The 2014 Mission Creek Festival brought Brian Evenson to Iowa City. A translator and writer of both fiction and nonfiction, Evenson recorded this Writers On the Fly interview during his visit.
The interview opens with Evenson reading from his story “Discrepancy.” Evenson reveals that he primarily considers himself a short story writer. “My favorite form is the long short story or the novella because I think it allows you a little bit more breadth and scope in terms of what you can do. It has the concision and brevity of a short story in some regards but also has more of the scope of the novel, so it has, for me, the best of both worlds.” He also considers the ways in which his teaching career influences his writing, the difference between good and bad editors, the choice he was forced to make between his religion and his writing.
Evenson is the author many works of fiction, including Last Days, which won the American Library Association’s Award for Best Horror Novel of 2009. His story collection The Wavering Knife won the International Horror Guild Award for best story collection. Most recent work of fiction is 2013’s The Lords of Salem, which he wrote with Rob Zombie. A Collapse of Horses: Stories will arrive in 2015. His most recent nonfiction work is 2014’s Ed vs. Yummy Fur (or, What Happens When a Serial Comic Becomes a Graphic Novel). He has won three O. Henry Prizes and has garnered a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
