The parents in all of these stories are Chekhov’s gun on the wall.
I love the essay form; it’s a way of thinking, a form of thought.
After all, when there are few places to physically go in a story, every movement...
“There is nearly always a difference between the story the narrator understands and wants to tell, and the story the character would tell. That’s why the story is in the third person.” Part I of Peter Turchi’s essay on shifting narrative distance in third person fiction.
“I love when a writer asks me to forgive a parent despite the pain they’ve caused their child”: Amber Wheeler Bacon on empathizing with bad parents in fiction.
Sofie Verraest talks with Lydia Davis about her new book, Essays One, as well as the difference between writing essays and stories, the role of “coherence” in each genre, the climate crisis and the role of writers, and more.
“It’s as if I hadn’t really read the work until I wrote the essay.” Benjamin Woodard interviews Douglas Glover about the art of the craft essay and his recent collection of them, The Erotics of Restraint, out now from Biblioasis.
“After all, when there are few places to physically go in a story, every movement counts.” Alyson Mosquera Dutemple inhabits the limited settings of John Updike’s “A&P” and Stewart O’Nan’s Last Night at the Lobster.
In commemoration of the recent death of a brilliant experimental fictionist, we revisit this 2009 meditation by Steven Wingate on the words of his mentor Steve Katz.
“I don’t believe that you can totally shed your old self (sorry, family from my first novel), but neither do I believe that identity is perfectly portable”: Bryan Furuness talks with Philip Graham about his new novel, Do Not Go On, books that are “suspenseful and insightful,” and more.
“What I love is the defamiliarization.” Kent Kosack appreciates the aesthetic openness of Catherine Lacey’s short story “The Healing Center.”
“No matter how well-documented the history of a family home may be, there are gaps… I revel in the license to move into those uncharted spaces; to take a leap of faith from the springboard of memory into the untethered dimension of the imagination.” Ellen Prentiss Campbell on dreams, intuition, and following “the vapor trail of memory” in fiction.
“Every character gets understanding. That’s what a writer does. But abusive humans only get two pages. That’s it.” Jami Attenberg talks with Melissa Scholes Young about her new novel, family secrets, the desire for happiness, and more.
Stories We Love: “White Angel,” by Michael Cunningham
Stories We Love: Donald Barthelme’s “The School,” In Which is Revealed the Meaning of Life
Stories We Love: "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver
Stories We Love: "The Fall River Axe Murders," by Angela Carter
Stories We Love: "Incarnations of Burned Children"
