Amy Bonnaffons:“I really liked the idea that even the people who literally carry out the business of death and of transition from this world to the next have no idea what they’re doing.”

“Death. Dying. Grief. That existential fear that surprises you when the barista hands you your latte and you suddenly think, "Oh, wow, we're both going to die eventually and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it."“

“You almost always use more words than you need on a first pass, but I’m the type that gets obsessive over what ends up on the cutting room floor. The benefit is that anything excised can be repurposed in a different work. “

Lara Vapnyar discusses the “mysterious Russian soul”, childhood, and how she learned she is a powerful writer.

“This may be weird but I don’t feel alone when I write. Most of the time I’m writing about or influenced by other writers, so I feel like they’re right there with me. I feel alone when I am NOT writing.”

“The memory that stuck out from these time was of my father — a fervently religious immigrant — beginning every Sunday by waking me up at dawn for service in our all-white parish.”

“I like non-casual reading experiences, and I notice more writers’ and their work pushing back against the instinct to simplify their work, if it serves what they’re working on. These projects seem to experiment with language and syntax beyond concerns of what’s palatable to a casual reader, and that’s exciting to me.”

“I guess you could say I’m obsessed with obsession. Many of my characters are caught up in some form of obsession, and my stories explore the point at which this obsession collides with the physical world. “

“I love reading work that surprises me and makes me think, "Oh, I didn't know I could do that!" Some examples would be the use of emoticons and text speak in poems, or new forms being invented like the pecha kucha or the duplex.”