“Imagine two thousand people reading your interactive novel and each having completely unique story experiences. To me it sounded like the future—and I, as a writer who believes in exploring new storytelling tools, wanted a piece of it.” Returning to his “Quotes & Notes” series, Steven Wingate explores the pleasures and pitfalls of writing interactive fiction.
“Reading The Dakota Winters entertains—like visiting a museum of ephemera, or skimming through decades-old back issues of People Magazine“: Ellen Prentiss Campbell on Tom Barbash’s new novel.
“Yes, I have faith in my process, but I also know that it could fail me at any time.” Louise Marburg chats with Mary Volmer about patience, process, and the short story form.
“We need to ask why we choose the characters we do and what we are trying to communicate with them. We need to challenge our own biases.” Rene Denfeld talks with Kate Lemery about writing, social justice, and The Child Finder, out now in paperback by HarperCollins.
“So in the novel I’m driving at the idea that justice and freedom don’t wait. It’s not, well, you need to suffer just a little more and then things are going to be peachy in fifty years. No. That was the rationale for colonialism and you can see the wreckage that left behind.”
“It’s the ultimate act of forgiveness, I think, this deciding to let go of how our lives might have turned out differently.” Jaclyn Gilbert and Shayne Terry talk writing, running, and Jaclyn’s debut novel, Late Air, out next week from Little A.
“I’m much more interested in inner conflict than outer conflict”: Sara Batkie chats with Jesse Hassenger about the stories that make up her debut collection, Better Times, winner of the 2017 Prairie Schooner Book Prize and out now from the University of Nebraska Press.
Jen Julian talks with Joanna Eleftheriou about missing characters, science fiction, anglerfish husbands, and her new collection, Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses, winner of this year’s Press 53 Award for Short Fiction.
Gary Sheppard sits down with his former classmate, Tom Bennitt, to discuss Bennitt’s debut novel, Burning Under, as well as representing the working class, writing unsympathetic characters, and the literature of the Rust Belt.
“For the longest time, I wrote without being published, so I know all about that”: Virginia Pye chats with Janyce Stefan-Cole about her new collection, Shelf Life of Happiness, out this week from Press 53.
