News & Reviews
Here's what's happening: news & clips
Kirkus Reviews has spoken: "These tales highlight morally complex situations that don’t have easy solutions, and they don’t hide from the unpleasant truths of the characters. Reid allows them to make mistakes and bad decisions without losing sympathy or compassion for them." Read the full review here.
Hooray! Hooray! PUB DAY has been moved up to
Feb. 26th, 2023! And for those of you ordering signed copies here on my website, I'll be shipping out your orders so they'll arrive on or about PUB DAY. Thanks so much for your orders!
Wendy Elizabeth Wallace interviewed me for Split Lip Magazine's 10th Anniversary Issue and has me revealing all sorts of hard truths in "Remembering and Claiming: An Interview with Noley Reid by Wendy Elizabeth Wallace."
Origami Dogs is listed in Independent Book Review's "30 Indie Books to Look Out for in Early 2023."
All four blurbs are in and they are wonderful!!! Read them on my Origami Dogs page.
The first blurb for Origami Dogs is in, from the incomparable novelist and story writer Ethel Rohan!!! Check it out here. Thank you so much, Ethel! I am truly honored.
There's a preorder link for ORIGAMI DOGS, y'all! Here it is!!! Thanks so much to those of you who've already let me know you've ordered. You're incredible for supporting my work so passionately.
We've got ORIGAMI DOGS galleys, folks! Follow me on Twitter @noleyreid to watch the big reveal video as I see the galleys for the first time along with you.
My new story "Movement & Bones"--touching amputation, COVID, and ripping out trees--appears in Peatsmoke and is nominated for a Pushcart.
I appear on Let's Deconstruct a Story, a podcast, interviewed by Kelly Fordon to discuss all aspects of my story "Coming Back."
Peatsmoke & Moon City Review have picked up two more stories.
Today's mail brought my contributor copies of Arts & Letters (issue 42, spring 2021), in which my short story "Meridian" appears.
BIGGEST NEWS!!! Autumn House Press has scooped up my short story collection Origami Dogs, which will be released in spring 2023.
I'm super excited to have my short story, "The Hardest Thing," is up on Pithead Chapel's new February issue.
My short story, "Coming Back," is the June 2020 fiction pick at Split Lip Magazine. Be sure to check out my Just One Thing interview where I talk about writing this story just before the time of coronavirus quarantine and massive Covid-19 outbreaks and deaths. And with two other June issue contributors, I write about what we are listening to and watching this summer to help stay sane in Split Lip's Now Playing section.
My short story, "Origami Dogs," is live at CRAFT literary. The editors have this to say about the story:
"A layered exploration of morality and use, rich with conflict and longing, 'Origami Dogs' lands a stunning climax with a powerful and moving paragraph in which Iris reveals her deep empathy while defying her mother’s foundational rule." --CRAFT
I have a new short story up at Manqué. A nice, quick read.
I have four new stories that have just been picked up for publication in Arts & Letters, The McNeese Review, Jam & Sand, and jmww. The latter two are available to read online via their links.
I talked with Robbie Harris of Blacksburg Public Radio about Pretend We Are Lovely and the magic of Blacksburg, Virginia.
My essay "Online Dating in the Skin of My Former Self" appears in The Lily.
My essay "Thick and Thin" appears in The Rumpus.
Novelist Annie Hartnett interviewed me for Fiction Writers Review. Find your own pink balaclava here.
Novelist Ethel Rohan interviewed me for Los Angeles Review of Books. We talked all about grief, hungers, and body shaming. Read it here.
Alongside print and ebook versions of Pretend We Are Lovely, it is also an audiobook by Penguin/Random House, with 4 stellar narrators reading the 4 living family members' sections of the novel.
Listen to the playlist for Pretend We Are Lovely on largehearted boy.
Read the first chapter of Pretend We Are Lovely on Literary Hub here.
Bustle's E. Ce Miller interviewed me about Pretend We Are Lovely, the undercurrents of disordered eating, body image, sizeism, and my experience with all of these. Read the interview here.
"In magnetic prose, Reid offers up a scrumptious novel about the things we use to save our fractured relationships." --O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE, August 2017 issue
Fantastic review of Pretend We Are Lovely in Publishers Weekly: "Told in bright shards of chapters from the points of view of the four survivors, the novel never descends into mere case history. Set mostly during a single summer, it reaches a climax during Halloween, that sugar-laden holiday in which boundaries are often broken. This is a tense, vivid, and sharp novel that captures the complex relationships between the Sobel family members, particularly between sisters Vivvy and Enid." Read the full review here.
