I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!
Today we are joined by PATRICIA HENLEY is the author of three novels, five collections of stories, two chapbooks of poetry, and a stage play. Her first novel, Hummingbird House, was a finalist for the National Book Award and The New Yorker Fiction Prize. Her short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and other journals. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and other anthologies. Her new collection of stories, Apple & Palm, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in March 2026. She taught in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Purdue University for 26 years. She lives in Kingston, Washington. Learn more at patriciahenleyauthor.com
What do you do when you’re not writing?
I think about writing. I take long walks. I read. I watch
British TV, mostly cop procedurals. Keeping in touch with far-flung friends and
family takes time and energy, and it keeps my spirits up. I’m good at planning
dream trips. I used to bake, but I have broken myself of that pastime, per my
doctor’s orders. Now I watch Facebook reels of people creating luscious cakes.
What’s something that’s true about you but no one
believes?
Most people do not believe that I was fat as a girl. I wore
Chubette dresses.
What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as a writer?
I’ve traveled. And since my work usually starts with a
character in a particular place, traveling has fed my writing. Hummingbird
House is set almost entirely in Guatemala. When I first traveled there, I
had no larger ambition than to write a few stories set there. I spent ten years
going back and forth, gathering material. That was money well spent.
Describe your book in three words.
Women claiming themselves.
If you could spend the day with another author, who would
you choose and why?
A dead author: William Trevor. I so admire him. I will never
come to the end of reading his stories.
A living author: Tessa Hadley. She amazes me. I wrote her a
fan letter once. I urgently await each new book by her.
What is your favorite book from childhood?
When I was a girl, I had two books that I read over and over. The Secret Garden bewitched me. Dicken, the boy who tamed animals and was deeply connected to the natural world, became the model for nearly every man I’ve fallen in love with. Name the constellations and recognize bird calls, and I’m yours. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the story of Francie, a girl staunchly living through hard times, gave me a protagonist to emulate.
What are you currently reading?
The Entire Sky by Joe Wilkins. We’re doing an event together in May in Portland, Oregon, where we’ll have a conversation about our rural, small town, and working-class characters. His characters leap onto the page, so utterly real.
What genres won’t you read?
Although I love sci-fi movies and sci-fi television (I’m a
Trekkie), I don’t read science fiction. There’s not enough time to read
everything.
Do you read reviews, or do you steer clear of them, and
why?
I always read reviews. I’ve been mostly lucky that way, so
they don’t upset me. It’s fascinating to see what book reviewers see in the
work. Or don’t see.
What is under your bed?
Red boots. A box of supplements. I keep old teaching
supplies under my bed in boxes. Every time I move, I divest myself of some
teaching supplies, but not all! I always think that I may need them in the
future. I’m 79 years old and I still love teaching.
In
her new, linked collection, APPLE & PALM, set in and
around the town of Whistle Pig in the Western Maryland mountains, a web of
characters navigate unexpected pitfalls, relationships, and aging.
-
Fragile, elderly Roxy now lives in a studio behind Tansy, the women’s arts
co-op, instead of with the other women. She wants Lulu nearby. Lulu is her
philandering grandson’s wife, a free spirited mother who keeps about Roxy
connected, alive.
-
Jill is in her sixties. She’s resilient, a little fierce, and rescues
others—lets them find peace working in her apple orchard or respite on her
sprawling property, which gives her a love and connection she prizes far more
than any romance.
-
And then there’s Maddy, who loves books but has to read on the sly. She came up
poor and married young, and her unreliable and violent husband doesn’t trust
books. Or her.
Exploring
faded dreams, newly found independence, memory, desire, and more, the women in
Henley’s stories clarify their identities and grasp their own narratives, in a
world where men are rarely soulmates but share the reckoning of change.
Sentence by sentence, Patricia Henley demonstrates in APPLE &
PALM why she is a master of the short story craft.
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