Tracking toward 'the destination'

 

“Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one.   I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.” – Amy Hempel

 

Born in Chicago on Dec. 14, 1951 Hempel spent her formative years in California, the setting for much of her award-winning short fiction.  She has written for some of the U.S.’s most prestigious magazines, newspapers and journals while also teaching creative writing at colleges and universities ranging from The New School to Harvard, Princeton and (currently) the University of Texas.

 

Hempel’s very first short story is 1983’s "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried", one of the most anthologized stories in contemporary U.S. fiction.  The story can be found in The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, one of 8 collections she’s had published, the most recent being Sing To It.

“I’ve always known when I start a story what the last line is,” she said about her writing style.  “It’s always been the case . . . I don’t know how it’s going to get there, but I seem to need that destination.”