Eric Puchner teaches at Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner and John L’Heureux Fellow. His short stories have appeared in
The Chicago Tribune, Zoetrope: All Story, The Missouri Review,
Glimmer Train, Best New American Voices 2005, and other journals and anthologies
. He has won a Pushcart Prize and the Joseph Henry Jackson Award for
Music Through the Floor. His new book -- his first novel -- is
Model Home.
The start of his Q & A with Erin Gilbert for
Publishers Weekly:
Does your own childhood bear any resemblance to that of the Ziller kids?
Not in terms of any of the actual events being autobiographical, but I did spend my teen years in Southern California, partly in a gated community that was similar to the Herradura 
Estates from the novel, and we were downwardly mobile in the same way. My father was a failed businessman who constantly lived beyond his means, and some of the details from the book, like the furniture and cars being repossessed, were things I lived through. But in terms of the actual family itself, it bears absolutely no resemblance to my real-life family.
Real estate fiascos and financial struggles are pretty timely subjects. Was that intentional?
It wasn't actually. When I began, it was before the whole subprime loan disaster, and I was thinking about what happened to my own father. I hadn't anticipated the whole real estate crisis.
Is there any idea or feeling that you want your readers to be left with?
I had a friend...[read on]
Visit
Eric Puchner's website.
--Marshal Zeringue
