An interview with Alberto Reyes Morgan (Fiction ’20)

2020 fiction graduate Alberto Reyes Morgan was recently interviewed for Catapult. Read an excerpt of the conversation below:

A Conversation with ‘Best Debut Short Stories 2021’ Author Alberto Reyes Morgan

What is the best or worse writing advice you’ve received, and why?

When I was dipping my toes into the writing game I had this piece about a kid climbing a tree to grab something his friend threw up there. The tree starts bleeding, then drowns the world in its blood, including the friend. I had this line, “bright horrific beauty,” in it. When I showed the story to the writer Peter Orner, he just said, his eyes looking down at my piece of paper, “What’s ‘bright horrific beauty?’” I remember feeling embarrassed because, yeah, what the fuck did that even mean? He told me to beware of adjectives.

Finally, where do you discover new writing?

Every year, I make sure to buy the Best Debut Short Stories anthology and read the fantastic writers within its pages (wink, wink). Well don’t write in the part where I winked at you, otherwise . . . Are you writing this down? I don’t—

Read this interview in its entirety here: https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/a-conversation-with-best-debut-short-stories-2021-author-alberto-reyes-morgan