Pretend We Are Lovely receives a starred review from Kirkus: " . . . this fever-bright novel of desire and withholding . . . " Read the full review here.
"Noley Reid's Pretend We Are Lovely is an effortless unfolding of delicate voices, a collage of different perspectives that add up to a family. Reading it feels like vivid memories of a Southern summer; quietly engrossing and intimately nostalgic."
--Johanna Albrecht at Flyleaf Books
"Reid writes potently of our most intimate blind spots: the tangles of love and bodies, nourishment and punishment, grief and comfort. In her agile hands the complexity of family is dramatically and vitally revealed." --Samantha Hunt, Mister Splitfoot
"In Pretend We Are Lovely, Noley Reid captures what it is to have to be a parent while still a child and does so in the most true and perfect way. Even more magically, she captures the reverse, calling on the children inside us with so much empathy that we come away able to laugh at the pain that makes us wise."
--Tupelo Hassman, girlchild
"[A]n outstanding, unflinching novel about starvation and indulgence, family and self. Noley Reid writes profound, raw characters with guts and grace. This is one of the most moving novels I’ve ever read.” --Sharma Shields, The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac
“[A] novel that will make you laugh and also break your heart in all the right ways . . . Told with wit and charm and compassion, this novel resonates with all that we hunger to have and all that feeds us.” — Lee Martin, The Bright Forever
"[A] book fat with love, full of tender absurdity and absurd tenderness, a story that artfully depicts the first aches and thrills of adolescence while also unmasking the unslakable thirst that slips with us into adulthood." --Alethea Black, I Knew You'd Be Lovely
"Hunger shapes the intertwined narratives of Noley Reid’s searing and clear-eyed novel, wherein no one escapes unscathed the emotional starvation of a family."
--Leslie Daniels, Cleaning Nabokov's House
"Noley Reid's memorable novel is funny and heartbreaking in equal measure."
--Mark Childress, Crazy in Alabama
"Readers will be spellbound by this intimate portrayal of a family told in a symphony of voices—each member of the Sobel family's search for redemption equally urgent and compelling. Like the best love songs . . . sad but hopeful, raw but tender, shocking but ultimately deeply comforting." --Julia Fierro, Cutting Teeth
Loving the fruit of my recent photo shoot with Jesse & Gena Photography!
My story, "If You Must Know," will be included in an anthology of southern Gothic fiction by women, including Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle, Kelly Cherry, and Elizabeth Spencer.
Hooray! Hooray! PUB DAY has been moved up to
Feb. 26th, 2023! And for those of you ordering signed copies here on my website, I'll be shipping out your orders so they'll arrive on or about PUB DAY. Thanks so much for your orders!
Wendy Elizabeth Wallace interviewed me for Split Lip Magazine's 10th Anniversary Issue and has me revealing all sorts of hard truths in "Remembering and Claiming: An Interview with Noley Reid by Wendy Elizabeth Wallace."
Origami Dogs is listed in Independent Book Review's "30 Indie Books to Look Out for in Early 2023."
All four blurbs are in and they are wonderful!!! Read them on my Origami Dogs page.
The first blurb for Origami Dogs is in, from the incomparable novelist and story writer Ethel Rohan!!! Check it out here. Thank you so much, Ethel! I am truly honored.
There's a preorder link for ORIGAMI DOGS, y'all! Here it is!!! Thanks so much to those of you who've already let me know you've ordered. You're incredible for supporting my work so passionately.
We've got ORIGAMI DOGS galleys, folks! Follow me on Twitter @noleyreid to watch the big reveal video as I see the galleys for the first time along with you.
My new story "Movement & Bones"--touching amputation, COVID, and ripping out trees--appears in Peatsmoke and is nominated for a Pushcart.
I appear on Let's Deconstruct a Story, a podcast, interviewed by Kelly Fordon to discuss all aspects of my story "Coming Back."
Peatsmoke & Moon City Review have picked up two more stories.
Today's mail brought my contributor copies of Arts & Letters (issue 42, spring 2021), in which my short story "Meridian" appears.
BIGGEST NEWS!!! Autumn House Press has scooped up my short story collection Origami Dogs, which will be released in spring 2023.
I'm super excited to have my short story, "The Hardest Thing," is up on Pithead Chapel's new February issue.
My short story, "Coming Back," is the June 2020 fiction pick at Split Lip Magazine. Be sure to check out my Just One Thing interview where I talk about writing this story just before the time of coronavirus quarantine and massive Covid-19 outbreaks and deaths. And with two other June issue contributors, I write about what we are listening to and watching this summer to help stay sane in Split Lip's Now Playing section.
