We've Already Gone This Far (2016, Henry Holt) by Patrick Dacey is a collection that I let slip past me last February but will be rectifying soon. He's also got a novel forthcoming, also with Henry Holt, and was kind enough to spend some time with interview questions about his stories.
EWN: Your short story collection, We’ve Already Gone This Far, was published in 2016. What story within the collection had the earliest publication history outside of being in the collection, and what was that history?
Patrick: The first story, “Patriots”, was published in Bomb Magazine in 2008. Well, not the story as it appears today, but the bones of that story. I think that is where I felt most comfortable as a writer, and it was written in my last year in Graduate school at Syracuse University. I then wrote two shitty novels and a dozen equally shitty stories, perhaps trying to be the next Robert Stone or Paul Bowles, before returning to Patriots, and realizing that there were characters in that story that deserved their own story, and so that was the genesis for the whole collection.
EWN: How did the publication of this particular collection come about? Were you solicited by the publisher, win a contest, agent submission, etc.?
Patrick: I’d had two previous agents who were looking to sell the collection with a novel, but I didn’t have a novel yet. Finally, I found an agent who wanted to work with me on stories. She found my submission in a slush pile (yes, slush pile) and after a few weeks we had a few offers and eventually went with Henry Holt and Company.
EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as an author? Primary form to work with, or something you write when an idea hits, or …?
Patrick: I write stories when I can answer the question of why should this be written. Simply because I have an idea? That’s not good enough. I need to know this story is big enough that it will take something from me. I like to think that there will be a point when I don’t have any stories left because there’s nothing left to give.
EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?
Patrick: I’m usually reading three books at a time. A long novel, a short novel, and a collection of stories. I prefer collections, the same way I prefer albums. This gives me a specific window into the author’s world at a given time.
EWN: How will you be celebrating National Short Story Month this May?
Patrick: I’ll be trying to finish my next collection, Last Days in America, hoping that these are not really the last days in America.
EWN: Thank you very much for your time!
Patrick Dacey is the author of story collection WE'VE ALREADY GONE THIS FAR and the forthcoming novel, THE OUTER CAPE, both published by the Macmillan imprint Henry Holt and Company, New York. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and has taught various courses in Creative Writing, Contemporary Lit, and American Literature at various universities including Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse University. He has worked as a reporter, landscaper, door-to-door salesman, on the overnight staff at a homeless shelter and detox center. His stories have been featured in The Paris Review, Zoetrope All-Story, Guernica, BOMB, and Salt Hill among other publications. Originally from Cape Cod, he currently lives in Richmond, Virginia.
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