Richard Mirabella on Blood Ties

Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where writers discuss their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they’re not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done. Plus: book recommendations, bad jokes, okay jokes, despair, joy, and anything else going on that week. Hosted by Lindsay Hunter.    

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Today, Richard Mirabella discusses his debut novel, Brother and Sister Enter the Forest, as well as sibling dynamics, the deft forward motion of the novel, the influence of Throwing Muses’ album “Purgatory/Paradise” on the structure of the novel, writing “skeletal drafts,” fairy tales, Rachel Glaser fandom, and more!

From the episode:

Richard Mirabella: I think it’s just an interesting story–that idea of like, we have these blood ties to another person, and that comes with all of this feeling of responsibility. And even if I can’t gel with this person, even if we have fights, even if we have all of this conflict, it’s very hard to detach from somebody if they’re your blood, they’re part of the family unit. There’s this family loyalty thing also. For me, so much of this book is about Willa, and Willa’s struggle with caring for her brother and wanting to escape him.

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Richard Mirabella is a writer and civil servant living in Upstate New York. His stories have appeared in Story Magazine, American Short Fiction, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. He’s the author of the novel Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.