“I wanted to convey that the lives of the working poor are nuanced, lively, and immediate, and that characters flying and working under the radar are full of wonder, grit, and creativity.” Ellen Airgood talks with Philip Caputo about her new novel, Tin Camp Road.
“When we busy ourselves too much with keeping up appearances, we might not hold enough space for authenticity, intimacy, and engagement with the world bigger than our own.” Melissa Scholes Young talks with Steven Wingate about her new novel, The Hive.
“Doubt is there for me, but I don’t see it as an engine in my life or in this novel. For me, the big engine is trying to align myself to the flow of a life that is spiritual in absolutely every aspect and moves in ways I can’t comprehend, but simply have to live”: Rolf Yngve interviews Steve Wingate about his new novel, Of Fathers and Fire, out from the University of Nebraska Press.
“The best and maybe only way to describe my path is that I’m a ‘primitive,’ coming to writing in a very organic fashion through reading. If I’d studied it in college (or even stayed in college) I’d surely have had the storyteller intimidated out of me.” Peter Geye talks with Sarah Stonich about Northern Minnesota, unconventional career paths, and being a literary chameleon.
“She captures so beautifully the isolation that many feel in an increasingly cloistered Midwest, the desperation we all experience in our teeter-totter of needs and wants”: Mike Ferro appreciates Laura Hulthen Thomas’s “Sole Suspect” in this Stories We Love essay.
“I’m honored to be a lifelong Midwesterner and to write and think about place with central allegiance”: Melissa Scholes Young talks with Melissa Fraterrigo about her story collection, Glory Days.
“There is so much published that is all the same. Yet there burns that desire to create something that does not exist. Especially for the Ozarks. Something that is not exactly like anything else under the sun.”
“Whenever I have 20–30 minutes free, I’m writing”: Keith Lesmeister chats with Barrett Bowlin about his debut collection, We Could’ve Been Happy Here, out this month from Midwestern Gothic Press.
Mary Stewart Atwell talks with Alan Heathcock as part of her interview series with writers of rural fiction, undertaken in partnership with The Art of the Rural. The two discuss Heathcock’s debut collection, Volt, as well as his Midwestern influences, film, politics, and more.
Charles Baxter poses five questions to his former student, Dean Bakopoulos, about his new novel, Summerlong, just out in paperback.
