The Seattle Times sits down to chat with the National Book Award winner.
From the piece...
Q: Given all the other things you write, it's interesting that you're still writing short stories. They're not especially commercially viable — what do you like about the form?
A: Well, I still write about Indians. That's not supposed to be commercially viable. Left, left, left! (to the cabdriver). It's just reflexive for me. It's a fit, regardless of its economic merits. It's what I primarily read.
Q: What short-story writers do you admire?
A: When I started, Raymond Carver, Simon Ortiz, Leslie (Marmon) Silko, Hemingway, Tim O'Brien. Those books were huge for me. Lorrie Moore and Junot Díaz. Oh: I have that with me, that's another travel book (Díaz's new story collection, "This is How You Lose Her"). I met him when he was an undergraduate. He's a (expletive deleted), but he's a nice (expletive deleted).
Q: Basketball is a thread throughout these stories, from its role in liberating an elementary-school kid to the preoccupation of an aging jock ... what does it mean to you now?
A: Oh ... I'm a battered, slow shell of my former self. I'm a middle-aged man (Alexie is 45), but on a basketball court I am ancient. In my day life, I don't necessarily feel more mortality. On a basketball court, man, death is always double teaming me.
Shooting ability doesn't change — (the problem is) the ability to actually get open for the shot. I have gotten stronger, but I am a completely different player now. I used to be a penguin in the water, now I'm a penguin on shore.
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