Interview: Michael Coffey, Author of The Business of Naming Things
shelfunbound What’s a typical starting point for you in writing a story, for example rebounding 30-year-old Price Chopper employee Carla in her “transitional phase,” in which “she was and was not a lot of things, and in there, in between things, she felt free.” michaelcoffey In looking back at these eight stories, I find that […]
Excerpt: Little Nation and Other Stories by Alejandro Morales
By the eighth month of their pregnancy, two more neighborhood teenagers and an elderly couple had died. A young gangster was killed on his way home from school. He died because he was flashing his Hazard signs to a convoy of cars that drove by with shouts of “Maravilla rules!” When they drove past again, […]
Interview: Karen E. Bender, Author of Refund: Stories
shelfunbound What’s a typical starting point for you in writing a story, for example unhappy thirty-something Anna Green, who survives a shooting at her high school reunion only to be defrauded by her first boyfriend? karenebender For me, a story is the collision of something in real life that interests me, and my desire to […]
Interview: Lawrence Scott, Author of Leaving by Plane, Swimming Back Underwater
shelfunbound What’s a typical starting point for you in writing a story, for example the murdered dog in “A Dog is Buried”? lawrencescott With this story, there had been an event of finding a dead dog on a doorstep of a beach house that I had partly experienced. Also, I have always been struck by […]
Excerpt: Nelly Arcan, Author of Burqa of Skin/Writings
When I was little I often looked at myself in the mirror, but being as small as I was, I couldn’t see myself right away. I showed up only bit by bit, and even when I could see myself I could make out only my head, since the rest of my body was still too […]
Interview: Kim Addonizio, Author of The Palace of Illusions
shelfunbound What’s a typical starting point for you in writing a story, for example the troubled little Annabelle with a neglectful mother and a lecherous grandfather in this book’s first story? kimaddonizio I often just start with an image that sticks in my head; in this case it was a little girl and a goldfish. […]
Interview: Dale Herd, Author of Empty Pockets
shelfunbound What’s a typical starting point for you in writing a story, for example Felicia and David visiting a college friend in New York City, and David’s unease with the friend’s homosexual roommate in “The Big Apple”? daleherd There never is a typical starting point. In this particular story the starting point occurred some years […]
Interview: Kevin Morris, Author of White Man’s Problems
Shelf Unbound: You’re a highly successful Hollywood entertainment attorney, and you won a Tony for co-producing Book of Mormon. Why add writing to the mix at this point in your career? Kevin Morris: I’ve always wanted to write fiction, but have come to it the long way. When I graduated from college, 30 years ago, […]