June 5th, 2012
elliottholt
That’s why it’s a good title. When I hear ‘safe as houses,’ it’s hard not to think of it as a challenge: Are they really safe? Is this really a stable situation? There’s dramatic tension built in. There’s intrigue. I think our idea of ‘home’ being safe is very much a projection. I mean, some homes and houses are safe, others aren’t. But I think we all need to cling to the idea of home as a safe, nurturing place. It’s an abstraction. And that’s why I also love the cover of your book. Those graphic houses. It’s kind of abstract and very striking.

I chatted with my friend Marie-Helene Bertino* in Canteen about writing and other things

*author of the forthcoming Safe As Houses

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art bob dylan brooklyn college mfa program canteen magazine creativity depression electric literature's recommended reading elizabeth bishop elliott holt fiction graham greene grief interview jim shepard lit literature loss marie-helene bertino pushcart prize writing

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I'm a fiction writer. My first novel YOU ARE ONE OF THEM will be published by The Penguin Press on May 30, 2013. My short stories have been published in The Pushcart Prize XXXV (2011 anthology) and other places. I grew up in Washington, D.C., and have lived in many cities (Moscow, London, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and New York). http://elliottholt.com/

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