Author2Author, Elizabeth McKenzie and Curtis Sittenfeld, pt. 3
by Ron Hogan
(It's time for the last round in the email exchange between Lisa and Curtis, and though we won't be throwing a pizza party, I hope you've enjoyed the earlier episodes from the conversation...More Author2Author dialogues are in the works for the near future.)
Elizabeth McKenzie: Do you write short stories anymore?
Curtis Sittenfeld: I do still write short stories, and I have a lot of ideas for stories I want to write. Your response to my novel-in-stories question is especially interesting to me because something similar has happened to me, where I thought I was writing stories and a woman in my writing group pointed out that they all had basically the same main character, so now I am more consciously focusing on her and seeing what it turns into. Although it's easier to get a novel than a story collection published, I don't see the novel as an inherently superior form. I like the compactness and intensity of stories, where you can depict an episode that's somehow compelling without forcing yourself to draw it out. My all-time favorite writer, not that this is a very original choice, is Alice Munro, and she writes only short stories.
Last question: Do you think you have left Ann Ransom behind forever? The nature of the novel in stories seems to invite re-entry, on the author's part, at any point. Also, how did you know when you were finished, or how'd you know how far into adulthood you wanted to take Ann?
Elizabeth McKenzie:Even when writing new characters we're usually just creating new vessels for our preoccupations, so chances are, someone like her will appear again. As far as how far I wanted to take Ann Ransom, it felt instinctively suitable to leave her at a precipice, a juncture. There were a number of points like that in her story, but there was a certain roundedness in bringing the character to the final conversation in the book. Just felt like the place to stop.
