Abstract
The short story writer and novelist Dan Chaon discusses how he became a writer, aided by the early influence of the writer Ray Bradbury and others such as Alfred Hitchcock, Shirley Jackson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Raymond Carver, Edith Wharton, and Daphne du Maurier. Other topics covered in the interview include the craft of writing, charting as an organization technique, the role of the narrator, family and social class in his work, and being a National Book Award Finalist. His books include Fitting Ends and Other Stories and Among the Missing.