Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Back to Basics program / JUNE 2023
Debra Spark
USA
www.debraspark.com
About
I am a fiction writer who likes to sneak away to write articles
and essays on a variety of topics. I have published five novels,
two collections of stories, two books of essays about fiction
writing, and two anthologies.
I teach both at Colby College and in the MFA Program
for Writers at Warren Wilson College. While at Arteles,I
hope to continue work on a nonfiction project concerning
coincidence stories. I am interested in narrating coincidence
stories and their aftermath and how such stories allow me
to explore issues like grudges and reconciliation, perception
of risk, religious faith in the light of personal misfortune, and
late-life female friendship.
No Coincidences, No Story
I worked on the first draft of several essays for a book that
will consist of coincidence stories. I use the stories as an
occasion for exploring diverse subjects, including the
diagnosis and treatment of a rare disease, the likelihood of
foul ball injuries, the effect of a public accounting of a private
love affair, and grudges and reconciliation in the lives of two
famous architects. I wrote eighty draft pages and revised 20
more pages. For me, this is an enormous amount of work,
and sets up the work I will likely do for the next half a year.