Kelly Magee!
Oh, so I’ve been meaning to post on this reading I went to two weeks ago. I just remembered it again when I looked on my list of “books-to-find” at work this morning. A friend of mine had heard that Kelly Magee was going to be reading at Miami on the 25th (she’s a professor there I think), so we went to go see it. Body Language (her new short story collection) is now definitely on my to-read list.
Magee read one of her stories, “The Business of Souls,” about a nine year old boy, his father and older sister, living in a trailer in a poor, rural area of the US. Speaking through the voice of the boy, she described the father; a man who gave his children “parachute” landing practice off the roof of their trailer but also taught them to survive by the book and not to fight. She also describes the sister who had an unnerving obsession with “science” and the dissection of animals. The boy himself spends the opening of the story crushing the heads of crickets, and later thinks he can see their ghosts. The family Magee creates is as fascinating as it is disturbing, and her story sometimes seemed more like fantasy than reality, but every detail and description was so concrete that I believed every minute of it.
The only negative thing I could say about the reading was that it lasted only half and hour. I would have loved to hear Kelly Magee read more of her stories; her delivery really enhanced her story (which was excellent to begin with). I liked every aspect of the story: description, details, metaphors and voice stood out to me as especially good. Again, her reading of her story just left me wanting more; I want to check out the rest of her collection as soon as I can lay my hands on it!
1 comment:
Julia,
You’re right; Kelly Magee is a professor at Miami University, though I believe she is just a visiting professor. I am actually a student in her Contemporary Fiction class. Magee talks very little about her own personal writing in class, but has structured the class to focus on the styles and writing techniques of the authors of the books we read. The details she pulls out and advice she gives really reflect on her own knowledge of the writing process. For instance, in addition to explaining the autobiographical background of authors such as Michael Cunningham and Arundhati Roy, Magee discusses their use of flashback and dialogue and how such techniques could improve our own writing.
Prior to the reading, I was very curious as to what Magee’s own style is like and what aspects of craft she incorporates into her writing. I know that she has published a book of short stories and is now working on a novel. This intrigues me, as I find myself struggling to complete a novel, while finding short stories easier to write. Like you, I was also disappointed that her reading was so short, but couldn’t help but wonder if all fiction readings are shorter to spark the audience’s interest and get them to purchase the book. This is one of the first fiction readings I have been to so I’m not sure what the standard is. I believe her book is available in book stores in Columbus, more so than in the Miami area, as she lives in Columbus (can you imagine a two hour commute to work!?) and has taught at The Ohio State University. Do you have the book at the library that you work at? I’m not sure when I’ll be in the Columbus area to check out the book.
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