Master's Thesis on Amy Hempel

Yeah, this is a stuff one. You're gonna have some troubles getting information on Hempel. She rarely takes interviews, and when she does she seems to quote and paraphrase other people when giving answers more than just answer the question in her own words. I get the feeling she doesn't like talking about the craft to much.

A lot of the topics, techniques etc., discussed in Tom's workshops are pretty much lifted from there by Chuck, and used, in his own words, as a bunch of the Essays that are part of the workshop side of this website. That might be a good place to start.

Also, there's an interview archived on this website with Hempel that may or may not be of use to you. I haven't read it for a while, so I'm vague on what is or isn't in there.

I also read another interview recently but I can't remember, for the life of me, where it was. All I know is that someone posted it at my other workshop and I can't seem to find where it was posted. I'll keep looking for you.

Her The Paris Review interview is excellent.

Ah, that's the one I was thinking of, I think.

Just type, obviously, "Amy Hempel interview" into Google and a few come up. You might have to do some extra digging, maybe send a few emails out to some people or something, but that should help you a bit for starters.

Have your people call her people and set something up.

It's probably also worth noting that Chuck's brand of minimalism, Dangerous Writing, comes from Tom Spanbauer, but Tom built his classes off the teachings of the famous Captain Fiction, or as he's better known Gordon Lish. Amy Hempel also learnt under the guidance of Lish, so that's why there's similar techniques and names for said techniques used among these three authors, and many more.

So, you may have to go for another angle because that's the reason it cab be traced back.

there was a series of teaching papers for students featuring work by hempel i read five or so years ago. ive since recycled the pages; a basic search didnt garner much. in the morning when i switch coffee for scotch and think with thicker blood, i'll do a clearer search and hopefully find it. in the meantime, this is from a quick search:

here's fifteen questions with hempel:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/10/22/ah-fm-well-here/

here's an interview with the cult from two and a half years ago:
http://chuckpalahniuk.net/interviews/authors/amy-hempel-interview

in the meantime, good luck

okay, so first of all i'd like to thank all of you for your help, it's really appreciated. i have, of course, done the obvious stuff like googling and so, i have all the above mentioned interviews and they are extremely useful.

after thinking a bit more about the matter, i came to the conclusion that most of all i need an extension of the Tom Spanbauer narrative strategy or whatever i should call it. some more detail on "horses" and "burnt tongue" etc. i have been and still am thinking about Chuck's tips on this site, but to be frank, i'd prefer the original, plus i'm not really able to pay (no paypal, no money, no nothing...). so i'd be really grateful if you could recommend any source where i could find anything on this. or gordon lish's method. as a matter of fact, that may be even more useful. so. if it's not too much to ask, i'd welcome your help.
sorry for the incoherence. and thanks again for everything.

I'm not sure where you're gonna get info like that. Chuck and Tom have been in talks for years now about writing a how-to book using Tom's, and now Chuck's, methods. But, like I said, it's been going on for years now, so I can't see it happening in the foreseeable future, unless, of course, this Anthology has something to do with it.

After going to his website just now it seems something is going on there. It's different to last time I looked at it, so at least that means something. Not sure what though.

I'd just go straight to the top. Why not just try getting in touch with Tom? I'm not really sure what you're after. There is no recipe to the perfect short story. Only techniques. And seriously, Chuck outlines these technique blatantly in his essays, and often sites Hempel when giving examples. I think the forty bucks would go a long way for you, man.

You're missing what he's after! He isn't asking for a recipe for writing short stories, but information about Amy Hempel's influence. He wrote:

I'm not sure, but I think the central premise is a mistake. Just because Spanbauer teaches 'The Harvest' by Hempel(Or did) doesn't mean that she influenced his writing theory/teaching method. Both she and Spanbauer studied under Gordon Lish and as far as I know, "Dangerous Writing" is a more influenced by the teaching of Lish.

From this interview with Spanbauer: http://chuckpalahniuk.net/interviews/authors/tom-spanbauer

If you want to pursue this for your paper, you're probably going to have to contact Spanbauer directly.

I already said all of what you just said.

I don't get why you're pushing him to read the essays, he can't cite them in his thesis so it's kind of useless.

I'm not really pushing him to read them, I'm just saying that's probably as close as he's gonna get to getting any good reference of the techniques without talking to either Chuck, Tom, Amy or Gordon himself. I mentioned both the Hempel and Spanbauer interviews that are archived here. Plus, I informed him that both Hempel and Spanbauer learnt under Lish, which is why there's similarities in their work, along with Chuck's.

Etc. etc.

I don't understand why you're not seeing how I have addressed everything you mentioned prior to mentioning the essays. Geeez, Mirka, give a guy a break. I'm just trying to help a motherfucker.

I was in Tom's dangerous writing class for awhile about a year and a half ago. He's pretty approachable and would likely be willing to help you out. You can contact him through his website: http://www.tomspanbauer.com

I'd also be happy to answer any specifics about being in his workshop, but again, it's probably best to go to the source and try to contact him.

I was hoping you'd jump in Gayle!

okay, i see i've caused some confusion so to make things clear:

the way i formulated the part about dangerous writing was rather unfortunate, i admit. the thesis is going to be about Hempel, not Spanbauer, of course, so it's not really about Amy's influence on Tom. the core is analyzing Amy's narrative technique, with emphasis on the minimalist or precisionist approach - the changes in traditional character and plot devices, especially the omission of coherence on the level of time, space and causality, replaced by coherence based on choruses, repetition, recurring themes, sounds, rhythms, etc. what tom spanbauer calls "horses", or what gordon lish calls "consecution". and this is where i need sources directly from them. i now the basics, i can build on them, but i need to cite and i need to go into more details.