The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work

Rating:
Summary: An innovative resource and great fiction
Review: An innovative resource and great fiction

Ah, the writing life. We envision the author working compulsively, never satisfied, anxious to capture his ideas on paper before they disappear, a bottle of liquid inspiration and glass at hand. In the public imagination, the writer exists in some remote setting, isolated in his rarified world of complicated thoughts and clever phrases, perhaps a tragic and difficult personality. While there is cachet in such perceptions, writing actually involves a great deal of hard work. A story must be nurtured, carefully pruned from inception into the finished pages. Yet the writers in this anthology are distinctly human and accessible, certainly generous, stimulating the reader's imagination with their experiences.

In this anthology, a series of writers, all teachers on the faculty of Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers, have contributed twenty-six short stories, each followed by a section named "About the Story". Each About the Story details the author's creative process involved in his particular story, whether it be personal experience, an idea gleaned from research or a series of incidents that resulted in a tale to tell.

The pivotal question about writers: is this talent genetic or are these skills that can be learned? In his introduction, Richard Russo addresses the problem ambiguously: Writers are both the same and different than others, says Russo. Good writing cannot be readily taught, but those who want to write can learn to do it well. With authors as mentors, advising aspiring writers, they may master the needed skills. However, "artists seldom progress in a predictable, linear fashion". It is possible for a writer to be good before he is competent; clearly, craft and experience can turn a writer into an author.

Thanks to the generosity of these veteran authors, sharing their experience and guiding the apprentice through the necessary elements of the craft, this volume is especially valuable. The shared ideas and discussions on problem solving build an energy that inspires the novice writer to experiment with a variety of approaches and each new story provides an opportunity for discovery. Yet each author has his own method, his own path. Russo refers another phenomenon, "cross-fertilization": when the solution to the story pays off by suggesting yet another, or stimulating a thought process that leads to a completed story.

The contributing authors are some of the finest names in contemporary fiction, including Margaret Livesey, Charles Baxter, Judith Grossman, Stephen Dobyns, Pablo Medina and Andrea Barrett. The authors' generosity is extraordinary in this literary treasure. Setting the tone with the first story, Antonya Nelson's "Strike Anywhere", a student "gives" Nelson the story, which "hangs in her mind like a Christmas ornament", until it is born. And Nelson "gives" the story to the reader in this anthology.

A few lines from each "About the Story", or one specific author's thoughts may trigger that sudden recognition, a solution. Of inestimable value to readers, each author shares a piece of his art, a myriad of ideas, suggestions and inspiration. I have marked my favorites (so far) and keep The Story Behind the Story on my nightstand, a ready resource and a reminder of the personal nature of the process, lessons on the art of writing. Luan Gaines/ 2004.

Rating:
Summary: Best Short Story Anthology Ever
Review: The Story Behind the Story is the first collection of short stories I greeted with a whoop of joy.

The more you enjoy reading a particular short story, the more you want to know about the writer. How different is the writer from me? you wonder. How did the writer actually write the story?

Answers are hard to come by. If you're lucky, you'll find a measly author min-bio buried in the small print. Anthologies are the worst: one good story after another raises your curiosity, but lack of additional information leaves you deflated.

Complain no more. The Story Behind the Story is exactly what the title promises: a collection of masterfully written contemporary short stories, each partnered with a fascinating essay revealing the creative process behind the story.

The stories are by 26 writers who have taught in Warren Wilson College's famous MFA Program for Writers. The simple format (so beautifully basic you're astonished it really hasn't been done before) was created by the book's two editors, Peter Turchi (long-time director of the Writers program) and Andrea Barrett, winner of the 1996 National Book Award for her story collection, Ship Fever.

Subject matter and style are as wide-ranging and dissimilar as work from that many talented writers could be. There's an unhappy boy who eats matches. A deranged fascist who roams Venice. A kidnapped woman who buys a hat. A man who runs over a cat. The images are unforgettable: a wedding cake in the street, a door floating in a river, a pile of bones found in the snow.

Most of the stories are set in present day, with many of them telling the concerns of parents, such as Mrs. Dimbleby, Wilton Barnhardt's sympathetic portrait of a mother who's not sure how much she loves her snotty little daughter. A few are historical, such as Jim Shephard's haunting tale of male lovers aboard the doomed Hindenburg airship, appropriately entitled Love and Hydrogen. Absurd comedy reigns in Stephen Dobyns' Part of the Story, in which a clueless older woman is visited by the five grown children she gave up for adoption.

The range of voices makes a thrilling melting pot, for although they've taught at Warren Wilson, the writers come from all over the country. There's the bold poetic cadence of Michael Martone's The Moon Over Wapakoneta, the mesmerizing lyricism of Andrea Barrett's tale of lost love, Out There, and the "Mexicanized English" Karen Brennan uses in Sacha's Dog.

In each "story behind the story," the writers relate the source of their inspiration, what writing goals they tried to accomplish, and how the story evolved from idea to published page. The result is that each story/essay unit becomes a vivid "window on creativity," as Richard Russo (2002 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Empire Falls) comments in his inspiring introduction to the collection.

Readers always want to know how autobiographical a writer's stories are. About City Codes, his poignant story of a family's attempt to save a historic building, Tracy Daugherty writes, "It's all true except for the parts I made up."