This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() I’d been hesitant for years to write in the style of a direct letter because I didn’t want a cynical or resentful voice to take over. I was lucky enough to hear him read it to us, and his diction made it one of the most memorable, beautiful works of art I’ve ever heard. Chip’s poem “Ghost Dance” from his collection Museum of False Starts was also a big influence. I’d also been reading the non-fiction memoir The Narrow Door by Paul Lisicky at the recommendation of another writer I met at IAIA, Chip Livingston. I was inspired by memoirists like Terese Marie Mailhot, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Melissa Febos, all of whom I met at the Institute of American Indian Arts. At first I’d avoided it as an exercise and preferred to explore those themes and emotions in fiction, but eventually I started writing letters addressed directly to jacob (is this supposed to be in lower case?). Why did you decide to start this essay in the form of a letter? Did you experiment with any other formats before deciding on this one?ĭS: The letter inspiration started with writing I’d been doing in the years after my friend’s death. ![]() His short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction and Yellow Medicine Review. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Staples is an Ojibwe author from Bemidji, Minnesota. ![]()
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