The more I have read and soaked in Justin Torres interviews and short stories and essays here (years after reading and admiring We The Animals; I need to re-read this gem) the more I imagine he Needs to be Aware of ReadUp. I Imagine he will Love it.

All of a sudden this narrator is way more tuned into his world and can describe in much more detail every moment, and every moment’s consequences. So, just the style of the writing changes, so therefore it becomes a little bit more expansive.

Rail: The telescoping out of the scene—as if the narrator is now almost like rising above the scene.

Torres: Exactly, which is the most important thing for me to do as a writer because there were certain experiences that mimic my own. I had to get outside and understand the motivation of the parents in the book.

Rail: From my perspective, you achieved what Baldwin always set out to do. He believed, “Writers need to tell as much truth as they can bear.”

Torres: That’s all that we have to do. I write so, so, so slowly but I feel that I can stand behind every word because I contemplated and mined it for its proof. You can really break it down to that level—it’s got to be true in a big way but it’s got to be true in all the small ways, too. It’s fiction, it’s mythic, it’s exaggerated, it’s dramatized, but the emotional truth behind it is real.

I am so Excited to read what he eventually follows WTA with.