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.
“Trying to see the world as others might seems like an act of respect to me—so long as it isn’t done cynically or sloppily.” Skip Horack talks to Tom Bennitt about work, religion, and history in his fiction.
There are no zombies or vampires in Brad Watson’s new collection, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives (W.W. Norton, 2010), but there are plenty of folks who act like they’re either dead or from another planet. And, yes, many of Watson’s characters are “aliens”—not green creatures with large heads, but alienated, isolated. They are people who wander through life without an anchor, who don’t feel the pull of gravity.
