Purdy Good

Video from MacArthur Foundation

I can’t remember what I’d read or watched or listened to that pointed me in the direction of Kelly Link, but by the time I finished “The Summer People,” (the first story in her Link’s Get In Trouble collection), I was hooked. And two of the stories in the collection had a tremendous impact on my writing. They showed me that it was okay to write about the ordinary lives of superheroes, and inspired my thesis novel. Link writes about realms of superheroes in the most mundane, everyday manner. By downplaying the powers, Link focuses on the people beneath the capes and cowls instead. It’s exciting news that Link received a MacArthur fellowship, because as she puts it in the video above, the award allows her to continue writing the kinds of stories she wants to.