Sarah Braunstein Interview, plus links to author biography, book summaries, excerpts and reviews

An interview with Sarah Braunstein

A Q&A with Sarah Braunstein about her short story collection, Baby in a Box.

Do you have a favorite story in this collection?

That's like choosing between my children, I must say! They are all weird and imperfect and tender in their own way. It would be unseemly to choose one above the rest.

As a writer, what do you like most about short stories?

The short story form is known for its brevity and intensity-- for me it's a beautiful way to look at uncomfortable, squeamish things, like fake pregnancies, bad dates, voyeuristic neighbors. I love the challenge of the form, how it demands ruthless editing and precision. I try to remember what William Blake said about seeing the world in a grain of sand, and I trust that if I take any moment and look at it hard enough, I will find depth and wonder and comedy. I love being in the heads of new people, somehow thinking thoughts that aren't quite my own. I love that a short story is meant to be experienced by a reader in a single sitting.

What's your background in writing short stories?

I've always felt that writing a short story is like putting on a little play for a reader. I started writing them as a teenager, when the play was for myself and no one else. In college, I preferred to stay in on Friday night and write. The writers who charged me up back then– and still do– are Franz Kafka, Jean Stafford, and Lorrie Moore. It's a very long process. There are sentences in this book I wrote two decades ago.

How did you come to divide the collection in two parts: Lost and Found?

Longing features prominently in these stories– we get lots of break-ups and family fractures and lost objects. I'd been thinking of a "lost and found," a place to look for missing things. The stories in Part One involve some sort of loss, or giving-away, and those in Part Two look at people finding something they definitely didn't expect. A certain found-ness comes only after being lost. I had been thinking of W.D. Winnicott's famous line, referring to children playing hide-and-seek: "It is a joy to be hidden and a disaster not to be found."

Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.