Getting 2 Know Merilyn Simonds

Photo by Ginny Simonds

BCB: What’s the best book you’ve read lately, and why?

Merilyn Simonds: The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (FS&G) Lydia Davis’s life’s work is the short short story. She is a mistress of brevity, clarity, lucidity, utterly original in form and voice, highly comic, especially in the face of metaphysical shadows. A woman of few words, her stories can be as short and sharp as aphorisms; the longest rarely extends to a quarter the size of a story by Alice Munro. A mistress of the miniature, her work is never small, always precious.

BCB: What’s the best decision you’ve ever made, and why?

Merilyn Simonds: The very first money I ever earned from writing—I was 17 and a small magazine published a wee piece—I spent on a hard-cover facsimile edition of Roget’s Thesaurus. Rebound 3 times, the pages grimy and corners frayed, it still sits on my desk, a constant reminder of the subtlety, complexity, and deep-rootedness of the English language. Thank goodness I didn’t buy that skirt!

Read about Merilyn Simonds new book: A New Leaf

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