The stories come in the mail, actual postage-paid physical submissions, not email. Diane Williams, pen in hand, reads them at her kitchen table. For the past 25 years, Williams has been the force behind NOON, an art and literary journal that has featured the work of writers including Lydia Davis, Roxane Gay, R.
O. Kwon , Tao Lin, Ottessa Moshfegh, Sam Lipsyte and more. Williams, who co-founded NOON with Christine Schutt, is the author of 11 books of stories including “I Hear You’re Rich,” “How High? – That High” and “The Collected Stories of Diane Williams.
” Known for great writing, NOON is also gorgeous. Designed by Susan Carroll, the yearly editions feature drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture and more. From its typesetting and paperstock to its lush color and gatefold covers, the annuals highlight the work of people – NOON’s team of editors and contributors – who value words and how they are presented.
(Williams’s New York City apartment is filled with art , from a watercolor by Henry Miller to anonymous works picked up in her travels.) Author Kathryn Scanlan, the recent recipient of the Gordon Burn Prize and one of this year’s Donald Windham–Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes , told me that NOON has been a major influence on her work, praising both Williams and all those who work to produce the journal.
“Diane’s a major American writer, but she also very generously does this because she felt like there wasn’t necessarily a place fo.
