Elizabeth Crane

Elizabeth Crane is the author of several collections of short stories, including Turf, When the Messenger is Hot, All this Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy to Enter, a memoir, This Story Will Change, as well as two novels, We Only Know So Much and The History of Great Things.

Crane's latest story collection is That May Not Mean What You Think.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the stories?

I like a title that suggestive of what's inside the book, in this case, the idea I had about That May Not Mean What You Think was that even though it speaks to that particular story, it also speaks to the overall stories in the sense that it playfully invites the reader to question things they think they're sure about, via my stories or otherwise.

What's in a name?

I love to have fun with character names. In the story "Nepo Babies," they don't have actual names, they're just identified by who they were related to: The white feminist's grandchild, the grandson of the muckety-muck, the shady tech heiress. And in the story "Senior Living for the Unknowables," which is inspired by a reality show, I gave them all names that sounded extremely similar to their real names with just something changed. Which is really just kind of an inside joke for anyone who's an actual fan of that show.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your latest book?

I think my teenage reader self would probably not be surprised to find that I still watch a lot of TV, although mostly in fiction I play with reality TV, which didn't exist back then.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Endings! I'm always revising endings. I can always jump right in to some story idea, but trying to bring it to a conclusion that feels believable, but not too wrapped up in a bow is always a challenge.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

There are parts of me in many of my characters, but this is often a call for me to question the beliefs of the characters that resemble me, and then turn it around to try to see a different point of view. Which brings me back to the title of the book - I am sometimes also the You in That May Not Mean What You Think!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

As mentioned, I have often found myself influenced by reality TV, in the sense that there seem to be endless things people are willing to do or say on television that I still cannot understand, and so I try to figure it out fiction. I'll let you know if I ever do!

Visit Elizabeth Crane's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane (April 2008).

The Page 69 Test: We Only Know So Much.

My Book, The Movie: We Only Know So Much.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Crane & Percy.

--Marshal Zeringue