What Do You Write?

I go to a lot of readings. Since I have Tattered Cover here in town, there’s a ton of authors that I get a chance to go and see. Usually, I try to hit at least one event a month. Sometimes (like when I wear my UNOmaha MFA shirt), it comes up that I’m a writer as well when I’m getting my book signed. Frequently I am then asked: “Oh, what do you write?” I’ve never been sure how to answer that.

I mean, are they asking fiction, poetry, plays, or something like that? Do they want to know if I write genre or literary fiction? Experimental? Does everyone else really only write one sort of thing?

Frankly, I write different things at different times. My novel in story form Bones Buried in the Dirt (including such example pieces as “The Virgin Mary Tree, “Boys Chase Girls,” and “The War“) can be thought of as realism focused on a child narrator. Other things I’ve written, such as “Polite Notes of the Dinnertime Neighborly Etiquette Apocalypse,” are weirder. Some things could be thought of as bizarro (like “Ideas: Where to Get Them and What to Do When They Won’t Leave“) and some as slipstream or whatever the heck you want to call it, whether with elements of sci-fi (such as “G-Men“), fantasy (such as “Counter Spring“), or magical realism (such as perhaps “The Unknowable Agenda of Ursines“).

Bottom line, how do you answer a question like What do you write? Words, I write words.