A producer for This American Life for six years, Diane Cook knows how to shape a story. Her debut collection of shorts, Man V. Nature, contains stories that examine the primal nature of human beings, with unknowns that never become known, and in which the unlikely continues to happen (for example: mysterious clothing keeps showing up in one woman's dryer). Fairy tales and allegories abound, but the collection mocks any hard boundary between fantasy and reality. In a recent interview with The Fanzine, Cook said: "I would hope the reader would also be wary of thinking these worlds in the stories aren't real, aren't our world. I recognize that these worlds will seem strange and impossible, but to me, the essence of our world is in there. It's a slightly exaggerated reality. Men don't steal babies from yards, but, well, sometimes they do."
415-863-8688
Comments are closed.
