Mini-interview with Josh Barkan, whose collection, Mexico, was published by Hogarth.
EWN: Your short story collection, Mexico was published in 2017. What story within the collection had the earliest publication history outside of being in the collection, and what was that history?
JB: The first story published from the collection was “The Kidnapping.” It won the Lightship International Short Story Prize, judged by Tessa Hadley, and was published, first, in an anthology in England.
EWN: How did the publication of this particular collection come about? Were you solicited by the publisher, win a contest, agent submission, etc.?
JB: The collection was submitted by my agent to Hogarth/Penguin Random House. Nate Roberson, my editor at Hogarth, decided with his team at Crown Books to publish. Prior to publication, the collection was runner up for the Grace Paley Short Fiction Prize, judged by Jaime Manrique, and runner up for the Juniper Prize for Fiction, judged by Edie Meidav.
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 …?
JB: I write both short stories and novels. I don’t consider one form to be more suited to me than the other. The compression of short stories is what attracts me to writing them—the idea of conveying a great deal in such a short space.
EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?
JB: I read short stories more than novels. You can expose yourself to many important writers, quickly, because of the shorter form. So it helps to keep up with the experimentation of other writers. More importantly, I simply like the difficult mastery of a short story that works in every line—that is tight.
EWN: How will you be celebrating National Short Story Month this May?
JB: Reading more short stories, as always, and giving some public readings.
EWN: Thank you very much for your time!
JB: Thanks for taking the time to bring the work of so many writers together in one place.
http://www.joshbarkan.com/ has a good amount of information about Josh and his trio of books.
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