I’ve been told I tend to anthropomorphize these creatures but you will never convince me that they aren’t thinking many of the same things we are and acting accordingly. Proof?

Jill McCorkle is the author of seven novels (most recent: Hieroglyphics) and four story collections. Her work has appeared in numerous periodicals, and four of her short stories have been...

That kind of longing—the blend of comfort and joy with sadness and loss—is what I am most drawn to as a writer and reader, and I am constantly trying to seek balance between the two.

And yet she kept on working, always working, writing those daring and serious stories which dive below consciousness, drawing us out of our comfortable selves and down into strange places;...

Right after her mother’s death, when she and Jimmy were kids, their dad had dated somewhat indiscriminately. Therapists might have suggested he do things differently but he was a...