I’ve long been an admirer of Kristopher Jansma’s fiction and the way it blends an empathic view of the world with an abundance of stylistic verve. His new novel Our Narrow Hiding Places explores the complicated history of one family, beginning with the Nazi occupation of Holland and continuing on to the present day. (As an added bonus, Jansma and I grew up in adjoining New Jersey towns.) I spoke with him about his new book’s evolution, the real-life history he drew from when writing it, and his forthcoming nonfiction book Revisionaries.
VCO: Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Frankenstein, we call them Frankie, puts on their little boots and their little jacket. We go outside and the trees are too green for October. A gust up high makes the top of the trees dance hypnotically.
Joselyn is still here but she is different now. She looks off in the distance and stares more often than she did before Frankie was born.
Getting Audacious With Ryan Chapman
Reading Ryan Chapman’s fiction involves immersion in very specific milieus — including, for his most recent novel The Audacity, an exclusive gathering of the world’s wealthiest people, a kind of 1% of the 1%. Just before he jets off to one such gathering, protagonist Guy Sarvananthan learns that his wife’s highly-touted startup was not exactly honest with investors about the viability of its business, and that she’s now missing and presumed deceased. What emerges is a heady book of big ideas laced with a comedy of manners that moves with an enticing momentum. I spoke with Chapman about writing The Audacity and the challenges it posed.
The Art of Absence: An Interview With Jody Hobbs Hesler
Jody Hobbs Hesler’s debut novel Without You Here tells of family love, complicated by circumstances, mental illness, and powerful, difficult emotional inheritance, exemplified by the profound connection between Noreen and her aunt, Nonie. Like the author’s acclaimed short story collection What Makes You Think You’re Supposed to Feel Better, the novel takes place in and around Charlottesville. Jody lives there, writing and teaching at WriterHouse. We first met at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and caught up this time by phone.
Books of the Month: October 2024
What does your October reading list look like? Ours, it’s safe to say, covers a lot of ground. If you’re looking to see NYC through new eyes or revisit the work of an iconic filmmaker, we have you covered; if you’d prefer a trip into space or a jaunt into history, we have those angles covered as well. Read on for some literary recommendations to ease you into fall.
VCO: Chapter 38
Chapter 38
I went back to the cabin. As I approached it in the transference toward the evening when the sky was split blue and pink, I recognized it’s importance. Why no roads lead to this place.
One must be chosen. One must be led.
There are few sanctuaries left on Earth. Few solitudes. Ones that will endure forever, and those who take refuge in them survive through the ages of terror and excitement.
The Genesis of “Afro-Centered Futurisms”
Afro-Centered Futurisms: A vibrant and approachable book by award-winning authors of black speculative fiction
an essay by Eugen Bacon
It started with a read: Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century by Isiah Lavender III and Lisa Yaszek (eds), published by Ohio State University Press. I put down this book and contemplated it.
VCO: Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Hans wasn’t the same after the funeral. He’d died too in some deep hidden place.
The past week I was gaining so much instruction on our walks but every morning he looked a little paler, a little weaker.
Hans drank wine every night and didn’t touch his food.