“Spirit” by Laurence Klavan appeared in Issue 31 and can be read here.
We’d love to hear more about this short story.
“Spirit” was an attempt to write about my family and other people’s families, purely from my subconscious, and to see what happened.
What was the most difficult part of this story?
Resisting the urge to over-work it, to make it too literal, and not to embrace the ambiguity. It was enjoyable, though.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
“The Animal Gazer” by Edgardo Franzosini (New Vessel Press). Based on fact, this is a small, upsetting novel about a sculptor of animals in Europe as WWI closes in. Featuring photos of his actual sculptures, it mixes genres with an ease that others would envy.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
The pandemic has been saved by my reading lots of literate books about show business, written by people like Mark Harris, Shawn Levy, Scott Eyman, and Karina Longworth. So I’d like to thank them and find out what else they know.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
More of the same, I’m happy to say.
Our thanks to Laurence for taking the time to answer a few questions and share this story. Read “Spirit” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/fiction-spirit.
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Laurence Klavan has had short work published in The Alaska Quarterly, Conjunctions, The Literary Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Pank, Failbetter, Stickman Review, and Anomaly, among many others, and a collection, The Family Unit’ and Other Fantasies, was published by Chizine. His novels, The Cutting Room and The Shooting Script, were published by Ballantine Books. He won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His graphic novels, City of Spies and Brain Camp, co-written with Susan Kim, were published by First Second Books at Macmillan and their Young Adult fiction series, Wasteland, was published by Harper Collins. He received two Drama Desk nominations for the book and lyrics of “Bed and Sofa,” the musical produced by the Vineyard Theater in New York and the Finborough Theater in London. His one-act, “The Summer Sublet,” is included Best American Short Plays 2000-2001, and his one-act, “The Show Must Go On,” was the most produced short play in American high schools in 2015-2016.