The stories come in the mail, actual postage-paid physical submissions, not email. Diane Williams, pen in hand, reads them at her kitchen table.
For the past 25 years, Williams has been the force behind NOON, an art and literary journal that has featured the work of writers including Lydia Davis, Roxane Gay, R.O. Kwon, Tao Lin, Ottessa Moshfegh, Sam Lipsyte and more.
Williams, who co-founded NOON with Christine Schutt, is the author of 11 books of stories including “I Hear You’re Rich,” “How High? – That High” and “The Collected Stories of Diane Williams.”
Known for great writing, NOON is also gorgeous. Designed by Susan Carroll, the yearly editions feature drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture and more. From its typesetting and paperstock to its lush color and gatefold covers, the annuals highlight the work of people – NOON’s team of editors and contributors – who value words and how they are presented. (Williams’s New York City apartment is filled with art, from a watercolor by Henry Miller to anonymous works picked up in her travels.)
Author Kathryn Scanlan, the recent recipient of the Gordon Burn Prize and one of this year’s Donald Windham–Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes, told me that NOON has been a major influence on her work, praising both Williams and all those who work to produce the journal.
“Diane’s a major American writer, but she also very generously does this because she felt like there wasn’t necessarily a place for the kind of writing that she was interested in and wanted to champion,” said Scanlan.
“She does this as a labor of love. I just think it’s kind of remarkable that, you know, anybody can mail a story – because you do have to mail them – to Diane Williams, and she will read it. I mean, she doesn’t have people screening the work; she does it. That’s just incredible to me.”
Williams and I connected by email after she returned from the Turin International Book Fair, and she answered questions about the work, the journal and her own stories.
Read on for her responses, and go to Noon Annual online for more about the journal.
Diane Williams is the author of “I Hear You’re Rich,” “How High? That High” and “The Collected Stories of Diane Williams.” (Courtesy of Soho Press)
Q. Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of NOON. What led you to launch the journal?
Erik! – thank you! We are celebrating! The origin of NOON? I admit I was a bit startled by my purposefulness. I found that I was more invested in this project than I understood. My connection to StoryQuarterly (an Illinois literary journal that I edited for 12 years) ended when I moved to New York. Gordon Lish’s Quarterly closed at this time, as well. I was eager to find a way to provide welcome and shelter for writers I admired.
Q. How do you describe NOON and the work you publish for those who haven’t yet encountered it? Is there something – a style or type of work – that you especially seek out or want to publish?
There is no style or type of work we are on the lookout for. We are captured by arresting language – by writers who reject belated speech, who are morally courageous.
Q. The name NOON, as I understand it, comes from repeating the word “no” backwards and forwards. If so, what appealed to you about that?
Ah, Christine Schutt was at my side when NOON was inaugurated. She named NOON. We had originally dubbed the journal, BOOK, but several very ambitious young men – who said they were starting up a glossy, high-circulation magazine that would be sold on every corner if we only relented – came to plead with us: Could they have the name?
I am glad we let the name go, and opted for NOON, which embraces so many graces. Sorry for the rhyme. Christine put forward that NOON was Emily Dickinson’s favorite word! – and that the double O at its center is a stand-in sign for infinity. Best of all, NOON spells NO twice (back to front), representing an emphatic shout NO! – to business as usual.
Q. How do you inhabit your role as editor – what does editing the journal, or a single story, require from you as you see it?
Some stories are perfection and require no editing. In other instances, we may recommend a new title, a reordering of text, trimming – all in the service of heightening and deepening effects already established.
Q. You operate from your kitchen table and accept submissions via physical mail. Would you be willing to describe your kitchen table/workspace?
My kitchen table? – workspace? – they are both small and friendly and yes, I only accept submissions via physical mail. I appreciate that it may be burdensome to send us fiction the old-fashioned way, but I am confident that my examination of the text is more observant and discerning with hard copy and a pen in hand.
Q. Your dedication is legendary. The Soho Press edition of your collected works includes more than 300 stories and you’ve since published two more collections. But in an interview in the New York Times, you said you’ve received criticism that your stories are not actually stories. How do you respond to that? Or maybe the question is: What is a story?
I can answer better – What is a story of mine? A story of mine bears on a subject that is important to me. I want to feel its suspense and drama when I am inside of it. I hope to entertain – and to surprise – and to perhaps shock myself. Of course, its language is my focus. If I have been successful with almost every word – the story, when I read it aloud, feels to me like a song.
Q. Is there a particular story or work that is an example of what you aim to do with NOON?
I could name hundreds of exemplars. There may be thousands. I have never counted all the writers we present who recklessly tell the truth, whose transcendent speech carries the reader away into alternate, believable worlds. These NOON contributors are important literary artists.
Q. I recently spoke with the writer Kathryn Scanlan; she praised your writing, your influence and your dedication to NOON. Would you discuss some of the writers and artists that have appeared in NOON and your work with them?
I am at first, of course, eager to answer this question and then find myself resistant. If I cite and discuss Kathryn Scanlan, whom we have been especially privileged to work with throughout many years, and then name another and another – it would pain me to ignore all the others that I have not enough space here to include! We feature distinguished, well-established authors, and are also keen to introduce new voices in every edition – many who appear in print for the first time.
We honor our contributors best by keeping NOON safe and alive in the world.
To learn more about the journal, go to NOON Annual or a local independent bookstore.
Diane Williams’ collections include “The Collected Stories of Diane Williams,” “How High? – That High” and “I Hear You’re Rich.” (Courtesy of Soho Press)
Gabrielle Korn on a writer’s time and ‘A Wrinkle in Time’
Gabrielle Korn is the author of “Yours for the Taking,” a dystopian science-fiction novel by Gabrielle Korn out now from St. Martin’s Press. (Courtesy of St. Martin’s Press)
Gabrielle Korn is an editor and author living in Los Angeles. Her latest book, “Yours for the Taking,” is out now from St. Martin’s Press. She spoke with contributor Diya Chacko, and answers the Book Pages Q&A here.
Q. What was the first book that made an impression on you?
“A Wrinkle in Time.” The idea of science fiction as a concept, and moving through different worlds and space and time travel, was unlike anything I had read before. It really stands out in my memory as just being so wildly different in a way that made me realize fiction can do that.
Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life?
My mom. She is such a big reader. When I was a little kid and started becoming a reader, she would encourage me. Anytime I showed interest in a book, she would take me to the library, and we would get every book by that author. She was constantly giving me books that she thought I would like.
Q. What are you reading now?
I’m in the middle of a memoir called “Love is a Burning Thing,” by Nina St. Pierre.
Q. Is there a book you’d recommend to others?
“Fates and Furies,” by Lauren Groff.
Q. You run a writer’s residency. What’s the most common thing people who want to write have to learn?
How to use their time! The residency is really a mini-residency in that it’s just four or five days. Usually the people who apply can’t really afford to leave their job or their family for two whole weeks. I think even just having a really short amount of time that’s just for them, makes people realize how important it is. If it’s important to you, make sure that you are prioritizing taking the time for your writing.
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