Issue #37

I have always wanted to be a writer. I have always written…I was writing seriously all the way through college. I wrote my first novel when I was in college. I didn’t have the notion of a reader then, so it never bothered me whether somebody would even read it, much less like it.—Lee Smith, interviewed by Susan McInnis

As long as the story is powerful enough to persuade the reader of the reality at the moment of reading it, and creates a story that has meanings that are consequential in some way, then it’s okay.—James Lasdun, interviewed by Robert Birnbaum

The scenes where I had a big crowd were challenging as well. I had to write much broader scenes than I ever had in the past. It was like going from painting watercolors to painting like Delacroix.—Edwidge Danticat, interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson

So for example, when I describe a tree on the corner of the lane, or the way sunlight comes through a window, those images have years of personal weight behind them. Describing them is almost an act of love, so the words flow without that sense of straight I might feel if I were, say, writing a travel article about a place I wasn’t fully invested in.—Mary Yukari Waters, interviewed by Sherry Ellis

If I said that the mother was a good mother and she baked cookies for her kids, you might be able to see her, but not as much as if I tell you she just speaks Spanish before noon. Nothing but Spanish. It is this effort to pull the reader in and have the reader accept what you are saying.—Edward P. Jones, interviewed by Robert Birnbaum