Q&A with Marian Crotty

 

Photo by Vickie Gray

 

 

Marian Crotty is the author of the story collection Near Strangers. She also has written the story collection What Counts as Love. She is an associate professor of writing at Loyola University Maryland, and she lives in Baltimore.

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in Near Strangers? 

 

A: Most of the stories were written between 2019 and 2022, and I finished the short story collection in 2023.

 

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

 

A: The title story was, I think, the fourth story that I wrote for the collection, and when I got to that title the story’s theme clicked for me. I realized I was interested in the ways in which our close ties and loose ties might not always be what they seem.

 

I wanted to explore both the ways we misunderstand our loved ones or aren't as close to them as we wish we could be and the ways that seemingly insignificant connections can end up changing our lives. 

 

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

 

A: I wanted the first three stories to give a good indication of what people could expect in the collection in terms of the voice, the range of narrators, and the subject matter. I also thought about creating a sense of continuity and variation. 

 

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: I just started a new project. I’m not sure yet if it’s a story collection, a novel, or a story cycle, and I’m eager to see where it goes.

 

Lately I’ve been interested in books like Karin Lin-Greenberg’s We Are Here and Morgan Talty’s Night of the Living Rez that blur the line between novels and stories.

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: Thanks for your blog and for your interest in the book!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb