Kyle Minor

The BBC reported today that over 800 people have lost their lives in Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. It is difficult to know how to be helpful from a distance, but those I trust who have lived many years in Haiti always suggest that if you’d like to offer a donation, it is best to give to someone small and local and accountable.

A suggestion from my friend Michael Deibert, who has spent many years living and reporting in Haiti: “I recommend Fonkoze and FOKAL, perhaps not directly hurricane related, but local orgs that work to alleviate the structural ills that lead to so much loss of life at moments like these.”

My first post-Praying Drunk story, “A Kidnapping in Koulev-Ville,” is included in Best American Mystery Stories 2015, edited by James Patterson and Otto Penzler.

I reviewed Kirstin Valdez Quade’s Night at the Fiestas for the New York Times Book Review.

Just heard the good news that Praying Drunk was chosen the winner the Story Prize Spotlight Award, by former O. Henry Prize Stories editor Larry Dark and Julie Lindsey. The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in New York, at the New School Auditorium, on March 4.