Esmé Weijun Wang is the author of the novel The Border of Paradise and the best-selling essay collection The Collected Schizophrenias, published in January. Called “riveting” by NPR and “mind-expanding” by the New York Times Book Review, The Collected Schizophrenias offers an intimate and rigorously nuanced exploration of the myriad meanings of schizophrenia—cultural, sociomedical, and personal. In this interview, we talk structure, subjectivity, and liminality. — Jennifer duBois: Can you talk ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
Video Games, Trash TV, and Death Metal Music: An Interview with Jennifer duBois
Jennifer duBois, author of the acclaimed novels Cartwheel and A Partial History of Lost Causes, has a new novel that was published last week: The Spectators. LitHub lists it as one of the “Most Anticipated Books of 2019,” and Booklist calls is “brilliantly conceived” and “utterly unforgettable.” An excerpt from The Spectators was published in Issue 63 of American Short Fiction. In this interview, we dig into the genesis of duBois’s latest novel, its structural challenges, and what nineties talk ... [READ MORE]
Contest Closed: The 2019 Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize is closed for submissions!
***The 2019 Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize has closed for submissions. Thank you to everyone who submitted their work. Keep your eyes out for the winner in an upcoming issue of American Short Fiction.*** We're so happy to announce that our judge for this year's prize will be the wonderful Rebecca Makkai, whose wrenching, empathetic 2018 novel The Great Believers, about the AIDS crisis in 1980s Chicago, was widely and justly celebrated, including as a finalist for the National Book Award. Makkai ... [READ MORE]
Web Exclusive Interview: Keenan Walsh
January's Web Exclusive, "Flood," describes a significant moment of change in a troubled family's life. It's notoriously hard to master a run-on sentence, but author Keenan Walsh does it here. In editing, we realized there was no way to break it up without losing its very necessary urgency, that the whole thing was an intricately woven tapestry that needed to stay intact. What's more, the form forces the modern, harried reader to slow down and take in shimmering details that they might otherwise ... [READ MORE]
Web Exclusive Interview: Zach Powers
In Zach Powers' flash fiction story, "Surface Treatments," a father paints himself into a corner—literally. While the circumstances are absurd, there is such an accuracy and familiarity in the helpless acceptance of his wife and children alternating between observing and gamely participating in his self-exile. We spoke to Powers about writing, this story, and—since he's also an expert on the subject—what to do when you're in Savannah. — Erin McReynolds: Something about this scenario—an ... [READ MORE]
A Person Who Looks: An Interview with Lacy M. Johnson
Houston-based Lacy M. Johnson’s recent essay collection, The Reckonings, grapples with vital questions: the concept of evil, police killings, the BP oil spill, and the complexity of speaking truth to power. Finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in the category criticism, Johnson’s essays move between the personal and the political with deftness and precision. This interview was conducted via email where we talked about Johnson’s curatorial project, the Houston Flood Museum, ... [READ MORE]