“The Lifespan of Sparrows,” a short story by Genevieve Abravanel, appeared in Issue 27 and can be read here.
We’d love to hear more about “The Lifespan of Sparrows.”
This piece was a total surprise. It started with the first line and then I realized it was a child speaking.
What was the most difficult part of this story?
I felt uncertain about where the piece came from in me and what it said about me, in part because it doesn’t have any obvious connection to my life. Its darkness surprised me. In the story, the girl is scared of herself and I felt a little scared of myself for writing it.
I wasn’t even sure I would try to publish it. As it turns out, Sequestrum is the only place I sent it. It was your descriptions of your interests that made me think: okay, someone might enjoy reading this.
Editor’s note: We love when this happens.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
Jericho Brown’s The Tradition. Also Evie Shockley’s the new black.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Robin Coste Lewis is fascinating. She seems to know something about everything.
Also Sally Rooney. I admire Rooney’s ability to write simple prose that is deeply immersive. She has these plain, spare paragraphs and yet I can’t look away.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
A number of different things. A scholarly article on Zadie Smith. Stories and shorts. A novel. We’ll see how it goes!
Our thanks to Genevieve for taking the time to answer a few questions and share her work. Read Genevieve’s story, “The Lifespan of Sparrows,” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/fiction-the-lifespan-of-sparrows.
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Genevieve Abravanel’s short fiction is available or forthcoming in Indiana Review, Lunch Ticket, and elsewhere. She has published an academic book with Oxford University Press (Chinese translation with The Commercial Press of Beijing) and teaches English in Lancaster, PA, where she lives with her family.