D. A. Hosek

Category: stories

  • “Q & A”: The Story Behind the Story

    The genesis of “Q & A” was a passing mention in Dava Sobel’s book Galileo’s Daughter, where, when she was discussing the trial of Galileo by the Inquisition, she mentions the surreal effect of the transcript in which all the questions are written in the third person but the answers given are in the first person.…

  • “An Outsider”: The Story Behind the Story

    This is another story which has been kicking around for a while before it finally was published, Back in the ‘90s, I submitted this to Story, received a hand-written rejection letter and didn’t realize that was a sign I was onto something and didn’t do anything more with the piece for years. This story has…

  • “Bartholomew L. Bartholomew”: The Story Behind the Story

    “I once held the position of Technical Lead…” this part of the story is autobiography. The rest, modulo the occasional detail that I borrowed from my years’ experience in tech, is fiction. The obvious inspiration is Melville (the short title I used for filenames and the like for the story was “Bart LB” and I…

  • “Girls”: The Story behind the Story

    I think “Girls” will win the prize for the longest gestation period of any story I’ve ever written. The opening sentence is exactly as I wrote it in 1984 as part of my autobiography for Mr Caravello’s sophomore English class. Mr Caravello liked that so much he had me read it out loud to the…

  • “Our Lady of the Freeway”: The Story Behind the Story

    You can purchase a copy of Headland Journal No. 6 here to read “Our Lady of the Freeway.” This is a story I’ve been trying to write for almost thirty years. Preparing to write this post, I spent a bunch of time digging through my notebook covering 1988–1991 but didn’t find any trace of this, although…

  • “Le Pont des Arts”: The Story Behind the Story

    I wrote the first draft of this story while staying in the same apartment building in Paris where Katherine Mansfield wrote “Feuille d’Album.” The apartment was located on Ile de la Cité a short distance from Pont de l’Archevêché which has become a popular spot for tourists to attach locks declaring their eternal love as…

  • “Thy Neighbour’s Goods”: The story behind the story

    Some background on my story, “Thy Neighbour’s Goods” which appears in the Spring 2014 issue of The Southampton Review. The story began with a conversation with my wife about language. We were discussing the lack of distinction between singular and plural second person in English and I told her that actually the English “you” is…