Stray Dogs: Interviews with Working-Class Writers

by Daniel M. Mendoza, Eric Miles Williamson, Michael Giles

Stray Interviews with Working-Class Writers delivers a portrait of contemporary working class authors in America. Editor Daniel M. Mendoza engages with “some of the best in contemporary literary fiction.” These one-on-one interviews seek to uncover how each writer has developed their working-class aesthetic. A young writer himself, Mendoza encourages the authors to discuss their craft, their upbringing, their socio-political beliefs, as well as the state of contemporary literature. Stray Interviews with Working-Class Writers, is an insightful study of an often overlooked literary genre.Rolando Hinojosa-Smith on the novel in “...to show a world as seen by the writer, as experienced (with certain changes) by the writer and to hold whatever it is that the writer holds as his truths...”Richard Burgin on the self and “In terms of real metaphysical truth, however, there’s been a shift since Dickens and more people are less sure than ever about the origins and purpose of the universe.”Eric Miles Williamson on “I believe that there is no personal style; writers don’t come out original like Athena from Zeus’s head. Everybody steals or learns a writer’s style and does the opposite. The best writers are the best anthologists...”Stephen Gutierrez on the “I hope that they experience being alive as another person in another time and place and learn (again) that we’re all pretty much the same facing the same shit, sometimes nobly, sometimes ignobly...”Ron Cooper on what writers “I have sought out work by authors who write about real people, people who know what true struggles are, people who often do not know how they are going to pay their bills.”

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 26, 2016

Reviews

[John Molina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mendoza has composed a book of criticism (while using the interview format to slip in questions that force the writer to divulge the truth about their fiction. It is deftly done, and rather extraordinary) that at its core, reminds readers of the best of the Paris Review interviews and any of the great literary interviews of our time. Mendoza's criticisms can be scathing, humiliating, but it is never without a reason. He seems to be a man that cares deeply for literature, and for those who do not study nor care much about the art, do not bother asking his opinions. Mendoza is a literary gem. His book of criticism (disguised as interviews), mark him as a contemporary writer to be admired. His book is just as good as any writer working today. To wit, the only book of criticism I've read that is as good as the collected work in this novel is Eric Miles Wiliamson's Say It Hot novels. Mendoza is a treasure. Everyone should look at his work and appreciate it before he makes it to the mainstream. Which I have no doubt he will.