In a recent interview in Narrative Jayne Anne Phillips describes her father: "the way he leaned forward in a chair, elbows on his knees, touching his fingers slightly together as though he held some invisible miniature planet between them." While this is my favorite moment of the interview, most of it is about writing, MFA programs (including the one she just started), and her new book Lark and Termite. Of writers, she says, "Artists have never been respected in America; it’s just not an American tradition. Communal art, crafts, yes, but individual artists, working essentially alone, are outsiders, they’re crazy fools, they’re not doing real work, they’re suspect, they’re feared."
To read the whole interview, go here: https://narrativemagazine.com/issues/winter-2009/jayne-anne-phillips. It's pretty fantastic.
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2 comments:
Hey! It was you I met at AWP, correct? Jayne Anne Philips was also there, and she was not nice to me, and hurt my feelings. However, I did not cry, because at least I have Jayne Anne Philips story now.
Yes! I was in a rush and trying to spend as little time as possible at the Hilton, but excited to bump into you and said so in my awkward way. I've heard Jayne Anne Phillips had such an impact on several other people.
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