The Tamesis
Emma Copley Eisenberg always considers how her characters occupy space, whether in the 2020s The third rainbow girl2024 Roommates, or her latest book, fat man swimminga series of wide-ranging and wonderfully interconnected stories set in and around Philadelphia.
mark fat man swimmingRecently released, Fashion Talk to Eisenberg about drawing inspiration from Miranda Jolie, Raymond Carver, and Brian Washington; her literary feud with Jonathan Franzen; renting billboards to promote her book; and more. Read the conversation below.
Fashion: What was it like going from publishing a novel to publishing a collection of short stories?
Emma Copley Eisenberg: Which is weird because this is actually my oldest book and my newest. I’ve been working hard fat man swimming I’ve been publishing in some form since 2014, and I did think my first published book would be a short story, but didn’t feel ready yet. Then I started exploring other things and I’m really glad I waited because the story became so different. I’m researching The third rainbow girl and roommate The stories that happened at the same time as this book – I think the oldest ones are “Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar” and “The Dan Graves Situation.” Even though both of these stories are old, I was still connected and excited about them, and I actually ended up taking out a bunch of the old stories and writing brand new ones for this book.
when we sell fat man swimming and roommate Random House Common Rules roommate Although not written down, I assume this is due to the perception of how the story will perform in the marketplace. But I think it was actually an amazing gift because I worked a lot on understanding myself as a specific person, and the themes of the series really came together between ’22 and ’26. If I had published this book before, it wouldn’t be the same book roommate; It’s going to be a completely different set of stories.
I heard you talk about Grace Paley, but who are your other favorite short story writers?
Although my opinion is a bit spicy on all foursI actually really like Miranda Jolie’s short story collection No one belongs here more than you. I’m a real old-school Raymond Carver girl; where do i call from is an incredible collection of stories about addiction and loneliness. He has a really beautiful story called “The Fat Man” about a waitress who had a super fat customer come in and sit in her section. Everyone in the restaurant is very cruel and mean to him and she tries to figure out what is happening and why, which makes her think about her life and then decide to change her life based on the cruel way the world treats this man. a lot of Bryan Washington’s work is probably my favorite recent collection of short stories; I think his treatment of Houston’s geography is beautiful.
You dedicated one of your short stories to fat man swimming Jonathan Franzen; can you talk about that?
My friends are like, Wait, do you love him?? I was like, no. The main characters of Franzen’s novels crossroads Named Marion, and the way he introduced her was, “The overweight person was Marion.” The rest of the quote was even worse; in other words, it was like, “The people on the street didn’t want to see more of her from any angle.” I remember after reading that book, there was a moment where I had to take a deep breath and close the book. This is a multi-perspective novel, so the kind of attitude and true inhumanity she presents exists in all perspectives. I was like, I want to write a Marion that readers want to see from all angles, and she’s also fat.
