Catapult
On Art, Audience, and Activism: Brian Rea, Catapult Artist for October 2018
“If I see the sun come up once in a while, it makes me feel good, like I accomplished something no one else did.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Maud Streep
“You can fall in love with a place in a way that’s just as made-up and selective as how you fall in love with a person.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Ernie Wang
“I feel any person who has to deal with losing the one person who is their world has every right to do whatever it takes to self-preserve, even when that includes deflection and denial.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Alex Terrell
“I have always been fascinated by the idea of women being monstrous and beastly because it ruptures the dominant Patriarchal ideal of the shy woman.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Lin King
“I wanted to address old-age sexuality, which is in general completely unmentioned in Taiwanese society.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Elinam Agbo
“I love that our stories are beginning to get the attention they deserve, but that’s not enough for me. I want more.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Megan Tucker
“The idea here is the casual way children can accept and parrot this kind of simple, black-and-white math about worth. So much so that in a pinch they are willing write off their own mother!”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Cristina Fríes
“I thought this exemplified two aspects of the Colombian spirit that interest and delight me: Any festive occasion can become an excuse to start a full-on party; and time is, as a manner of speaking, subjective.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Drew McCutchen
“I like melancholy and characters with weighty histories. I fell in love with Daniel. But I fall in love with all my characters.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Lauren Friedlander
“I started thinking about immoral women, women who are not merely complicit counterparts to A Bad Man but active participants in cruelty.”