“The best writing is transformative…Writing succeeds, too, when it acts as a mirror, reflecting our humanity back to us”: R.L. Maizes talks with Donna Baier Stein about writing outsiders, literary influences, and the path to releasing her debut collection.
With some help from Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt, Candace Walsh explores the power of the paragraph.
“We are always in a particular place at a particular time. As much as we might want to treat our first observations as essential, they remain unreal until they are embodied.” Michael Hinken talks with Salvatore Scibona about his new novel, The Volunteer.
“Any art that matters presents, somehow, an argument against. It’s a dream of alternatives and an assertion of spirit.” Naomi Ulsted talks with John Domini about activism, Naples, and not overthinking craft.
“I don’t ever really think a work is done, but I’m excited when a work is doing something, anything further.” Kristen Arnett chats with Barrett Bowlin about representing queerness, Florida writers, and drafting her debut novel, Mostly Dead Things, out this week from Tin House books.
“Art needs to be honest. Sometimes, it’s the only pure honesty you’ll get all day.” Emily Nagin reviews Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.
“Like the eye of a passing storm, these interludes bring a necessary interruption, a pause that allows us (not to mention the characters themselves) to have the time needed to process the stories’ crises before facing their conclusions.” In the second half of this craft essay, Alyson Mosquera Dutemple explores the “penultimate space”—between crisis and resolution—in William Trevor’s “Le Visiteur.”
“Like the eye of a passing storm, these interludes bring a necessary interruption, a pause that allows us (not to mention the characters themselves) to have the time needed to process the stories’ crises before facing their conclusions.” In the first half of this craft essay, Alyson Mosquera Dutemple explores the “penultimate space”—between crisis and resolution—in Gina Berriault’s “The Stone Boy.”
“We want to be understood, but we don’t want to, or feel unable to, share our own stories.” Matthew Robinson sits down with Thea Prieto to discuss Memorial Day, writing the war experience, and his novel-in-stories, The Horse Latitudes.
“That moment when we realize our parents are people, regular people, with flaws and separate lives we have no access to. Brought home, made palpable for the reader, in that little clattering spoon”: Kent Kosack on Lucia Berlin’s coming-of-age story “Itinerary.”
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"
