In the Garden of the North American Martyrs | Interview Excerpt With Tobias Wolff

In the following excerpt from a longer interview, the author describes his writing process and how the story ‘‘In the Garden of the North American Martyrs’’ evolved.

[Jay Woodruff] How did this story get started? What was its genesis?

[Tobias Wolff] Well, there are a few things that I can trace it to. One is a job interview I had several years ago which was not, it turned out, a serious interview. That is, I had been brought across the country in order to fulfill a requirement of the college that so many people be interviewed for each position. And when I found this out it really burned me up. I tried writing the story a couple of times from a personal point of view, my own point of view. This never really took. It sounded whiny,...

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