“when we leave our characters in sort of these vagaries, these big emotions and these big ideas, we don’t have anything to hang the characters or the emotions on.”

-Gwen E. Kirby

In the second part of my conversation with Gwen E. Kirby we talk about developing characters that feel real to people, about writing at this moment in time, writing about women, and the question that Gwen Kirby doesn’t get asked often enough,

Gwen E Kirby is the author of the fabulous debut collection of short stories Shit Cassandra Saw. has a MFA from Johns Hopkins university. PhD from the University of Cincinnati and is the Associate Director of Programs and finance for the Sewanee Writers. Conference at the University of the South where she’s also teaching students about creative writing. Her writing has appeared in One Story Tin House Guernica. Smoke Long Quarterly, and many other places.

Need the transcript? Find it here

I hope it’ll leave you inspired and ready to get to your own stories!

Keep writing,

Julie

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“So little of life is comprised of huge dramatic running out into the rain to cry “Stella!”  If we saved our short fiction for only those moments, not only am I not totally sure what we would write about, but I’m not sure it would be all that accurate a portrayal of what it is to be a person.”

-Gwen E. Kirby

On this week’s podcast I’m in conversation with author Gwen E. Kirby, whose debut collection Sh*t Cassandra Saw was one of my absolute favorites from last year.

In our conversation we talk about the stories in her new collection, the benefit of a fantastic title, how to take an idea and develop it into a story. 

Need the transcript? Find it here

Next week, in the second part of this interview, we will talk more about developing characters that feel real to people, about writing at this moment in time, writing about women, and the question that Gwen Kirby doesn’t get asked often enough.

It was a delightful conversation and I hope it’ll leave you inspired and ready to get to your own stories!

Keep writing,

Julie

P. S. Mary Robinette Kowal, who I interviewed a few episodes ago, is offering a class this Sunday on diagnosing (and fixing) story problems. I always leave her classes feeling as if someone has flipped my head open and dropped in a bunch of sparklers. You might want to check it out.

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Weekly writing prompts and lessons in your inbox, every Wednesday with the StoryAWeek Newsletter