The Big Idea: Stephanie Feldman

With fall in full swing and that crisp chill in the air, it’s the perfect opportunity to cuddle up with author Stephanie Feldman’s newest collection of short fiction, The Night Parade and Other Stories. Light a fall candle and follow along in her Big Idea for these spooky tales. STEPHANIE FELDMAN: As a collection, The Night Parade and Other Stories asked me to approach the question of the Big Idea backwards. Not “What Big Idea do I want to tackle?” but “What Big Idea ties these stories together?” It wasn’t hard to find threads running through my work. I’m always thinking about Big Ideas—what makes a story matter—while I brainstorm, draft, and revise. My short fiction often explores women’s perspectives and all that makes my Mid-Atlantic home weird, creepy, and enchanting. When I collected my spooky stories set in this region, I made another discovery. While these stories all feature different characters in different worlds, I could assemble them in a rough chronology of a woman’s…