My short story, "Origami Dogs," is live at CRAFT literary. The editors have this to say about the story:
"A layered exploration of morality and use, rich with conflict and longing, 'Origami Dogs' lands a stunning climax with a powerful and moving paragraph in which Iris reveals her deep empathy while defying her mother’s foundational rule." --CRAFT
I have a new short story up at Manqué. A nice, quick read.
I have four new stories that have just been picked up for publication in Arts & Letters, The McNeese Review, Jam & Sand, and jmww. The latter two are available to read online via their links.
I talked with Robbie Harris of Blacksburg Public Radio about Pretend We Are Lovely and the magic of Blacksburg, Virginia.
My essay "Online Dating in the Skin of My Former Self" appears in The Lily.
My essay "Thick and Thin" appears in The Rumpus.
Novelist Annie Hartnett interviewed me for Fiction Writers Review. Find your own pink balaclava here.
Novelist Ethel Rohan interviewed me for Los Angeles Review of Books. We talked all about grief, hungers, and body shaming. Read it here.
Alongside print and ebook versions of Pretend We Are Lovely, it is also an audiobook by Penguin/Random House, with 4 stellar narrators reading the 4 living family members' sections of the novel.
Listen to the playlist for Pretend We Are Lovely on largehearted boy.
Read the first chapter of Pretend We Are Lovely on Literary Hub here.
Bustle's E. Ce Miller interviewed me about Pretend We Are Lovely, the undercurrents of disordered eating, body image, sizeism, and my experience with all of these. Read the interview here.
"In magnetic prose, Reid offers up a scrumptious novel about the things we use to save our fractured relationships." --O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE, August 2017 issue
Fantastic review of Pretend We Are Lovely in Publishers Weekly: "Told in bright shards of chapters from the points of view of the four survivors, the novel never descends into mere case history. Set mostly during a single summer, it reaches a climax during Halloween, that sugar-laden holiday in which boundaries are often broken. This is a tense, vivid, and sharp novel that captures the complex relationships between the Sobel family members, particularly between sisters Vivvy and Enid." Read the full review here.
Pretend We Are Lovely receives a starred review from Kirkus: " . . . this fever-bright novel of desire and withholding . . . " Read the full review here.
"Noley Reid's Pretend We Are Lovely is an effortless unfolding of delicate voices, a collage of different perspectives that add up to a family. Reading it feels like vivid memories of a Southern summer; quietly engrossing and intimately nostalgic."
--Johanna Albrecht at Flyleaf Books
"Reid writes potently of our most intimate blind spots: the tangles of love and bodies, nourishment and punishment, grief and comfort. In her agile hands the complexity of family is dramatically and vitally revealed." --Samantha Hunt, Mister Splitfoot
"In Pretend We Are Lovely, Noley Reid captures what it is to have to be a parent while still a child and does so in the most true and perfect way. Even more magically, she captures the reverse, calling on the children inside us with so much empathy that we come away able to laugh at the pain that makes us wise."
--Tupelo Hassman, girlchild
"[A]n outstanding, unflinching novel about starvation and indulgence, family and self. Noley Reid writes profound, raw characters with guts and grace. This is one of the most moving novels I’ve ever read.” --Sharma Shields, The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac
“[A] novel that will make you laugh and also break your heart in all the right ways . . . Told with wit and charm and compassion, this novel resonates with all that we hunger to have and all that feeds us.” — Lee Martin, The Bright Forever
"[A] book fat with love, full of tender absurdity and absurd tenderness, a story that artfully depicts the first aches and thrills of adolescence while also unmasking the unslakable thirst that slips with us into adulthood." --Alethea Black, I Knew You'd Be Lovely
"Hunger shapes the intertwined narratives of Noley Reid’s searing and clear-eyed novel, wherein no one escapes unscathed the emotional starvation of a family."
--Leslie Daniels, Cleaning Nabokov's House
"Noley Reid's memorable novel is funny and heartbreaking in equal measure."
--Mark Childress, Crazy in Alabama
"Readers will be spellbound by this intimate portrayal of a family told in a symphony of voices—each member of the Sobel family's search for redemption equally urgent and compelling. Like the best love songs . . . sad but hopeful, raw but tender, shocking but ultimately deeply comforting." --Julia Fierro, Cutting Teeth
Loving the fruit of my recent photo shoot with Jesse & Gena Photography!
My story, "If You Must Know," will be included in an anthology of southern Gothic fiction by women, including Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle, Kelly Cherry, and Elizabeth Spencer.
Visiting Writers Series, MFA in Creative Writing at George Mason University, 10/6/14