My Interviewees as Professional Writers

Aurelie Sheehan:

1. Aurelie Sheehan has written a for a variety of creative mediums: short story collections, novels, nonfiction pieces, and a novella. She has won a variety of awards for her works as well: the Pushcart Prize, a Camargo Fellowship, the Jack Kerouac Literary Award, among other grants and prizes.

2. "My City (or, On the Idea of Making It My Own)"

"Advent 12/9: Aurelie Sheehan on Zadie Smith"

Aurelie Sheehan has written, as illustrated by the examples, personal commentaries on her life and reflections and analysis's of other writer's works. The difference between these two genres is quite obvious, one is based off of introspection and the other examining the thoughts and ideas of another as articulated in their written work. Formatting-wise they are all the same.

3. The first hyperlinked piece really has no context because it was written purely to personally reflect on the various cities that she has lived in: "Now I live in Tucson, Arizona. I've been here fourteen years. It's home in a sense, in large part because this is where my husband and I have raised our daughter, and we've got good friends here (Sheehan)."

The context of the second is a reflection on the works of Zadie Smith so she there is the contextual issue of honestly reflecting on her work without too harshly criticizing her peer. Luckily, it appears as though Sheehan had no major disagreements with Smith: "Any writer can feel like a narcissist—in the lazy form of that word. Me, me, me—as mentioned—I’m tired, I’m sad, I’m lonely. And yet, as Smith asserts, we’re in this game to connect. Connection is all (Sheehan)."

4. The first published work's overall message is that our setting and the act of traveling  has a definite effect on who we are as illustrated by the following: "I write what I believe or see or imagine, and you write what you believe or see or imagine, too. Finally, it's a place of the imagination, after all, and there's infinite space to move (Sheehan)."

The second published work's overall message is to inform the reader on Zadie Smith's work: "I am writing to tell you about Zadie Smith’s book, Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays (The Penguin Press 2009)."

5. The purpose of "My City..." is an elaboration of her feelings on having lived in various and how they have grown on her: "This was an excellent experience, but living there forced me right away to reckon with my ability to render place (Sheehan)." 

The purpose of "Advent 12/9..." is to personally reflect on the work, "On Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays", by Zadie Smith: "She has reminded me that I’m not alone. “My writing desk is covered in open novels,” Smith writes, and I believe her. All our desks are covered in novels, invisible cities filled with friends and foes (Sheehan)." 

Seth Foley:

1. Seth Foley has no published works but is currently working on a novel on modern politics and his experiences as a Marine inspired by the 9/11 tragedy.

Litterio, Antonio. "Power of Words". 5/26/11 via Wikimedia Commons. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.