Minneapolis writer Curtis Sittenfeld offers new short stories about ‘women who are wrong’

Curtis Sittenfeld’s last novel was the bestselling “Romantic Comedy.” That partly ironic title could apply to the “Eligible” and “American Wife” writer’s new collection, “Show Don’t Tell.”

The 12 stories in the Minneapolis writer‘s new book feature an artist who sets out to prove that “the Mike Pence rule” is wrong and that a woman and man can platonically inhabit the same room, a grad student who’s not sure if she hates or desires a classmate and an update on Lee, the main character of Sittenfeld’s prizewinning 2005 novel, “Prep.”

Having recently recorded the audio version of that story at a Minneapolis studio (“I said to them that there’s some level of varying the voices or being dramatic that I can’t do. But also I think it’s OK that I can’t.”), Sittenfeld, 49, chatted with us about messy cars, a possible “Romantic Comedy” movie and getting on the writing horse:

Q: Not to complain but why short stories rather than a novel?

A: Two things motivate me to write a short story. One is, of course, having an idea, some topic or moment that would be interesting to write about. The other thing is if I have finished writing a novel, sometimes [stories] feel more fun and manageable and not like embarking on a long project. Sometimes, if I’ve gotten away from writing — if I’ve been traveling a lot or family stuff has come up — it can also be a way to remind myself that I know how to write. It’s almost like getting back in shape as a writer.

Q: You’ve described these stories as being about “women who are wrong about the most essential facts of their lives.” Can you talk more about that?

A: It’s interesting to me for a character to be smart and wrong, more interesting than if they’re smart and right or if they’re foolish and wrong. Of all of those, that’s the most interesting: to have self-knowledge but it’s not quite enough.

Q: Conflict!

A: A friend of mine is an English teacher at Blake. I went to visit his class — he teaches juniors. Before the class, I was having lunch from the taco bar with some of the teachers and I was telling them I had a story collection coming out and a lot of the stories are about grouchy, liberal, Midwestern women and one of them said, “I would wear a T-shirt that says that.” And I went to my publisher and said, “Should we get T-shirts that say that?”

Q: Is it just me or are a lot of the stories about marriages in precarious places?

A: A lot of people in their 40s who are married, it tends to be a kind of tumultuous decade. I don’t know the data of when people split up, or decide not to split up and stay in it for the long haul, but that feels like a particularly active decade. I think that marriage can be endlessly fascinating because you really never know what’s going on inside someone else’s marriage and then, sometimes, you don’t even know what is going on inside your own.

Q: Which is maybe why it’s not always clear in the stories how things will work out?

A: This question is equivalent to, “What happens to Lee after ‘Prep’ ends?” I was asked that a lot and for all those years, I was like, “You get to decide.” I think you get to decide what happens to the marriages in these stories.

Q: “Show Don’t Tell” concludes with the longest story. Lee, the “Prep” protagonist, attends her 30-year reunion at the school described in your first novel. What made you decide to decide how her story turned out?

A: My current editor, I’ve worked with since 2014. At one point, I said, “Should I write a full ‘Prep’ sequel?‘” She said, “I don’t think you should,” and I’ve always respected her for this. She said people have such a special relationship with the book that it would be really easy to do it in a way that would be not quite right.

Q: But the time felt right now?

A: I thought, “Not only do I have this idea but there’s something that’s sort of fun about coming back to this character 20 years later.”

Q: Lee turned out well, readers will be glad to know. But in that story and many others, there is a sense of characters whose instincts battle each other.

A: Even my most recent book, “Romantic Comedy,” the most common reaction will be people saying, “I wanted to reach into the book and shake her shoulders because I was so frustrated by her self-sabotage,” but others have said, “I’ve never identified so strongly with a character.” For “Romantic Comedy,” I was signing books and this very tall, elegant, gorgeous blond woman who had some kind of European accent got her book signed and said, “The scene where the character basically has terrible diarrhea when she stays at her love interest’s house made me feel so seen.” And I was like, “That is not what I thought you were going to say.”

Q: Speaking of “Romantic Comedy,” any updates on the movie version, for which Reese Witherspoon’s production company bought the rights?

A: I’ve read a script that I thought was very good. It was written by people who are professional comedy writers and I did think the people who wrote it were funnier than me.

Q: At least two of the stories deal with race in a way that struck me as really nuanced. Can you talk about taking that on?

A: I feel conscious of the fact that a lot of time white people — and I’m a white person — think writers of color should, or do, grapple with race but that white writers don’t need to or shouldn’t. It seems to me like we all should grapple with race. I think “White Women LOL” and “The Patron Saint of Middle Age” are kind of opposites, in that one is an uncomfortable, awkward story about interracial dynamics in a neighborhood and one is a much more warm, positive story about interracial dynamics in a neighborhood.

Q: What do you mean in the acknowledgments when you thank your family for living with “the messy way that books are written”?

A: Sometimes, people feel like writers are sort of quiet and elegant and removed from the world. I feel like I might have papers in the car and pick up one of my kids and have to say, “Don’t sit on my novel!” One time, this is when I was about to do a virtual event, I was standing in the kitchen wolfing down a plate of Indian food and one of my family members was chatting with me and I’m like, “I need to do this event.” One activity flows into another, partly because I work at home. I have a little office and, literally, while we’ve been talking, one of my kids got home on the bus and the dog started barking and there are papers everywhere.

Q: You and your family have lived in Minnesota more than six years. A story in the new book takes place here but are you feeling comfortable enough to tackle a Minnesota novel?

A: In fact, I’m working on my new novel and I would say there are two protagonists and one of them grows up here. I’m thinking about, “What would it have been like to live near Lake of the Isles in the 1980s?” I’m doing, “Would the elementary school in that neighborhood have ended in fifth or sixth grade?” And I think the dad would have worked at 3M. So, yes. I think I have internalized the place I live more and more every year.

Show Don’t Tell

By: Curtis Sittenfeld.

Publisher: Random House, $28.

Event: 2 p.m. Feb. 23, Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Mpls. Free. 11 a.m. March 15, Chanhassen Library, 7711 Kerber Blvd., Chanhassen. Free.