Deborah Treisman

The story was chosen by Sarah Swanian Bynum, who is the author of three books of fiction, including the novel Ms.

Hempel Chronicles, a Penn Faulkner Award finalist, and the story collection Likes, which was published in 2020.

Hi, Sarah.

Hi, Debra.

So you chose to read a story by Joan Silber, who has published 10 books of fiction in the past 45 years or so.

Have you read a lot of her work?

And what makes it really stand out for you?

What do you think makes her makes her voices so indelible in that way?

Right.

I guess that's true of this story evolution.

We're aware from the very beginning that she's looking back, that the first person narrator is looking back.

But then for most of the story, you're so immediately in the moment, in the present, you almost forget it.

And this story, it was written as a freestanding story, but also as part of a novel in progress, which became the novel Mercy.

And I think like several of her books, it's sort of formed from a lot of different voices in a way, each telling their own story.

And then those stories become woven together so that each story has its own life and can stand by itself.

Yeah.

And what made you choose evolution?

Wonderful.

I think we should now hear those adventures.

So we'll talk some more after the reading.