February 2000 
An Interview with Reginald McKnight
Renée Olander
Reginald McKnight's most recent collection of short fiction is white boys (Henry Holt, 1998). His earlier works include the short-story collections The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas and Moustapha's Eclipse, and a novel, I Get on the Bus. He has received an NEA fellowship, an O. Henry Award, the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence twice, the PEN/Hemingway Special Citation, a Pushcart Prize, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship, and, most recently, a Whiting Writer's Award.
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An Interview With Jill McCorkle
Sarah Anne Johnson
Jill McCorkle is the author of five novels-The Cheer Leader, July 7th, Tending to Virginia, Ferris Beach, Carolina Moon-and two collections of short stories-Crash Diet and Final Vinyl Days. Her short-story collection Crash Diet (1992) was named by both the The New York Times Book Review and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as one of the best books of the year.
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Teaching Our Uncertainties
Robin Hemley
In 1945, my mother went to school at the legendary Black Mountain College where she studied visual art with Robert Motherwell. Previously, she'd studied at Columbia with the well-known art historian Meyer Schapiro.
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A Special Place: The Novels of Donald Harinton
Fred Chappel
Donald Harington is not an underappreciated novelist; he is an undiscovered continent.
I have been admonished not to go overboard in my happy enthusiasm, but please permit me that opening assertion, even with its slight undertone of aggression. Since my purposes here are benevolent and since the favorable reports of writers much more widely known than I have failed to gain for Harington his justly deserved readership, perhaps a touch of hyperbole is allowable.
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Shades Among Shadows: The Murder Mystery, Film Noir, & Poetry
David Lehman
In October 1989, a Boston man fatally shot his wife, then turned the gun on himself, administering a serious (though not fatal) wound. Having staged the incident in an area where drug-related violence was not uncommon, the guilty husband was initially believed when he blamed the crimes on a drug-crazed black hoodlum, a man who did not exist.
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From Ape to Mermaid: Humor in Fiction Writing
Ann Beattie
Sometimes when people meet me at the end of the evening, or the seminar, or the horseshoe-pitching, they say, "I'm so surprised that you have a sense of humor." This is usually followed by the person clamping a hand over his or her mouth, or by a nervous look. They've surprised themselves, blurted out something that they didn't expect to say.
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