Esquire nabs King novella

A new Stephen King thriller will be published in its entirety in the July issue of Esquire. “The Gingerbread Girl,” a 21,000-word novella covering 23 pages, will arrive at newsstands today.

“Over the last year, we’ve been trying to breathe life back into magazine fiction,” Esquire Editor in Chief David Granger said Monday in a statement. “The best way to do that is to publish nothing other than event fiction -- stories that have something in addition to their literary merit to call attention to themselves.”

Esquire has a long history of publishing original fiction, including Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and Norman Mailer’s “An American Dream.” King, too, has released works through other media. In 2000, he serialized an original novel, “The Plant,” from his website.