HB: You've written a significant amount of short fiction and poetry, but have also written a few nonfiction books and even done some journalism. That's real breadth! Is there a common denominator for you—any way in which your 'signature' might show up in your work, regardless of genre? And do you have a favorite? What lights you up most as a writer?


LB: It's true that I like a lot of variation, both as a reader and a writer. Fiction has always been my favorite, but I also love poetry and nonfiction. I read a little more broadly than I write: some of my other favorites are personal essays, comics (ranging from single panels to graphic novels), and true crime. Different forms of writing are like different tastes and textures in food: they keep things interesting.



2.

HB: Many of your stories involved what might be called 'extremes' of human experience. For example, in "Skin," from a recent issue of Valparaiso Fiction Review, you explore the life of a heroin addict. In "In Medias Res," from your chapbook Orchard City, you focus on a mother who literally and figuratively feels like she's drowning after her sister's body is identified. What inspires this strain in your writing?


LB: I'm always writing about something that's on my mind, whether that's consciously or—more often—subconsciously. Sometimes I don't realize what that was until I look back at a story after it's finished.
 
At the time I wrote "In Medias Res," I had been thinking quite a bit about the need for human contact and, separately but in a related vein, the effects that we have on other people, even in seemingly casual situations. We never know what might be happening in another person's life at any given time, or how what we say or do might affect or influence that person.
 
There's something so alienating about going through a tragedy alone and feeling unseen or unheard.



2 ½.    

HB: Free time?


LB: Best-case scenario: Go to the movies. Hang out with a few of my favorite people (or animals). Listen to music. Eat something delicious. Make each other laugh.



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Read LB's story.

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