Alexandra Wuest, "The Exhibition"
It’s December 18. Alexandra Wuest will take a paper map if you have one.
How would you describe your story?
ALEXANDRA WUEST: A couple visits an art gallery and things go very wrong.
When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?
AW: I wrote the first draft a few years ago. I woke up with the idea and wrote a very messy version of it in one sitting. Then, like always, I spent a lot of time revising it, with help from my friend Luis Polanco and my editor at Joyland Michelle Lyn King.
What kind of research went into this story?
AW: My research process is usually just writing lots of things that I see in my phone’s Notes app.
What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing can’t?
AW: I like short stories because a really good one usually makes me feel like it lives somewhere between a poem and a dream and because I can sometimes write them in a single day, which I haven’t been able to do with a novel yet.
Where should people go to learn more about you and your work?
What’s the best gift you’ve ever been given?
AW: I always like to receive flowers, but I was once very moved by a toaster oven.
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