News & Reviews for
PRETEND WE ARE LOVELY
& New Writing
PRETEND WE ARE LOVELY
& New Writing
Here's what's happening: news & clips
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 e ditors 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'm now the Nonfiction Editor of a new journal called Capable Magazine. We publish essays, stories, poems, and visual art on illness and disability and we would love to see your work. Guidelines and our Submittable portal are on our site.
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.
My short story, "Origami Dogs," is live at CRAFT literary. The e ditors 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'm now the Nonfiction Editor of a new journal called Capable Magazine. We publish essays, stories, poems, and visual art on illness and disability and we would love to see your work. Guidelines and our Submittable portal are on our site.
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