Terrence Holt is a doctor and professor. He’s also a writer whose short story collection, In the Valley of the Kings, was published to acclaim in 2009. His second book, Internal Medicine: A Doctor’s Stories, recounts his medical residency.
This On the Fly interview was recorded in 2014 shortly after the publication of Internal Medicine.
Holt discusses the relationship between writing and doctoring, calling both “interpretive practices.” He also speaks of the value of writing early in the morning, the books he returns to when he needs to recharge, and his antipathy for modifiers.
He considers the value of economy in short stories: “When you strip a story down to the bones, that’s when you find out what’s really going on in there.” He explores the nature of storytelling and its essential and sustained role in human life.
