Host(s): Stan Sanvel Rubin
Tape order number: V-833
Visit Date: November 10, 1993
Length: 58 minutes
Brief Summary: Dybek talks about his interest in the short form, the "no man's land" between prose poetry and fiction where models are scarce and unpredictability is the norm. He is more interested in the synthesis of the two forms, the ways they overlap, than the differences. Dybek describes a writing process in which form emerges from the work or from the juxtaposition of two works in process. He strives to create narrative situations that justify, at some point, the elevation of language to the lyrical mode, citing Joyce's "The Dead" as an example of this technique. He believes careful, microscopic study of place results in work with macroscopic resonance. He notes the way his imagination "splits off" and asserts itself in the process of writing.
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When you're in the middle of a great story, it's amazing how much serendipity there seems to be in the world.
-- Stuart Dybek
