Q&A with Brendan Gillen

 

 

 

Brendan Gillen is the author of the new story collection Hang Time. His other books include the novel Static. He lives in Brooklyn.

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in your new collection?

 

A: The earliest piece in the collection is “Tully”, a flash fiction piece from the perspective of an aging boxer, which was published by Molotov Cocktail way back in 2018.

 

The most recent piece is “What Gouda Knew,” a story about a cat that assists in healing the grief of a young woman who has just lost her twin sister, which JMWW just published last month.

 

I’m currently working on a novel-length version of the final story in the collection, “Man Up,” about a basketball player navigating insomnia and personal trauma amidst the microscope of major college basketball. So, to answer your question, some are from the vault, while others continue to evolve.

 

Q: How was the book’s title--also the title of one of the stories--chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: In the title story, a high school basketball player disrupts the space-time continuum in the middle of the game, freezing the entire gym—teammates, opponents, coaches, fans—as he ponders his future as a ballplayer and as a man.

 

It’s that in-betweenness that really interests me as a writer, the moments right before…before a personal transformation, before disaster strikes, before the dissolution of a relationship, before we become the person we hope to be.

 

In many ways, most of our days are a sort of “Hang Time,” the elongated parenthesis of the present moment. It’s in these moments that life occurs, if we can only slow down enough to notice it. 

 

Q: The writer John Brandon said of the book, “These tense, urgent tales explore the past-your-prime turbulence of adulthood with the lush sentence-writing of Barry Hannah and the stop-short eeriness of Raymond Carver.” What do you think of that description, and of those comparisons?

 

A: I’m a huge admirer of John Brandon. I first became aware of this work for Grantland, the now-defunct sports literary journal that launched a number of fantastic writers to a broader readership (John Brandon, Hua Hsu, Chris Ryan, Molly Lambert, Jay Caspian Kang, etc.). And John’s novel Citrus County is one of my favorites of all time.

 

So, when John not only agreed to read and blurb Hang Time, but lend such kind words, I was incredibly honored.

 

Carver and Hannah, it goes without saying, are titans, so I’m beyond flattered to be mentioned in the same breath. I once heard someone hilariously say that LaCroix flavored sparkling water tastes like someone shouted the name of a fruit from another room…maybe that’s me with Raymond Carver and Barry Hannah. 

 

Q: How did you decide on the order in which the stories would appear in the collection?

 

A: Largely by feel. I wanted to create a sense of flow, stacking shorter and longer pieces together to establish a rhythm of peaks and valleys. When I’m reading story collections, I sometimes feel overwhelmed when I know there are say, three or four 30-page stories in a row. So, I was keeping that in mind.

 

But readers should also feel free to skip around, like picking up the needle on an album to find your favorite track. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on a novel manuscript, which is an extension of the final story in the collection, “Man Up.” As I mentioned above, the story takes place in the world of major college basketball, centering on a star player whose mother was a WNBA player before she passed away.

 

I won’t spoil it, but I’ll say lots of other intense shit goes down leading up to the biggest game of the season, all of which contributes to the protagonist’s nightmarish insomnia, a subject I unfortunately know plenty about.

 

My dad was a college basketball coach for 30 years, so I also know plenty about the ins and outs of the sport, about what the game can give you, and what it can take away. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Even if you don’t like sports, there’s plenty to dig into with this collection: surfing, monster truck rallies, a dystopian Miami gun range bachelorette party, rollercoaster vomiting, Scottish Fold cats…something for everyone!

 

I hope anyone who picks it up can find something to enjoy, but there’s a lot being written about how men no longer read fiction…I hope this collection can play a small role in counteracting that narrative. 

 

I also just want to thank Scott Bolohan and .406 Press for the belief and support; John Brandon, Emily Costa, and Eric Rasmussen for their words; and Jared Hedges for the cover design. I’m proud of this collection and grateful to have had the chance to work with so many talented people to bring the book to life.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Brendan Gillen.