An Evening With Charles D'ambrosio

I just returned from a presentation of Drummond & Son, one of Charles D'ambrosio's short stories from The Dead Fish Museum, read this evening by the author himself. The frankness of the writer was remarkable, as he read to a small room of people while sitting on the table infront, wiping the dripping sweat off his face. He had bicycled to the reading, and there he perched in all his grandeur, his clothing stained with persperation, his hair mussed by his helmet. His story was just as frank. Reality, the reality of the everyday, and the mystery that is found in each moment of the everyday, was vividly present in his work.
Charlie is an instructor at the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, and lives in NE Portland. He has published two collections of short stories, (1995) and The Dead Fish Museum (2006). He has also published a collection of essays, Orphans (2005). His writings have appeared in The New Yorker, and The Paris Review. Powell's published an interview with him in 2006 entitled, Hop on the Charles D'Ambrosio Train, which you can read here.