A Conversation with PEN America Best Debut Short Story Author Ruth Serven

In Ruth Serven’s brief, haunting “A Message,” two friends discuss a missing father.

On August 22, Catapult will publish PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2017, the inaugural edition of an anthology celebrating outstanding new fiction writers published by literary magazines around the world. In the weeks leading up to publication, we will feature Q&As with all of the contributors, whose stories were selected for the anthology by judges Marie-Helene Bertino, Kelly Link, and Nina McConigley, and awarded PEN’s Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Submissions for the 2018 awards are open now.

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Ruth Serven is a creative writer and journalist in the flyover states. She is a native of Oklahoma City and a proud graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. In her brief, haunting story, “A Message,” two friends discuss a missing father:

Perhaps it begins like this, you say earnestly to your disbelieving friend in a coffee shop, or the secondhand store, or the line to buy banitsa at the metro stop—

—perhaps, no listen to me, my father, Stefan, had to go back to Serbia for business. Perhaps his passport was stolen by a nationalist. He rushed to the embassy to get a new one. But the embassy was overwhelmed by refugees and worried about terrorists, though of course he wasn’t one. Irena the receptionist told him to come back another day, but every day was the same. He had leva in his pocket that the bank did not want, and not enough euros to pay the right lawyers and border guards.

He stayed in Belgrade to work, and got an apartment. Every day he told himself, I must go back, I must return to my family, but he was never able to get away. He is very important. He works all weekends and holidays. But someday he will finally get away for Christmas or summer holiday and take me to the sea.

The train passes.

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Catapult: Where did you find the idea for this story?

Ruth Serven: When I went to Bulgaria, I had been working on a story about a girl who was searching for a Czechoslovakian father who disappeared during the Cold War. While I was in Bulgaria, something clicked in my head. It took a while, but when I sat down to write, suddenly the story was based in Bulgaria.

Why was it important to write about a missing father?

It was a story that I had been thinking about for a long time, and thinking of as almost a thriller. Who is this dad, and why did he leave? But the real story that emerged when I began to write “A Message” was about two friends navigating a relationship. That relationship, to me, is more important than something that happened to the character twenty years ago.

Your editor at Epiphany, which first published the work, described the circular narrative as “the equivalent of drawing a piece of puzzle and seeing if it might fit.” Did you set out trying to capture that effect?

Yes. I wanted to get the feel of two friends talking and feeling out a topic over the course of a friendship.

Can you talk about why you chose to intersperse the story with passing trains?

In Sofia, the trains were a constant part of my life. Because the rest of the story was so circular and jagged, I wanted an element of continuity. So I began playing around with a few elements of repetition. Plus, since most of the audience probably isn’t familiar with Bulgaria, trains are very approachably European.

“A Message” reveals so much in just 1,400 words. How long did it take you to write?

I think I wrote it in an afternoon! I was avoiding other projects, and it all came out at once.

How has the Robert J. Dau prize affected you?

So much! I got the check right as I was graduating college. It helped me fund a trip to New York, several bridesmaids dresses, and a move a different state after I graduated. It gave me a financial cushion to take a few leaps and be generous to friends. Honestly, as a new and young writer, it has been incredible. It also probably gave me a false sense of financial security in the writing field, but I’m sure I’ll adjust.

What are you working on now?

My day job is journalism, but I’m working on a few side projects at the moment that explore family and friendships in transitional periods.

Finally, where do you discover new writing?

My first stops in a new city are always the library and an independent bookstore. I grab whatever looks good off the shelf. For good new writing, though, I keep track of writers and essayists I admire on Twitter, and find their essays and stories whenever they publish. I’m also turning into my mom, because I really appreciate newsletters from Catapult and Electric Literature that point me towards good writing.