{"id":163,"date":"2016-02-04T02:30:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T07:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/?p=163"},"modified":"2022-11-23T10:56:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T15:56:50","slug":"miami-cws-first-event-of-2016-darrin-doyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/2016\/02\/miami-cws-first-event-of-2016-darrin-doyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami CW’s First Event of 2016: Darrin Doyle"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

This past Monday evening, the Creative Writing Program kicked off this semester\u2019s reading series with author Darrin Doyle. His most recent book, titled The Dark Will End the Dark <\/em>(published in February 2015), is a collection of short stories that explore the human body and reason. Miami University professor Dr. Joseph Bates introduced Doyle; the two have been friends since they were in graduate school at University of Cincinnati together.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can just imagine what it was like to have these suckers coming at you in a workshop,\u201d joked Bates, referring to Doyle\u2019s work, which can often turn dark and disturbing.<\/p>\n

Doyle first read a short story from Dark<\/em>, entitled \u201cFoot,\u201d followed by a few different stories he is currently working on, entitled \u201cDangling Joe,\u201d \u201cParty Town,\u201d \u201cPossibilities and Considerations,\u201d and \u201cPerfect Sandwich.\u201d \u201cWe always ask our students to share what they\u2019re working on, so I think it\u2019s only fair we do the same,\u201d explained Doyle, who is currently a professor at Central Michigan University.<\/p>\n

\"Author<\/a>

Author Darrin Doyle sits with and signs books for Miami University students after the reading.<\/p><\/div>\n

The pieces that Doyle read all explored different themes. \u201cFoot\u201d is a grisly fable-like tale of a mother\u2019s devotion to her child. \u201cDangling Joe\u201d is a satire of American society and media, while \u201cParty Town\u201d might resonate deeply with certain residents of Oxford. \u201cPossibilities and Considerations\u201d is an experiment in format that gives a wry, and at some times satirical, insight into life. \u201cPerfect Sandwich\u201d is the story of a man\u2019s desperation to be good enough.<\/p>\n

The audience, engaged and enthusiastic throughout the entirety of the reading, supplied no shortage of questions for Doyle, asking about his strategy for writing, influences for different works, and advice on writing a novel. \u201cI\u2019ve written, in the last year, about 23 of these short stories,\u201d said Doyle, referring to his as-of-yet-unpublished works. \u201cIt\u2019s weird when you start noticing [recurring] themes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what his influences were while writing The Dark Will End the Dark<\/em>, Doyle said, \u201cFranz Kafka and Flannery O\u2019Connor are two of my biggest influences. Their characters might have a physical ailment, [but] their souls are grotesque\u2026 Fairy tales, folk tales, and fables have always had their hold on me\u2026 I like the feeling of the surreal that\u2019s grounded in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for advice on writing, Doyle says, \u201cIt\u2019s great when you\u2019re inspired by an idea\u2026 but then you\u2019ve got to sit down and write. One sentence leads to another, and hopefully you surprise yourself a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past Monday evening, the Creative Writing Program kicked off this semester\u2019s reading series with author Darrin Doyle. His most recent book, titled The Dark Will End the Dark (published in February 2015), is a collection of short stories that explore the human body and reason. Miami University professor Dr. Joseph Bates introduced Doyle; the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,210,1],"tags":[20,22,19,24,18,23,21],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-readings","category-interviews","category-uncategorized","tag-darrin-doyle","tag-fiction","tag-miami-university-bookstore","tag-reading-series","tag-readings","tag-visiting-writer","tag-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}