Everywhere Stories Contributor Spotlight: Chris Cleary

Contributor Chris Cleary’s story, “An Idea of the Journey,” is set in Norway. It’s one of 20 stories included in Volume II of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, available now from Press 53, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Chris Cleary is a native of southeastern Pennsylvania, in which many of his stories are set. He is the author of three novels: The Vagaries of Butterflies, The Ring Of Middletown, and At the Brown Brink Eastward. He travels back to 1925 for his fourth novel. He lives with his wife Pam in Virginia, where he teaches writing and literature.

Chris Cleary’s comment on “An Idea of the Journey”—The impulse to write this story came out of a personal mensis horribilis. I had been finishing the draft of Brown Brink, in which the character of Jørn appears as an older teenager and as a quantum physicist later in his life, and I wondered, How would the sudden death of a loved one affect a precocious young boy who had been raised in skepticism and emotional detachment, but is in essence a creature of faith? Where would he look for answers? What conclusions might he arrive at? And so “An Idea of the Journey” became Jørn’s back story.

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.