Hi Everyone,
We had so much fun discussing Leigh Newman’s short story, “An Extravaganza in Two Acts” available here from Electric Literature. You are going to learn so much about writing historical fiction. Leigh is a hoot! The conversation moved at a clip, so I have some discussion notes for you below.
Also, check out the bonus question one of my earlier guests, award-winning author and Pulitzer-prize nominated journalist, Desiree Cooper, sent to Leigh after we recorded the podcast.
We have a new Let’s Deconstruct a Story Facebook page and Instagram page. I’d love to see you there. Please like or follow it, if you have a chance, and feel free to post questions or comments or suggestions for future guests.
Here’s a link to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Audible.
Next month, I’ll be talking to Cara Blue Adams about her short story, “Vision,” available here. You might consider buying Cara Blue Adams’ book, You Never Get it Back, from Bookshop because my co-host for that podcast, Vincent Perrone, is part owner of Book Suey in Hamtramck, and all sales that roll through Bookshop next month will support his store.
The transcript is available for a small fee on my store page. I have to charge for these transcripts because I pay for them out of pocket. I hope we have enough revenue someday to make them free!
Happy reading!
Kelly
PS: Do you have trouble sleeping? If so, I highly recommend Nothing Much Happens, Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups by Kathryn Nicolai. Apparently, Kathryn also lives in Michigan. I don’t know her, but I’m obsessed with these bedtime stories because they are designed to put you to sleep, and her voice is very soothing, but they are also wonderful. If you are in the mood for delightful, feel-good stories, check them out here.
PSS: I have to give one television show a plug…I was listening to a podcast featuring a former classmate from Kenyon, and she suggested a Swedish show called The Restaurant. IT IS SO GOOD. It’s winter here in Detroit, and bleak bleak bleak, so I figured, like me, you might want to light some candles and curl up with a good drama. This one is cutting into my reading time, which is the highest praise from me. Let me know what you think!!
Discussion Notes:
Shawn Vestal, Godforsaken Idaho
Desiree Cooper’s Question for Leigh Newman:
I’ve been ploughing through “Extravaganza.” It’s really fascinating. On my second read, I’m paying a lot more attention to the diction, the masterful descriptions, the use of internal rhyme, alliteration, etc. It’s a great story to teach from, plus, it has a stunning female protagonist who we only get to know through her guardian’s POV. My question is how Newman made the POV decision? Did she ever consider Genevieve’s? I can imagine me using this story for some of my workshops. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Leigh Newman’s answer:
Oh wow! This is a really interesting question. I think a lot about point of view because I’m really very at home with third person and so I find first person to be tricky. I often use it just as an exercise and some of my best stories have been written in first person, but it’s a serious undertaking for me. I never considered setting Genevieve story in Genevieve ‘s voice. It was always his story about her because he was looking at her and loving her but I do think it might’ve been really interesting to have what she felt spoken.
Bio: Leigh Newman’s collection Nobody Gets Out Alive (Scribner) was long-listed for the National Book Award for Fiction and The Story Prize. Her stories have appeared in the Paris Review, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories 2020, Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, Tin House, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, One Story and Electric Literature, and have been awarded a Pushcart prize and an American Society of Magazine Editors’ fiction prize. Still Points North (Dial Press), her memoir about growing up in Alaska, was a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle’s John Leonard prize. In 2020, she received the Paris Review’s Terry Southern Prize for “humor, wit, and sprezzatura.”
Newman’s essays and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Bookforum, Vogue, O The Oprah Magazine, and other magazines. When not writing, she looks after her two dogs, two kids, and one cat. Goals include: goats and more chickens.
Leigh’s books are available here on Bookshop and here on Amazon.
Podcast Host: Kelly Fordon’s latest short story collection, I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press, 2020), was chosen as a Midwest Book Award Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. Her 2016 Michigan Notable Book, Garden for the Blind (WSUP), was a Michigan Notable Book, an INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House (Kattywompus Press, 2019), was an Eyelands International Prize Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. It was later adapted into a play by Robin Martin and published in The Kenyon Review Online. She is the author of three award-winning poetry chapbooks and has received a Best of the Net Award and Pushcart Prize nominations in three different genres. She teaches at Springfed Arts in Detroit and online, where she runs a fiction podcast called “Let’s Deconstruct a Story.” http://www.kellyfordon.com