NOON 2025

by Diane Williams

Recently lauded by Merve Emre in The New Yorker as publishing “the most interesting short-story writers working in English,” NOON is an award-winning literary annual that was founded in 2000 by American author Diane Williams. It is noted for its cutting-edge fiction, arresting art portfolios and elegant design. Contributors to the 26th edition of NOON include Bryan Price, Lydia Davis, Kim Chinquee, Christine Schutt, Nathan Dragon, Mark Tweed, Kathryn Scanlan, Dave Barrett, Belinda Paxton, Clancy Martin, Vi Khi Nao, Sara Reggiani, Stephen Mortland, Lucie Elven, Kayla Blatchley, Susan Laier, and Robert Tindall. NOON features paintings by Phyllis Bramson, Bernardo Zenale, Sofonisba Anguissola, drawings by Augusta Gross. ADVANCE PRAISE “A compendium of unlikely short prose and illustrations that challenge us to think about meaning and narrative . . . These are oblique stories, stories that exist in the interior, getting at the things we know but do not know we know.” —David Ulin, LOS ANGELES TIMES “Erudite, elegant and stubbornly experimental.” —Rumaan Alam, THE NEW YORK TIMES “A beautiful annual that remains staunchly avant-garde in its commitment to work that is oblique, enigmatic and impossible to ignore . . . stories that leave a flashbulb’s glow behind the eyes even as they resist sense.” —Rachel Syme, THE NEW YORK TIMES

170 pages

Published March 16, 2025

About the author

Diane Williams is an American author, primarily of short stories. She lives in New York City and is the founder and editor of the literary annual NOON (est. 2000). She has published 8 books and taught at Bard College, Syracuse University and The Center for Fiction in New York City.

Her books have been reviewed in many publications, including the New York Times Book Review ("An operation worthy of a master spy, a double agent in the house of fiction") and The Los Angeles Times ("One of America's most exciting violators of habit is [Diane] Williams…the extremity that Williams depicts and the extremity of the depiction evoke something akin to the pity and fear that the great writers of antiquity considered central to literature. Her stories, by removing you from ordinary literary experience, place you more deeply in ordinary life. 'Isn't ordinary life strange?' they ask, and in so asking, they revivify and console”).

Jonathan Franzen describes her as "one of the true living heroes of the American avant-garde. Her fiction makes very familiar things very, very weird." Ben Marcus suggested that her "outrageous and ferociously strange stories test the limits of behavior, of manners, of language, and mark Diane Williams as a startlingly original writer worthy of our closest attention."

Reviews

[cardulelia carduelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hurray!
A literary journal I really vibe with. A publication with a distinct voice, a very strange art selection, and phenomenal writing. This was my first time reading NOON and definitely not my last.

NOON is a literary annual from short-story legend Diane Williams. Established in 2000, NOON seems to focus on flash fiction (1-2 pages) and capsules of author's writings rather than longer form stories. Each piece is brimming with strange sentences:

I pulled the car over into the grass and I was holding the turtle almost like I was holding a sandwich.

from Nathan Dragon's I think I'm going to try trying.
This is my favorite kind of short fiction. It's somewhere between vignettes and prose poetry. The images are tangible, the sentences are full of color. It's like a concentrate of a short story.

He forgot the words she used. Sometimes little echoes came to him. Her scultpture of blue apples on a card table.

which is from NOON's opening story Blue Apples by Brian Price. We then get, not one but five, pieces by Lydia Davis. I didn't always get the joke with these, they weren't weird enough - somehow felt a little dated.
Then there is Marc Tweed's incredible Dennis Roy Has Something to do with God:

I remember little lizards appearing out of nowhere on the ceiling and the walls and people always knocking on the barricaded doors and yelling at the windows for me to come out with my hands up.

There is an excerpt from Christine Schutt's novel-in-progress:

Mae sat at his desk and traced its planetary surface, its milky rings and gouges. She tested his pencils, sharp as pins, on her tongue.

I will absolutely be picking up whatever this novel turns into, the language was astonishing throughout. I'll also be checking out her earlier work.

Then we are blessed with five wonderful pieces by Nathan Dragon, who I quoted earlier. Each one tickled me. It's all stream of conciousness. The kind of writing that reads effortless but is so hard to get right. He is also one I will be seeking out immediately.
Other highlights:
- David Barret's He Shuffled The Freshness Out (of which I'd quote the whole thing at you, given the chance).
- Vi Khi Nao's Like an Angel:

The least I could do was decorticate its fur like the rind of a grapefruit.

- Mary wanted to feel by Susan Laier, also too short to quote.

The fiction is interspersed with very strange art selections.
The first, which includes the cover art, is from Phyllis Bramson. It's certainly in-keeping with the playful, colorful nature of the written work but just slightly too perverted to be enjoyable. Likewise the inclusion of Bernado Zenale's 16th-century Angels Playing and Singing is interesting from an art-history perspective (shortened figures that seem proportional when viewed from above) but strongly leans towards creepy given that they are all nude babies with genetalia on display. One, fine, ALL of them?
The Sofonisba Anguissola tribute was interesting.

The best art is, both for my personal tastes and that best matches the tone of the annual, were the demented bird portraits throughout. These are by a pianist and composer Augusta Gross and are, all at once, whimsical and creepy.



I have since learned that Gross is a featured artist in NOON since 2004.
Honestly I love the annual even more knowing that.

This is a literary treat. Snap up the next one if you see it! I will now be hunting down the back catalogue..

[欠生 · Rating 4 out of 5]

first time reading experimental literature journals, very dissimilar to other works indeed