Stephen Policoff

Stephen Policoff has taught writing at Wesleyan and Yale and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies at NYU. His books include the novel Beautiful Somewhere Else, the memoir Sixteen Scenes from a Film I Never Wanted to See, two YA books, The Dreamer’s Companion and Real Toads in Imaginary Gardens (co-authored with Jeffrey Skinner), and the children’s book Cesar’s Amazing Journey.

Policoff's latest novel is Come Away.

From his Q & A at Serious Reading:

Do your novels carry a message?

I don’t like messages, except maybe cryptic ones. If I could boil down my work into a sentence or two, why would I write it? I don’t think most art worth anything has a discernible message. I think a writer’s worldview is what is conveyed in a worthwhile novel, and I hope that this is true of my work. A picture of the world, an image of the strange ways we act and react with others, a sense of the universe as a complex and not-entirely-understandable place, that’s what I strive toward. Nabokov says somewhere that “reality” is the only word which does not make any sense without quotation marks. That sensibility is one which I hope and believe I am conveying in Come Away.

How much of yourself do you put into your books?

I think all writers put themselves into their books, even if it is only bits and pieces. Paul Brickner, the narrator of both Beautiful Somewhere Else and Come Away, sounds just like me (or so I am told), and I have certainly used...[read on]

Visit Stephen Policoff's faculty webpage and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Stephen Policoff.

The Page 69 Test: Come Away.

My Book, The Movie: Come Away.

--Marshal Zeringue