Excerpt
SUMMARY: "Fortune Smiles," a collection of stories by Adam Johnson, was the winner of this year's National Book Award for fiction. He joined Jeffrey Brown at the Miami Book Fair to discuss what inspires his stories.
ADAM JOHNSON, Author, “Fortune Smiles”: I love the short story.
Having written two novels in a row, I missed the power of the short story. To me, a short story is like a battery that can store emotion and just charge you up directly with it, and it can hold emotion for as long as you want and then transmit it.
I have always loved research. I have always loved going out into the world and finding a twin for what’s going on inside me. Maybe technology’s part of that.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): So, what starts a story for you?
ADAM JOHNSON: I have learned over the years to trust my obsessions.
JEFFREY BROWN: Obsessions.
ADAM JOHNSON: When I get obsessed about Nirvana songs, listening to them over and over, or buying Maori jade over the Internet late at night and running up my eBay bill, it usually means it’s connected to something inside. And I won’t know what it is until I put that obsession into a story.
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