Saturday, December 12, 2015

Toni Graham's Writerly Inclinations

In the 38th in a series of posts on 2015 books entered for The Story Prize, Toni Graham, author of The Suicide Club (University of Georgia Press), answers a few questions.


Describe a good writing day: 
When I do not feel like committing hara-kiri at the keyboard.

What keeps you going?
Substance abuse.

What do you think is the source of your impulse to write stories?
Pathological masochism.

A literary touchstone: 
Has to be Lolita.

Where does a story begin for you? (an opening line? a last line? a plot? a character? a situation? an incident? a concept?)
All of the above, with the exception of last line or plot, neither of which I ever consider beforehand.