something by me or simply catch up. Meanwhile, here’s wishing you a happy and productive spring!
Warm regards,
Tim
Cats & writers essay at LitHub
January 10, 2018 § Leave a comment
“The Half-Wild Muse: On Writers and their Cats” is up at Literary Hub. It was a fun essay to write and I hope fun to read as well. 
More from me on writing and the writing life here.
Book Tour
May 11, 2017 § Leave a comment
The book tour for A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing kicks off this Tuesday, May 16, at The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, a town I know and love, having gone to college there! The reading will be hosted by Jenny Lyons, who recently wrote quite a lovely review of the collection for the Addison Independent. Here’s an excerpt:
“These stories bristle with energy and immediacy. The outside world will fall away as the places and people of Weed’s stories inhabit your mind. The writing is spare and meticulous and packs a hefty emotional punch . . . I am not exaggerating when I say this collection kept me up at nights. I just couldn’t stop reading.” (Here’s a link to the full review).
The book tour is a work in progress—new dates will be added as they come in on the Upcoming Events page—but here are the events we have planned so far, with links to the bookstore event pages where available. It would be wonderful to see you out there!
May 16, 2017 – The Vermont Book Shop, Middlebury, VT. Reading from A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING (with Dede Cummings of Green Writers Press)
May 27, 2017 – Orvis Flagship Store, Manchester, VT. A joint Orvis/Northshire Bookstore event, 11AM – 2PM: A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING
June 22, 2017 – Mitchell’s Book Corner, Nantucket, MA. 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM. Book signing: A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING & WILL POOLE’S ISLAND
June 29, 2017 – Harvard Book Store, Cambridge. MA. Reading from A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING (with Crystal King & FEAST OF SORROW)
July 1, 2017 – New Hampshire’s Toadstool bookstores: Keene (11AM) & Peterborough (2PM). Reading from A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING
August 28, 2017 – Cornelia Street Café, New York City: Cuba Writers Program Reading with Ann Hood, Alden Jones, and Michael Ruhlman (reading from A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING)
October 1, 2017, 2PM. Tattered Cover Bookstore, Colfax Avenue, Denver, Colorado. Reading from A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING
October 12 – 15 – Brattleboro Literary Festival. Short Story Showcase: Reading from A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING
October 21, 2017 – Northern Woodlands Conference, Fairlee, Vermont. Reading and Discussion of A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING
A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING reviewed by Center for Literary Publishing & Colorado Review
May 9, 2017 § Leave a comment
I’m profoundly honored by Mary Medlin’s in-depth and extremely thoughtful review of A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing at the Center for Literary Publishing. CLP’s Colorado Review is one of the first and most prestigious literary journals to have published a story from the collection (“Six Feet Under the Prairie,” way back in 2004), so it’s a source that I find particularly meaningful. And I love the review! Here’s an excerpt:
“If you seek a guide—on coming of age, lost love, temptations both resisted and surrendered to, and the need to both engage with and respect the planet—Weed’s book is a good choice. It won’t tell you which laws to obey and which to break—but it will show you, with simultaneous beauty and savagery, what will happen either way.”
Read the entire review here.
New interview up at Fiction Writers Review
May 8, 2017 § Leave a comment
Really enjoyed this wide-ranging conversation with the perceptive Art Hutchinson at Fiction Writers Review. We discussed, among other things, extreme sports, the supernatural, foreign and historical settings, pushing the boundaries of conscious perception, and why the inner landscape is something fiction can do better than any other art. Read the whole interview here!
Vermont Public Radio Interview
April 7, 2017 § Leave a comment
“What I was trying to do was first of all just to tell a good story.”
Really enjoyed my recent conversation with Vermont Public Radio’s Mitch Wertlieb! We discussed writing, fly fishing, avalanches, the Grateful Dead, and other topics related to my newly released short fiction collection, A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing.
Here’s a link to the podcast and transcript of the interview. Have a listen if you’re curious: the whole thing is just under seven minutes long. And here’s a link to the collection, which can be purchased at Amazon, B & N, or by request from your favorite local bookstore!
New Reviews: A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING
March 31, 2017 § Leave a comment
Two new reviews out. One from the distinguished Charles Butterfield writing in our great local newspaper the Brattleboro Reformer, and the other from the national Small Press Book Review. Very happy about both of these!
“Weed begins with the assumption that his readers are ready and able to see that the world is not as it seems. Things happen we cannot anticipate, and men change in surprising ways. Some of Weed’s stories verge on magical realism . . But most of these tales reside in the world of the senses. No ghosts, fantastical creatures or extra-planetary aliens move these stories. But visions, dreams and hallucinations do. Humans and their sometimes mysterious natures are all it takes for Weed to spin fiction of the first order.” Charles Butterfield, Brattleboro Reformer (full review here.)
“As readers, we have been given passports into Tim Weed’s fictional worlds . . . We cannot alter the fates of those we have joined but, if we give them a chance, they could alter ours.” Small Press Book Review (full review here)
This page has updated links to all reviews of A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING.
Advance praise & early reviews: A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING
February 17, 2017 § 4 Comments
Deeply honored by these early reactions to my forthcoming short fiction collection, which launches officially on April 7, 2017. Excerpts linked to full reviews:
“From the mountain lakes of the Colorado Rockies to cobbled streets of Spain, this fascinating collection of short stories by Vermont-based writer Tim Weed (Will Poole’s Island) never disappoints. The stories are more about choices than they are about fly fishing or murder, but time and again Weed’s vivid characters in these thirteen tales of dark adventure are forced to confront a vision of themselves—or others—that’s not quite as positive as they’d hoped . . . A Field Guide to Murder and Fly Fishing is a collection you’ll be happy to get lost in.” Julie Reiff (full review at Ploughshares).
“Tim Weed’s A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing is a fiction collection of the first order. I found myself parceling out the stories to make them last. These are stories that will live a long time both on the page and in your heart.” —Joseph Monninger, author of The World as We Know It.
“In his first short story collection, novelist Tim Weed shows his stunningly impressive range—transporting readers from the heights of the Andes and the depths of the Amazon to the backstreets of Rome and Granada. Many of Weed’s stories have a hint of the mysterious, even the supernatural, but they are all grounded in sharply-rendered material worlds so fresh one feels one might step directly into the literary photographs he has created and stroll around for a while. A top-notch debut, not to be missed.”—Jacob Appel, author of Einstein’s Beach House (full review at Goodreads)
“Each story is a jewel, cracking open what matters most: love, family, and our big beautiful planet.” —Ann Hood, author of The Book That Matters Most
“A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing is more than a collection of adventure stories. It is a significant and moving collection of ideas, snapshots, and visions that leave a lasting impression . . . Never predictable, this collection is a must for travelers, adventure seekers, and anyone who cares to examine the depth of [Weed’s] varied and flawed characters.” —Ron Samul (full review at We Are the Curriculum)
Stay tuned for the official announcement of the April 7, 2017 release on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the email newsletter. No need to wait though! Pre-order the collection at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Tim Weed 