Tim Horvath read from his story, “The Discipline of Shadows”:
Mary Caponegro read the beginning of her novella, “The Translator”:
Gary Lutz read from his new story, “Womanesque”:
The conversation audio and a transcript of it will be coming soon, but here is a quote from each writer.
Horvath: “If my writing is not in crisis I sort of have to pray for a crisis to arrive, and maybe more than one, because one crisis isn’t enough to sustain a story.”
Caponegro: “It is for the eros of language that I write and I read.”
Lutz: “I’ve never not had a creative crisis. I think self-doubt is one of the most important traits a writer can have. All of us who write should try to doubt ourselves more than all the other people in our lives are doubting us. You have to doubt every single thing you do, because if you don’t, others will do so for you–in ways that will not necessarily improve your life.”
Caponegro Interview – coming soon!
***
Please join us for our next special reading and conversation with Christine Schutt, John Domini, and Claire Donato on Sunday, September 25th at 7pm at Soda Bar. Website
Christine Schutt is the author of two short story collections, Nightwork and A Day, a Night, Another Day, Summer. Her first novel, Florida, was a National Book Award finalist; her second novel, All Souls, a finalist for, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. She has published fiction in such magazines as Harper’s, The Kenyon Review, NOON, and Post Road. Among other honors, Schutt has twice won the O.Henry Short Story Prize, as well as a Pushcart Prize, a New York Foundation of the Arts and Guggenheim fellowships. Schutt has been a writer-in-residence at the University of California-Irvine, Hollins, Syracuse, and Washington University. She has also taught in writing programs at Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Bennington, and Barnard. She lives in New York.
A brief appreciation of Christine, her fiction, and her incredible presence while reading aloud is at Big Other.

Claire Donato (somanytumbleweeds.com) lives in Brooklyn, NY, writes across genres, and has taught at Hunter College, The New School, Brown University, and 826 Valencia/NYC. Recent writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Boston Review, Black Warrior Review, and Octopus. She holds an MFA from Brown University, where she received the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction. Her first book, Burial, will be published by Tarpaulin Sky Press in Fall 2012.
Jeez, you guys set the bar high! Looking very much forward to this, & I’ll strive mightily to make myself useful.
We’re looking forward to it John!