New Story at Joyland + Some Thoughts!!!

Sorry everyone this is about to be so earnest

Hi everyone,

It’s August 9th today, which means my short story, “Sex is A Leisure Activity,” has been live at Joyland for a whole day! I was so excited to hear Joyland wanted to publish me—the wonderfully kind and brilliant Jo Barchi edited and they made the story so much better. Joyland also has a long history of publishing excellent fiction: I first heard about them way back in 2012, when I read one of their especially popular stories, a flash piece by Amelia Gray called “The Swan as Metaphor for Love,” but I really became obsessed with Joyland’s stuff when they published my genius friend and mentor Corinne Manning’s short story, “The Wallaby.” It was published there in 2017 (and in Corinne’s brilliant collection WE HAD NO RULES) and I remember feeling so alive and inspired about the possibilities of fiction and writing in general after reading it. I had never read a story that so candidly engaged with things like queer assimilation and messy butch-femme dynamics. There’s just no way I would be writing fiction, period, if I hadn’t read “The Wallaby” in Joyland.

Joyland also published a story, “I Want Too Much,” by the brilliant Mona Awad in 2013, my professor at Syracuse with whom I workshopped an early draft of “Sex is a Leisure Activity.” She completely got what I was trying to do with the draft and helped me get it into shape for publication. They more recently published stories by two beloved, genius writer friends of mine: fellow Syracuse MFAer and all around cool guy Nabeel Chollampat’s “Private Viewing Mode” and my Mineral School residency buddy and one of the funniest writers I know, Sara Jaffe’s “Today’s Problems.” Do yourself a favor and read both of these—so funny, so beautifully written, just so, so, so, fucking good. There are so many other writers Joyland has published that are doing singular, exciting work. Whenever I publish in a new lit mag I like to hang out in that mag’s archives deliberately for a while after and I can’t wait to go deeper into Joyland’s.

ANYWAY, THE POINT IS, getting this story published in Joyland means a lot to me and I wanted to acknowledge this little Joyland lineage because I think it rocks! I think lit mags rock and it’s worth it to point out the ones that are doing interesting things.

TLDR; I really hope you read my story in this cool magazine, Joyland—IF YOU DO READ IT, I would be so happy if you would share it on social media or text it someone or let me know what you think. It means so much to me when people reach out or I see my work reaching new readers, it’s the whole reason I do this obviously!!! Even if you hated the story or thought it was super boring, I would be psyched to hear from you…. But, hopefully, if you are at all interested in 1) fiction about trans guys 2) t4t stuff 3) navigating polyamory 4) super long and graphic sex scenes 5) regional comedy scene dynamics 6) clueless cis men 7) writing about weed 8) what I have to say about any of the above, you will find something in there worth reading. OKAY, THAT’S ALL FOR SELF PROMOTION TODAY. SEE YOU NEXT TIME!!!!! ENJOY THE STORY!!!!!! HERE’S THE LINK TO THE STORY AGAIN!!!

PRACTICE is OVER

and so is Twitter, probably

Hello beloved Practice-heads,

You may have noticed that Twitter has become a slow-motion car crash from which many terminally-online people like myself must leap. In truth, I will remain on the bird site until the bitter end, but I also think it’s probably smart for me to reinvest in my presence on Substack. If you’re receiving this post as an email, you are subscribed as a free subscriber—there are no paid subscriptions anymore for Max Practice/this Substack account. Everything I post here will be free for the time being, which I expect will just be Notes and the occasional writing update. If I decide to offer a paid newsletter in the future, I will let you know and you will need to re-sign up, but there are no current plans for that. Just mentioning to confirm there will be no surprise costs for anyone receiving this email!

My updates for the moment: I’m in the middle of my MFA in fiction at Syracuse University (In 2020-21 I was at The Ohio State MFA for creative nonfiction, but left after one year). My most recent short story was published in the 69th issue of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, but anyone who finds the cost of the issue prohibitive should email me and I’ll send you a PDF. I also have an essay in the upcoming Graywolf anthology Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, edited by Carmen Maria Machado and J. Robert Lennon. That comes out in November of this year. Check out my website to read other stories of mine that have been published—I’ve got another one scheduled to come out at Joyland this summer. I’ll email you all when it comes out though, so PLEASE don’t panic. The biggest update is that I am closer to being done with a short story collection than not done with a short story collection, which is mind-blowing to me.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and say yes, I think I am going to do the Notes, and I am going to use Max Practice to send career updates semi-regularly. Tell your friends or unsubscribe or do nothing at all based on your current newsletter needs. I have gone through and hidden (successfully? I hope?) almost all of the old Max Practice posts, save for a few favorites. Everyone should be able to still read, for instance, about how Cadet Kelly Was Lesbians.

That’s all for now! Write to me with questions, concerns, greetings, Cadet Kelly commentary. I hope you’re all having excellent days.

Goodbye Max Practice

it's time

Sweet readers,

I write to you from my dark, dark bedroom. Ours is a basement apartment and I have turned the lights off to set the mood. My shirt is off, too, but not in a sexy way. I’m mildly allergic to our new dog and I need my air passageways as clear as possible. I do not want inflamed sinuses while I write this sad note.

I’ve decided to stop my newsletter, the famous Max Practice. In truth, I had been discussing this choice with various loved ones for weeks before the pandemic started. As I’d hoped, I learned a ton this past year-ish about the kind of writing I want to do. What I’ve learned is that I am not a lightning fast content machine. I am a slow and ugly burn. It’s the same impulse that led me to stop stand-up a few months ago, despite my relative success: I can entertain on the spot, but I generally prefer not to (save for co-hosting queer live talk show Cruising with Clara, my one true comedy love). I like to savor an idea, look at it from all angles, let it marinate and get super weird. In just 8 weeks, I’ll move to Ohio for an MFA program. I am going to write and learn a ton, then publish work that (ideally) reads more confident and self-assured. As a writer, I am very concerned with wasting anyone’s time and money. I want to give you my best, and my best is slow.

For instance: In a couple weeks, I have an essay coming out at The Rumpus. It’s challenging and aggressive. It took me almost three years to get it right. It is 2500 words. I think it is the best writing I have ever done. Please check it out on May 11th, if you’re so inclined.

I am grateful for the incredible feedback and kind words you all have shared with me about my posts for Max Practice. So many of these little essay-things were a true joy to write. Some of my favorites were (I’ve unlocked all these posts, if any free subscribers want to read):

The Real Girls of Adventure Time

Cadet Kelly Was Lesbians

I Have Heard The Voice of Trans

I Played/Married Myself

On The Sexually Fluid Community

Do You Remember Fucking My Wife?

The Meaning of CATS

Thank you all for giving me the space to experiment, have fun and practice meeting deadlines. To be paid to write! About Are You The One?! Truly, I have now lived the dream. Anything after this is just gravy.

Here’s how this is going to work— New paid subscriptions are now closed. After sending this email, I will cancel all paid Max Practice subscriptions, thus ending all paid Max Practice content. If you had a paid subscription and would like a partial refund for any content you would have received in coming weeks/months, please email me, and I’ll send you that refund through Stripe as quickly as possible. I reserve the right to occasionally send a free newsletter via Max Practice sometime in the future, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Now I’m going to log off and take a long bath. Again, thank you all for the support, for sharing this newsletter with others, for reading my work again and again. See you IRL one day.

Love,
Max