Best of The Weather: Year One
Holy hell it’s getting hot in here. And why? Because today, exactly one year after we humbly went live, we present Trop’s first ever BEST OF THE WEATHER. 1. For sticking to the editorial mission the…
Tom Dibblee
Tom Dibblee is Trop’s editor. His fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train and his nonfiction has appeared in Pacific Standard, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Point. He lives in Los Angeles.
Happy Birthday to Us
Readers! Exactly one year ago today, with a pink and green site, big dreams, and little clue of what was to come, Trop went live—Happy Birthday to us! It’s been a wild year, one filled with…
Honest and Unbiased: Sugway
Sugway Los Angeles, Los Angeles 5 Stars They kept asking me if I wanted it toasted. They cut the bread and laid it out. “Toasted?” the guy said. “No,” I said. “Toasted sandwiches do not work…
Rachel Kushner, Nevada, and Spiritual America
1: Written on 3/22/13 before I left Los Angeles for Laughlin, Nevada, a place my friend Ian calls a “cluster of off-strip-style casinos on the Colorado River where few people are younger than forty.” Also written…
Discussion Questions: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
This is the first installment of a new series in which Trop writers answer the discussion questions in the backs of books like The Help. 1. Who was your favorite character? Why? Minny. Because she shat…
The Top Commencement Addresses on YouTube
In order to continue coverage of our own commencement address contest, which is open for submissions only until March 31 and pays real cash prizes, Trop sent out word to its writers, editors, friends, and affiliates…
The Shortest Commencement Address
This morning I got an email from my aunt Edie. She’d read the interview I did with my cousin—her son—Silas, about what he, a high school sophomore, wanted to hear from his school’s commencement speaker this…
A Commencement-Related Interview with Silas
On March 19, in order to lend a hand to potential entrants in Trop’s short fake commencement address contest, which is open for submissions for just barely one week more and promises prestige, cash, and publication…
Male Fantasy Stories with Horrible Endings: The Collected Works
This is the first fantasy story in Tom’s new collection. One I’d boil it all down to sexual intercourse, with the kind of women I’ve seen on TV. Pretty ones. Busty ones. Then it doesn’t go…
Commencement Demonstration
As you may know, Trop is having a commencement address writing contest. And as you may be able to infer, we’d like you to enter it. But we here at Trop would be the first to acknowledge that writing a…
Team Writing: The Happy Couple Lost the Snake, Chapter Two
This is the second chapter of Emma and Tom’s Team Writing experiment. For the first “Happy Couple” chapter, click here. Inside the car I tighten the cloth around my eyes, working a knot at the…
Announcement
Dear Readers, We have an announcement: We’re having a contest. It’s a commencement address contest—known in full as the Trop Short Fake College or High School Class President Commencement Address Contest—and I’d like to tell you about…
Nightmares of Hell: Chapter Five
To start Nightmares of Hell at the beginning, click here. … Author’s Note—Well guys, the seaman’s dead, and how ’bout that. He died last chapter, which seems like eons ago. Maybe it was two weeks ago. But unfortunately for…
Nightmares of Hell: Chapter Four
To start Nightmares of Hell at the beginning, click here. … Author’s Note—What’s up, guys. First of all I just want to say it’s been awesome hearing so many kind words about Nightmares of Hell from…
The Head and Neck Consultation Suite: A Bad Health Memoir
Author’s Note—The Head and Neck Consultation Suite is a bad health memoir. It’s a memoir of the boy that I was—a stricken boy, a boy with all the odds against him. Odds which, you will soon…
Nightmares of Hell: Chapter Three
To start Nightmares of Hell at the beginning, click here. … Author’s Note—Sometimes, in books, there’s a lot more happening than you realize. You think you’re in a set piece, with a man and a man-child…
Happy Holidays
Dear Readers, ’Tis the season. The season for colored lights, hot drinks, and truck commercials that put big red bows on big bad masculinity. ’Tis the season for making sure the presents you’re given confirm that your family loves…