Lee Stoops

Annotation Published

Lee — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:35:18 +0000

The response Offutt evokes goes beyond stories that compel or infect. The effect is deeper, even, than connecting with the other, the human experience, or even the self. Offutt’s stories remind: “You have stories you have to tell, and you are the only one to tell them.”

As much as we need our stories, our homes, we must be held accountable for sharing our needs, for writing our stories, for owning whatever is Home.

A big thank you to Annotation Nation for publishing my notes on Chris Offutt’s collection of short stories: Out of the Woods.

Go buy a copy and get reading!

Annotation Published

Lee — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:11:28 +0000

What struck me with Tower’s book? The fun of it. Tower delivers readers into his imagined worlds. The voices of his narrators are individual, well-rendered, real. The content and delivery of his stories – whether sentimental, blackly comic, or savage – left me taking notes and contriving ideas, all while having a hell of a good time reading.

Thanks to Annotation Nation for publishing my notes on Wells Tower’s Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.

Get a copy and get reading!

Short Story Published

Lee — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:58:13 +0000

Bartleby Snopes Issue 9 is ready for your eyes! Featured is my dialogue contest winning story “Open Me.”

Have a read, share the issue, and consider giving the magazine additional support by buying a copy (print or ebook).

Annotation Published

Lee — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:16:14 +0000

Ben Loory’s Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day are fast, deep-reaching experiments in touching on the simple darkness that exists around the root of human imagination. The fun he has on the page translates to a reading experience that’s addicting, engaging, enlightening, and liberating. It’s a mix of rule-breaking, fear-inviting, and fat-cutting.

Thanks to Annotation Nation for publishing my notes.

Get a copy and settle in for some quality unsettling!

Annotation Published

Lee — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:15:26 +0000

I cannot think of a book that has more moved me, changed my mind, or affirmed what I believe than this collection of essays. Through the essays in Eula Biss’s Notes from No Man’s Land, there is and offering of permission to think honestly and express freely. She impressed me more than any writer of this generation both in the bravery of her presentation and in the quality of her writing.

Special thanks once again to Annotation Nation’s CNF site for publishing my study.

Worth a read. Support the author and her work by purchasing a copy.

Annotation Published

Lee — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:39:19 +0000

Recently, I admitted to myself that I like gritty western stories. Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers is a gritty western story, to be sure, but it’s also a study in character development, unique voice, and literary craft – a combination place to which few gritty western stories arrive (a nod to Cormac McCarthy for long ago transcending the genre).

Thanks to Annotation Nation for taking my notes on The Sisters Brothers.

Worth getting a copy – find it here.

Annotation Published

Lee — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 15:43:06 +0000

The Sex Lives of Cannibals had me, as few books actually do, laughing out loud. J. Maarten Troost’s writing is smart, funny, sometimes indulgent, and engaging the whole way through.

Thanks to AnnotationNation’s CNFNation for publishing my notes on The Sex Lives of Cannibals.

Worth the read. Get it here.

Annotation Published

Lee — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:48:27 +0000

Blue Nights is exactly what people are talking about when they talk about the Didion powerhouse: the poetic, strange, and thoughtful (interesting) word order; the repetition of meaningful turns; the engagement of the reader.

Read my craft analysis of Joan Didion’s Blue Nights on AnnotationNation’s CNFNation.

Worth the read. Get it here.

Annotation Published

Lee — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:42:19 +0000

Aimee Bender, through the use of fantastical characters and magical circumstances, quietly, almost as if she is intentionally distracting her audience from enviable crafting, delivers unflinching prose and humanity at its most vulnerable to create stories that slip painlessly into the imagination, where they can fester without hope of ever being forgotten.

AnnotationNation published my notes on Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.

Indulge in the fun, get a copy here.

Annotation Published

Lee — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:36:15 +0000

There is something special about the accessibility of Bernard Cooper’s words in his collection of essays and memoirs Truth Serum.

Check out my study of Cooper’s Truth Serum on AnnotationNation’s creative nonfiction page, CNFNAtion.