January Interview: Dan Chaon

Dan Chaon was initially known for his exceptional short stories including the collection Among the Missing, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. And then he wrote two extremely well received novels: You Remind Me of Me and Await Your Reply. His newest offering, Stay Awake finds him once again writing stories that will remain with the reader for a very long time.

“Writing is different than waking life,” Chaon says to MaryAnne Kolton in an exclusive January Magazine interview. “I don’t feel any urgency to explore the stuff that makes me comfortable and content. I'm after some kind of shadow-self, or shadow-life, not the same as my own. I’m interested in outsiders, not because I am one but because I feel I might have become one. I’m interested in people who screw up and do desperate things because, even though I’m generally conservative and cautious in my approach to the world, I have thought screwed up and desperate thoughts. I am interested in scary things because walking through them somehow makes me feel calmer and safer.”

See the rest of Kolton’s discussion with Chaon here.