[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What is one of your favorite opening works of fiction?
Jonathan Blum, Author/Instructor: I brought the openings of three works of fiction and I’m going to show you different ways that a story can begin and be effective.
The first opening is from the Mona Simpson story Lawns. It was published I believe first in 1984 in the Iowa Review and then it was reprinted in Best American Short Stories in 1986. In this opening we have access to the narrator’s thoughts. The narrator’s thoughts are important. She is speaking to the reader, we’re getting some kind of psychological portrait of her, we’re learning about the condition that she is generally in at the moment. Here’s the opening:
I steal.
I’ve stolen books and money and even letters.
Letters are great.
I can’t tell you the feeling walking down the street with $20 in my purse, stolen earrings in my pocket.
I don’t get caught, that’s the amazing thing.
You’re out on the sidewalk, other people all around, shopping, walking and you’ve got it.
You’re out of the store, you’ve done this thing you’re not supposed to do but no one stops you.
At first it’s like a rush, it’s like you’re…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Jonathan Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is the author of two books of fiction: The Usual Uncertainties (Rescue Press, 2019), a story collection, and Last Word (Rescue Press, 2013), a novella. Both were named one of the best books of the year by Iowa Public Radio, and The Usual Uncertainties was named one of the 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2019 by Electric Literature. Blum has twice appeared on KCRW’s Bookworm. His short stories have been published in Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Northwest Review, Playboy, and Shanxi Literature, among others. His short story, “The White Spot,” which was published in Electric Literature with an introduction by Deborah Eisenberg, appears in the award-winning anthology The Best Peace Fiction (University of New Mexico Press, 2021). He has taught fiction writing at The University of Iowa, Drew University, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and is the recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, a Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland, and a grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. He has also been a guest writer at the Tianjin Binhai New Area International Writing Program in China. He lives in Los Angeles.
BUY THE BOOK – LAST WORD
BUY THE BOOK – THE USUAL UNCERTAINTIES: STORIES
WRITING CLASSES WITH JONATHAN BLUM
Jonathanblumwriter.com/classes
CONNECT WITH JONATHAN BLUM
Advertisement – contains affiliate links
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
More affiliates:
Check out Film Courage on Patreon!
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
