21 Dec 2011, Posted by Gina Balibrera in Blog, 0 Comments Tagged Contemporary, donkeys, Essay, Fiction, ghosts, interview, irony, monks, Writing

Of Sentient Donkeys, Supple Ironies and Artful Digressions: An Interview with James Morrison

by Gina Balibrera

James Morrison is a Detroit native, Professor of Literature, Film and Creative Writing at Claremont McKenna College, and an extraordinary writer. He is the author of a memoir, Broken Fever (2001), a novel, The Lost Girl (2007), a collection of short stories, Said and Done (2009) and most recently the novella Everyday Ghosts . Morrison’s work in Everyday Ghosts balances hilarity (the shrieking antics of a hay-feverish monk who has a terrible fear of ants) and the graceful sort of light-touch poignancy inside of an image or line of dialogue, by which his reader is moved, altered, grateful, for having entered such particular narrative richness. James Morrison’s essay “Happiness in a Corner: On Jonathan Strong” appears in MQR’s current print issue, Fall 2011. He agreed to talk with me in October, 2011.