My month as writer-in-residence is coming to a close. I’ve very much enjoyed sharing some of my thoughts and concerns about global fiction as well as introducing the work of other global-minded writers to this magazine. I want to end with a bang, however, and so I’ve enlisted a wonderful Nigerian talent to address global…

I began my exploration of global fiction this month by posting the prologue to my novel-in-progress MIGRATORY ANIMALS, where we meet Flannery (and her fiancé Kunle) in Nigeria before she is forced to return to the United States. The below excerpt is from later in the book. After being dropped off at her East Austin…

This month, I’ve been presenting examples of global fiction—concerning Nigeria, Egypt, Afghanistan—as well as exploring the philosophical and practical challenges that come with writing it. These pieces have brought a lot to the table, in my opinion, but not too many laughs. Is there a role for humor in global fiction? For example, what might…

Today I want to look at the idea of “global fiction” from a more domestic angle, with an excerpt from the amazing Charlotte Gullick’s ONE–MAN RESERVATION. Her novel is set entirely in the United States, and yet because of the subject matter, it also explores how domestic events and decisions are interconnected with and affect…

Today I am so pleased to present an interview with the amazing Sarah Bird. She is a rare writer, one whose work is as popular as it is literary, as dark and insightful as it is laugh-out-loud funny. Find out more about her novels here: http://sarahbirdbooks.com. Bird’s ninth novel, Above The East China Sea (to…

I announced in my first post as writer-in-residence here at Necessary Fiction that I wanted to focus this month on global fiction. Today I’m going to explore why this subject has been on my mind the last few years. In my early twenties I spent several years living in Chile and Ecuador; soon those places…

With the tumultuous events currently underway in Cairo, today’s post couldn’t be more timely. I am very excited to present the elegant and powerful prose of Egyptian-American writer Dalia Azim, whose novel-in-progress brings us the compelling saga of an Egyptian family, with drama set in both Egypt and the United States. Behold the first chapter…

First, some confessions: I don’t blog or tweet or tumble, and very rarely post on Facebook; my professional website hasn’t been updated in three years. The emails I send, even to friends, tend to be curt, slapdash, sometimes riddled with errors. I’m just not the kind of person who likes to put myself out there,…

1. Someone asked me, how do you become a writer. I wasn’t sure how to answer. I felt her question invested me with an authority I didn’t believe in. Was this my own fear of calling myself A Writer? Was it my reluctance to be pigeonholed, or, equally, to speak in general for something I…

The earliest memories I have of writing take place in the kitchen of my parents’ house, at a pine-topped table with blue legs, now painted green, sometimes with my brothers there, too. The lamp over the table has a design of stars punched into the metal shade, and it’s been there since before my parents…

Woolf’s diary, 24 June, 1918: “Before tea this afternoon I finished setting up the last words of Katherine [Mansfield]‘s stories—68 pages.” + In 2004 I walked into a large room on the ground floor of a university building, a humid day, August, the river rising with mist, the bright blue of the sky signaling autumn…

Notes on process Woolf, December 7, 1918: “But this sort of writing is always done against time; however much time I have”. 1. I approached the novel (the long piece of fiction) with certain assumptions. For instance that its primary considerations are (‘should be’) character and plot. I have no knack for either and I…