Happy weekend, writers,
And readers! Because this week, I thought it might be fun if we all read and discuss a short story.
I've gone on and on (and on) lately about my love for Stuart
Dybek, how much I enjoy his stories, how much his work influences my own, especially recently.
But I've never really tried to learn what kinds of writing have had an influence on him. Until a couple of weeks
ago, when a Twitter conversation scratched that itch for me.
And led me to Yasunari Kawabata's story "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket."
At only 1,500 words, it's short enough that we can all read it quickly, but it's also deep enough that we can have an excellent discussion about it.
Click on over for a link to the story, as well as some background on the connection between Kawabata and Dybek. (And then as you read, keep in mind that Dybek's most recent
story collection is titled Paper Lantern.)
As Dybek once said, writing is about "making memories matter in the present." If any story outside of his own work is a
great example of that, it's "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket."
So read the story at your convenience, and then hop on over (uh huh) to the blog to share your thoughts.
