As part of the Artists in Residence program, novelist and short story author John Brandon spent two impactful days interacting with students and faculty through his self-described “weird” short stories and a film screening of his novel, “Arkansas.”
The “Ivory Shoals” author made his campus debut at Reynolds Performance Hall on March 1, with a cozy screening of “Arkansas,” the film adaptation of his novel by the same name.
Ty Hawkins, chair and associate professor of English at UCA, was thrilled to welcome Brandon to campus, knowing the familiarity his name holds among students in the English department and other parts of campus.
“Students in the English department, Honors College and other units have been studying Brandon’s fiction for years,” Hawkins said. “Those students, and many others, were able to interact with professor Brandon on multiple occasions.”
The film screening drew to a close with a Q&A session, in which the discussion of adaptation had a heavy influence. Breaking in the Keystone Steps at the Windgate Center, Brandon led a discussion and presentation titled, “From Page to Screen, Adventures in Adapting Books to Film,” on March 2.
Later that night, he read two short stories to a room full of people who were excited to listen. “For the past couple of days, we’ve been able to interact with professor Brandon in various forums. This promises to be the most exciting and enlightening,” Hawkins said, now standing in front of the packed Fireplace Room of McCastlain Hall as he introduced the author before his reading. “Because it is in this one that Brandon is going to share with us a variety of his fiction.”
And share he did, but not before explaining his evolution as a short-story writer.
“When I was starting out, I wrote short stories like everyone does,” Brandon said. “Back then, we didn’t have enough confidence to try and write a novel until we were a little older. We had to write short stories,” he said, laughing.
“And I’m bad at it,” Brandon said. “And I hated it. I hated all of them.” After eliciting laughs from the audience, Brandon continued, explaining the determination he had to get his early work noticed by editors.
After sending in work, improving it, and sending it again, he was left with a collection of short stories.
Though, once his work was published, he decided he would never write another short story again. “Then a few years after that, I got a hold of a collection of stories that was really nontraditional, and didn’t try to do the things that traditional stories do. I was reading it and enjoying it,” Brandon said.
This inspired Brandon to consider, “How would John Brandon write a story?”
“I just started writing story after story,” he said. “I don’t even know if they are stories, but they’re strange.”
Brandon delivered a calm retelling of his short story, “Vintage,” followed immediately by “Games of Chance, a Rhapsodic seminar on past and past to come.”
Afterward, the audience peppered him with questions, eager to pick his brain on the thought-eliciting stories he created. Many questions and comments arose, such as “I might be a fool, but is it a metaphor in the first story?,” “In the second story, I was curious when you said ‘Let’s call him David. Why did you say that?” and “Both of the things you read to us today do interesting things with time, right?”
Liz Taylor McMullen, administrative support supervisor at UCA, enjoyed the reading. “I liked the unique choice of imagery and the stream of consciousness that you only get from having a person — in a very detailed fashion — write down their thoughts as they come,” McMullen said.
If you’re interested in getting your hands on his work, Brandon’s novels can be found on the McSweeneys website at https://store.mcsweeneys.net/authors/john-brandon.
