Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Courtney Elizabeth Mauk fans the flames of her novel Spark (Engine Books). + I: HABITAT When I began writing Spark, I was living in a two-bedroom apartment on Herkimer Street in…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Gregory Spatz writes about Inukshuk (Bellevue Literary Press). + Flapless Landing I was on a flight into Bakersfield, California when the flight-attendant came on the intercom to announce that we’d be…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Josh Russell writes about A True History of the Captivation, Transport to Strange Lands, & Deliverance of Hannah Guttentag (Dzanc Books). + Unlike my first two novels, Yellow Jack, which is…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Patrick Somerville writes about This Bright River (Reagan Arthur Books). + 16 Data Points: A List of Some Things About This Bright River To prepare, I played Zork again. A lot.…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Tim Horvath shows us the things he dragged home to be part of his collection Understories (Bellevue Literary Press). + TRIPS TO THE SALVAGE SHOP I love research, which I like…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Roger Real Drouin shares how his experiences on the trail shaped his novel, No Other Way. + IN THE CLOUDS The further I hiked, the more my writing came together. To…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Jürgen Fauth shares a reading list for his novel Kino, recently published by Atticus Books. + “All it took was a straight face,” my narrator Klaus Koblitz says about the outrageous…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Sarah Falkner gives us a guided tour of her Animal Sanctuary, winner of the Starcherone Prize for Innovative Fiction. + It is probably useful to explain that my initial and main…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Sheldon Lee Compton writes about some sources of the stories in his new collection The Same Terrible Storm (Foxhead Books). + I rarely do actual research in the literal sense of…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Scott Wrobel maps the mysterious suburbs for his collection Cul De Sac. + Writing Suburban Fiction: The way of the The Sac I moved to a suburb of a major metropolitan…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Stephan Eirik Clark writes about making Russian history his own for the stories in Vladimir’s Mustache. + In the summer of 2003, I read a review of Michael Bloch’s Ribbentrop in…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their research for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Kristine Ong Muslim leads us through the gallery that inspired her book We Bury The Landscape (which we reviewed here). + While writing We Bury the Landscape, I followed a very…