Dispatch from Jon Sealy: May 2025
Monthly update from your host at The Speakeasy
Greetings from Glen Allen!
If you’ve been following my posts for the past few months, you know I’ve been reading my way through the Granta Anthology of American Short Fiction (vol. 2), and this month I’ve reached the end.
What am I going to do! I might pick up volume 1 or some other anthology, but it feels strange to put away a book I’ve been lugging around since Christmas. If you have a favorite short story anthology, let me know.
Until next month, here’s the news.
From the Speakeasy: Craft Essays
The Ethics of Storytelling – thoughts on Andrea Lee’s story “Anthropology”
Steve Yarbrough’s “Two Dogs” – walking through a masterpiece set in Poland
The Anecdotal Story – an essay longer than the stories under discussion, John Cheever’s “Reunion” and Tobias Wolff’s “Powder”
Around the Web
Book Sales & Marketing
This writer spent $11,000 on marketing her debut and wrote about the ROI. Short version is she sold about 1,000 copies but may have broken even thanks to some unspecified subsidiary rights sales. It’s a tough business.James McMurtry, “Black Dog and Wandering Boy”
A friend sent me news of McMurtry’s new music. Excellent tune here.Ben Nichols, “The Last Pale Light in the West”
Speaking of music, another friend sent me this older tune from Lucero’s lead singer, part of an album inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Another excellent tune.
On My Mind: The New Pope
Last month I included a few blurbs about Pope Francis, and what a change a month can make — an American Pope! I don’t know much about him yet but did enjoy this video where someone edited the Chicago Bulls theme music onto Pope Leo XIV’s walkout last week.
Reading about him, what strikes me most is that he was plain old Father Bob from Chicago not all that long ago, then a whirlwind few years as a bishop in Peru, and then less than two years as a cardinal. He’s relatively young and an American, so he wasn’t on anyone’s shortlist for becoming Pope.
I imagine he went into the conclave assuming he’d come out and go back to business as usual, but instead they sat him down and said, essentially, “Instead of going home, you need to pick a new name and you’re going to live at the Vatican for the rest of your life as this world historical figure.”
Can you imagine that? There’s no more going out for pizza in the Chicago suburbs. If you’re elected president, you at least get a couple months to wrap your head around the job. A Fortune 500 CEO, you might need to change a few things but can still sleep in your own bed. I’m not sure anything matches the weight of what this guy just went through.
As a final note, several people have recommended Robert Harris’s thriller Conclave (the basis for the recent movie). I haven’t checked it out yet but looks timely.
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