Kathryn Scanlan, "A Famous Man"

It’s December 3. Kathryn Scanlan, author of The Dominant Animal, doesn’t need to pay admission if she’s just visiting the gift shop.

How would you describe your story?

KATHRYN SCANLAN: It’s an attempt to think about how embedded with story objects and places are. It uses an unnamed man, an historical figure, to peel some layers. It uses a slippery ‘you’ to complicate the idea of omniscience and implicate the reader.

When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?

KS: I wrote a first version five or six years ago. Earlier this year I came back to it and wrote this version. I may change it again in the future. This is typical of how I work.

What kind of research went into this story?

KS: I looked into Dutch elm disease and the history of the town where I grew up, and studied some photographs I took years ago.

What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing can’t?

KS: Because of its brevity, a story feels like an object one can hold in one’s hand for close examination. Greater control is possible. Mystery and ambiguity are more available because a story is a quick look at life. In stories I admire, the quickness of the glance often expands—miraculously—into something infinitely larger.

Where should people go to learn more about you and your work?

KS: There are links to my work and books on my website: kathrynscanlan.com.

What's the best gift you've ever been given?

KS: One of the first gifts my husband gave me was a large chef’s knife with this note: The fastest way to a man’s heart is with a very sharp knife.

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