The Best of Whatever—Chris Benton

Here are the things that stuck in my mind this past year, they're pretty old most of them, but it's the first time I read them and it made a hellava impact, won't be offended if you don't include them...

A Miracle of Catfish by Larry Brown: Brown was the greatest writer in America and this maundering, nearly finished masterpiece proves it. Yes, maundering, he lingers on details with a lyrical love no other writer will ever emulate.

The Need by Frank Bill: This story relieved me so much with its primal, timely intensity, Bill is a superb craftsman, and deserves tremendous exposure

The Gypsy's Curse by Harry Crews: Every one shits bricks about A Feast of Snakes but this baby is his most physically personal and mentally naked work. if you don't believe me then you know shit about the life of My Man.

Nobody Move by Denis Johnson: Johnson is my god, and many people thought this was a lazy work, but his laziness blows away everyone in a fucking second. "He needed to keep seeing his blood."

Sony Liston Was A Friend of Mine by Thom Jones: Jones is the greatest short story writer since fucking Babel, case closed. His voice his vivid, vicious, and scarily ambidextrous and this collection is his best so far. I'm pretty jacked about his upcoming novel in waiting for over a decade, Deep Blue Dream, oh, baby, don't get me started on that one...)

The Collected Stories of Issac Babel: This Russian writer serving in the Red Calvary, who eventually got whacked by Stalin's secret police taught me more about brevity and macabre humor than any fucking writer on earth.

Ninety Two in the Shade by Thomas McGuane: "Will I find it hard to die?" I don't think I will thanks to this masterpiece, oh by the way this was made into a film, directed by the author staring Peter Fonda and Warren Oates and Margot Kidder, which I've never seen yet to my eternal fucking chagrin.

House of Bones by Aj Hayes: Hayes nailed me forever with this fever dream. It's awful in all the right ways.

Rock Springs By Richard Ford: Before Ford got devoured by Frank fucking Bascombe, he actually wrote some beautiful quiet noir stories set in Montana and Wyoming, he taught me that lingering unease is sometimes better than gunshots

Where The Money Went by Kevin Canty: Canty is the closest thing we have to Carver these day's, his edgy melancholy is unmatched anywhere, he actually taught at my hometown college for a while, before he moved to Montana.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Benton was born and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina where he still resides. He’s had fiction appear in Plots with Guns and A Twist of Noir and can be found on Facebook

The Best of Whatever—Jedidiah Ayres

My best of 2010 in no particular order:

Noir at the Bar. It was an amazing year for the tawdry little event that I host along with Scott Phillips. We were validated by the participation of Pinckney Benedict, Laura Benedict, Sean Doolittle, Derek Nikitas, Dennis Tafoya, Tim Lane, Matt Kindt and Jonathan Woods. We also got to see the first public readings of Matthew McBride, Chris La Tray, Dan O’Shea and (I think) Cameron Ashley. Don’t have any idea how 2011 could possibly top that.

People I know getting book deals. You guys make me sick. (You can find those guys HERE and HERE)

Great debuts: Jack Clark – Nobody’s Angel, Benjamin Whitmer – Pike, John Rector – The Cold Kiss

Knockout sophomore efforts: Dennis Tafoya – Wolves of Fairmount Park, Roger Smith – Wake Up Dead, Millard Kaufman – Misadventure, John Brandon – Citrus County.

“Discoveries” – Lynn Kostoff, Dave Zeltserman, Larry Brown, Thomas McGuane, Jim Nesbit

Good films from great books – Winter’s Bone, The Killer Inside Me, True Grit (it’s gonna be, I just know it)

Young punk upstarts online – Crimefactory, Muholland Books blog

And in print – Needle, Beat to a Pulp (yeah, in print)

Unconfirmed accounts of people reading my bullshit: William Gay, Chris Offutt, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jedidiah Ayres recently made his big screen debut playing the part of Yogi Bear. He loooooooovess pic-i-nic baskets. He blogs at Hardboild Wonderland and B&N's Ransom Notes and his fiction has appeared in more publications than you can shake a dead cat at. (which makes the editors of Crimefactory Magazine green with envy.) He also penned the screenplay for the film Mosquito Kingdom