{"id":3124,"date":"2022-11-14T09:41:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T14:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/?p=3124"},"modified":"2022-11-14T09:41:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T14:41:43","slug":"current-fiction-student-a-j-bermudez-publishes-debut-story-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/2022\/11\/14\/current-fiction-student-a-j-bermudez-publishes-debut-story-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Fiction Student A. J. Bermudez Publishes Debut Story Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Current fiction student A. J. Bermudez (Fiction ’23)’s debut story collection\u00a0Stories No One Hopes Are About Them<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>was released today by University of Iowa Press! The collection, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, has been called a “sly and sharp-edged collection” by\u00a0The A.V. Club\u00a0<\/em>and a “must-read” by\u00a0Publishers Weekly<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Current program administrator Annaka Saari (Poetry \u201921) was able to interview A. J. about the collection in advance of its release. Read below to hear more about how A. J. approached the creation and organization of the book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Annaka Saari: <\/span><\/strong>Stories No One Hopes Are About Them <\/em>is your debut story collection. What was the most challenging thing about bringing it into the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. J. Bermudez: Money. I\u2019m not saying Maslow got it exactly right, but no one who\u2019s stressed about buying groceries concurrently shines as a recreational author. My partner\u2019s been extraordinarily supportive, and I\u2019ve caught a few breaks, but the most significant challenges are almost always logistical. This collection unfolded in stolen pockets of time, unlikely windows of opportunity, and over far longer than I would have liked. Betting on the value of one\u2019s own work\u2013\u2013particularly in a world that often seems dead-set on the privilege of rejection, especially with regard to experimentation and invention\u2013\u2013can be difficult. The writing, as such, is the easy part. If we want really, really <\/em>excellent fiction in this country, moving forward, we need to make it easier for writers to get there faster.<\/p>\n

AS: <\/span><\/strong>How did you approach the assembly and organization of Stories No One Hopes Are About Them<\/em>? Did you enter the project knowing that you wanted the collection to address certain themes, or did through lines emerge as stories were written and placed next to one another?<\/strong><\/p>\n

AJB: <\/span>This is such a great question. Certain themes are definitely persistent\u2013\u2013I like that University of Iowa Press calls out \u201cpower, privilege, and place\u201d\u2013\u2013and I think the collection is true to this while being, in many respects, all over the map. I didn\u2019t initially set out to compose a collection, but it became clear along the way that this was sort of what was happening. I\u2019m thankful, for example, that the Alpine Fellowship understood \u201cThe Lady Will Pay for Everything,\u201d which is essentially The Birds <\/em>underwater, to be a work of eco-horror, or that Gertrude Press<\/em> recognized the intrinsic queerness of \u201cThe Body Electric\u201d without any on-the-nose evidence. In the end, there were things I was going for, thematically, and others that just happened. Organizing the book was sort of like orchestrating a family reunion\u2013\u2013these things all go together, however tenuously\u2013\u2013and assembly was like making a seating chart: just try to make sure no one gets hurt and everyone has a good time.<\/p>\n

AS: <\/span><\/strong>In addition to writing short stories, you\u2019ve also worked as a filmmaker, a boxer, and an EMT. How, if at all, do you think these other pursuits (within and outside of the arts) had an effect on the way you crafted the characters and narratives in your collection?<\/strong><\/p>\n

AJB: Another great question! Vis-a-vis filmmaking, I\u2019m a major believer in cross-disciplinary writing. In screenwriting, for example, you\u2019re never allowed to say what a character is thinking. And every character has to count, because eventually you have to pay them. Studio notes\u2013\u2013while viscerally kinder than workshop notes, at times\u2013\u2013are the perfect training ground for editing, elevating, and holding things loosely. With regard to boxing, I\u2019m not going to say (at least not on the record) that writers should punch and get punched, but both things have been valuable for my writing practice. And perhaps the best lesson of EMT training is that writing isn\u2019t life or death. It can, however, help remind us of what is. There\u2019s one EMT in Stories No One Hopes Are About Them<\/em>, in the final story of the collection. Alas, no boxer characters in this volume. Maybe in the next one.<\/p>\n

Those interested can purchase a copy of Stories No One Hopes Are About Them\u00a0<\/span><\/em>at this link.<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current fiction student A. J. Bermudez (Fiction ’23)’s debut story collection\u00a0Stories No One Hopes Are About Them\u00a0was released today by University of Iowa Press! The collection, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, has been called a “sly and sharp-edged collection” by\u00a0The A.V. Club\u00a0and a “must-read” by\u00a0Publishers Weekly. Current program administrator Annaka Saari (Poetry \u201921) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3124"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3128,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124\/revisions\/3128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/crwr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}