Interview with William Cass
1. In your piece, a simple frame becomes much more than a physical object. It holds the emotional gravity of a lifetime of love and kindness. How do our interactions continue to bind us together even beyond the passing of a loved one?
I think that memories of our interactions with loved ones often tend to meld together after they die. In so doing, they take on an emotional resonance that seems to me a potpourri of emotions such the ones I try to describe at the end of the story. Looking upon a framed photograph of a deceased loved one, at least to me, can unlock strong emotional meaning and gravity.
2. If you could defy gravity just once, what would you do, and where would you go?
I'd be with my severely disabled/medically fragile adult son who recently passed away.
3. How does writing help you to ground yourself in reality, or transcend it?
Writing for me helps make sense of the world and human connection—especially things that touch me deeply like tenderness, grief, loss, kindness, gentleness, and all the forms that love can take.
William Cass has had over 300 short stories accepted for publication in a variety of literary magazines such as december, Briar Cliff Review, and Zone 3. He won writing contests at Terrain.org and The Examined Life Journal. A nominee for both Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net anthologies, he has also received six Pushcart Prize nominations. His first short story collection, Something Like Hope & Other Stories, was published by Wising Up Press in 2020, and a second collection, Uncommon & Other Stories, was recently released by the same press. He lives in San Diego, California.
I think that memories of our interactions with loved ones often tend to meld together after they die. In so doing, they take on an emotional resonance that seems to me a potpourri of emotions such the ones I try to describe at the end of the story. Looking upon a framed photograph of a deceased loved one, at least to me, can unlock strong emotional meaning and gravity.
2. If you could defy gravity just once, what would you do, and where would you go?
I'd be with my severely disabled/medically fragile adult son who recently passed away.
3. How does writing help you to ground yourself in reality, or transcend it?
Writing for me helps make sense of the world and human connection—especially things that touch me deeply like tenderness, grief, loss, kindness, gentleness, and all the forms that love can take.
William Cass has had over 300 short stories accepted for publication in a variety of literary magazines such as december, Briar Cliff Review, and Zone 3. He won writing contests at Terrain.org and The Examined Life Journal. A nominee for both Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net anthologies, he has also received six Pushcart Prize nominations. His first short story collection, Something Like Hope & Other Stories, was published by Wising Up Press in 2020, and a second collection, Uncommon & Other Stories, was recently released by the same press. He lives in San Diego, California.