An Interview with James Magruder
“But really it’s about what it’s like to be young and foolishly in love and you go after it without any perspective. These characters are very self-conscious. They’re always looking in the mirror.”
“But really it’s about what it’s like to be young and foolishly in love and you go after it without any perspective. These characters are very self-conscious. They’re always looking in the mirror.”
“Indeed, the Keatings’ struggles take on a historical and even mythic dimension that gives them significance beyond the merely personal”: Mary Stewart Atwell on Ausbel’s latest novel, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty.
“I think this is the true defining literary tradition of the Midwest: all the things we don’t say”: Kali VanBaale chats with Donald Quist about her new novel from Midwestern Gothic Press, The Good Divide.
“People tell me I can only say I accidentally wrote a YA novel once”: Kristen-Paige Madonia chats with Sharon Harrigan about YA lit and her new novel, Invisible Fault Lines.
“Perhaps the greatest benefit of writing about kidhood from a kid’s point of view is the dramatic possibilities of trapping a protagonist or narrator in his/her present, in his/her right now, without reference to the broader, more reflective environs of adulthood.”
“I definitely find myself drawn to stories. Short stories have such an impact and I love that this can result from one deftly delivered blow or from creating a cacophony”: Celeste Ng chats with Hasanthika Sirisena about her debut collection, The Other One.
“I think when I look at culture I’m trying to look beyond two opposing worlds. I’m looking at the smaller works at play. Family culture. Work culture. In many of the stories in the collection some of these come in conflict with one another.”
“While Pendarvis acknowledges that it’s tragic to dream big about lost causes, his work also insists that doomed dreams are human and, while they still seem possible, necessary to our survival.”
“You know how questions can be hydras—you think you’ve solved one, and then two more sprout. I’m sure the desert will continue to baffle me in the future, but I’m excited to say my next book has more stamps in its passport.”
“I think of all the recent research that shows us that our notion of conscious decision-making is a post hoc rationalization of something that’s happening in the non-verbal portion of our brain, which is way more powerful than our conscious portion, or how limited our ability to be congnitive is.”
