Published Essays
An Interview with Joyce Hinnefeld
In Joyce Hinnefeld’s latest short story collection, The Beauty of their Youth (Wolfson Press/Indiana University South Bend), people are haunted by what is not physically present: the past, their youth, clarity, and understanding.
“We Are the Weirdos, Mister: Power, Rage, and Teenage Witches”
“They were representations of female power [...] but they were also cautionary tales about having the gall to think you could wield power without being punished."
“A Gothic Education, or: How I Learned to Love the Dark”
"Books were the first place I could safely indulge my curiosity, plumb the depths of sensation and madness and even look death in the face."
“The Books of My Youth”
“I am a reader. I’m a writer, too, but I came to writing, as Eudora Welty said, “out of a superior devotion to reading.” I don’t remember ever discovering reading; it was always just there, a love fully-formed, something I was lucky enough to be born with."
“Becoming Jessica Fletcher”
“In my mid-twenties I started to joke about it. I told people I wanted to grow up to be Jessica Fletcher..."
“Write What You Remember”
“This book has managed something altogether magical: it has reached into my world at the exact moment I reached into it..."
"Boston Stories"
“When I came to Boston in 2003, you needed tokens to ride the T.”
“The Uglier the Ugly Stage”
“Revision is an archeological dig and a treasure hunt; it’s the part of the craft where discoveries are made, where the creation has the most potential to surprise its creator...”
“Practical Revision Tools”
“Revision was the first time I took my own work seriously, because I could see just how unserious it was...”
“Book Notes: Bellweather Rhapsody”
“Begin and end with Bjork: that's my motto.”