Interviews

Video, 1 hour 18 minutes. Excerpt: “A great deal of freedom came about from winning the Flannery O’Connor Award because for 20 years… I got an agent right out of the MFA program, it was pretty immediate. In fact I was still in the MFA program when I got my agent. I had a story collection very similar to this one, some stories were shared, there’s some new ones that came about, and I gave it to my agent, and he was like, okay, that’s fine, but people want a novel, and so then I spent the next five years writing a novel, gave it to him, and nothing came of it, and I just kind of… had it in my head, because you trust your agent, well, what I think I need to do is write a novel. He said just put the short story collection aside, people don’t want this as a first book and all of this rhetoric about what the publishing industry wants. 20 years of that and I finally said, you know, I don’t buy it. I’m gonna send this out and try to get it published. I feel strongly about the short story, it’s my preferred genre… but now since I won that award, I feel so renewed in my love for the short story…”

Video, 1 hour. Panel excerpt: “What got me through 30 years of waiting for this to happen, was finally therapy… I went through a huge depression about writing and my career and what it came to was just the understanding that every voice is valuable. We all have something to say. It’s all valuable, to put yourself out there; otherwise, the people who are out there who might be like you, will never hear you, and so there’s a certain amount of bravery to step up and do that.” Story excerpt: “Before Las Blancas.”

Audio, 20 minutes. Excerpt: “Be brave. Don’t be afraid to put yourself onto that page, and in that way, as well, be truthful, even if you’re writing fiction, be true to who you are at the deepest level. Trust that your story matters, that other queer people need your story, that they need to see you on a page.”

Video, 1 hour. Part of the Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival, a program of the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival. Excerpt: “I begin with a moment, and I think a moment is specific to a short story in a lot of ways. A novel can’t be about a moment, but a short story can. It’s all about how do we get to that moment. That’s what the short story is. At least for me, that’s how I look at it. So, it’s very tied to memory, because a lot of what I do, when we talk about auto-fiction, is draw something from a memory, and a memory is a moment, and so I think memory and short stories go well together, because they are both episodic, these little short contained pieces in our head.”

Video, reading, 8 minutes, excerpt from “The Blue Son.” Part of the Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival, a program of the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival.

Excerpt: “I could be more successful as a writer, but I’m successful at living. I probably define success differently than most other people. I don’t make money. But I’ve had a wonderful man for twenty years who loves me and takes good care of me. For a long time I equated my self-worth with my literary success. That left me depressed and resentful of other people’s successes. I backed out of the literary and publishing scene for more than ten years before my debut was accepted and published. But I saw a therapist and really put a lot of heart and effort into the healing process. Three years paid off. So I’m successful most because I changed the way I look at the world.”

Jewelle and Patrick discuss their history as teacher and student in SFSU’s MFA program, the curiosity and openness of New Orleanians, and hapless stoner characters. Patrick reads short excerpts from “The Blue Son” and “Where It Takes Us.”

Martin and Patrick discuss their Cajun and Creole families and heritages in Louisiana, spiritual and sexual possession, and the personal significance of New Orleans’ St. Roch cemetery. Patrick reads a short excerpt from the title story “If We Were Electric.”

Roxane and Patrick discuss virtual touring during COVID, winning the Flannery O’Connor Award, the importance of queer stories, and overcoming a writer’s literary depression.