Edith Pearlman Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q: In her introduction to your most recent short story collection, Binocular Vision, Ann Patchett writes that Binocular Vision “should be the book with which Edith Pearlman casts off her secret-handshake status and takes up her rightful position as a national treasure.” And in the New York Times review of Binocular Vision, Roxana Robinson wrote, “Why in the world had I never heard of Edith Pearlman? And why, if you hadn’t, hadn’t you? It certainly isn’t the fault of her writing, which is intelligent, perceptive, funny and quite beautiful…” What do you think of this belated recognition?

 A: I think the world is full of cabbages and kings, things happen early or late or not at all.  It’s fun to be writing under the radar.  It’s more fun to be recognized.  But I’ll probably be forgotten sooner or later, and it will always be fun to write.