Excerpts
A Conversation with PEN America Best Debut Short Story Author Emily Chammah
“Writing can be a lonely endeavor, and it is wonderful to now be connected to these other emerging writers.”
“Writing that book was traumatic”: Hanif Abdurraqib and Rachel Khong on Writing
Last month on WMFA, a podcast where writers talk writing
Catapult Staff Picks
Newly-reissued Eve Babitz, pocket-sized Thomas Piketty, and a Swedish pop cover of Talking Heads.
FLYING COUCH: A Family Postscript
Amy KurzweilAuthor, Flying Couch How should we confront the past? How should we think about our personal, familial or cultural histories, particularly their darkest moments? As I see it, the way each individual deals with history is unique, but falls along a spectrum. On one end, we have people who would rather not think about […]
A Conversation with PEN America Best Debut Short Story Author Samuel Clare Knights
“I wanted to write about the experience of my first language, about learning how to ask through hands before words.”
A Conversation with PEN America Best Debut Short Story Author Jim Cole
“A story comes to me like a match and I’ll write the first draft frantically until it burns out.”
A Conversation with PEN America Best Debut Short Story Author Amber Caron
“I was fascinated by the isolation of musher life, and the loneliness that often accompanies it.”
A Conversation with PEN America Best Debut Short Story Author Laura Chow Reeve
“I wanted to explore why someone would choose forgetting over remembering, and how it would affect those who loved them.”
A Conversation with PEN America Best Debut Short Story Author Amy Sauber
“The pleasure and tension in rooting for an underdog is that you are unsure how or if they can pull through.”