Author Michael Goodwin Hilton - The Writer Story

Meet Michael - Author of the Short story collection, What the Statue Thinks, as we talk about his writing and curating process for short stories.

Hello everyone and welcome back to The Writer Story newsletter.

Today I have a wonderful author interview for you. But before that, I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for finding, supporting and subscribing to my humble newsletter space— a minuscule entity in the vastness of the world wide web. So, thank you!

Okay, let’s begin.

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I am absolutely thrilled about today’s Writer Story interview with Michael Goodwin Hilton as we talk about his debut short story collection What the Statue Thinks, and his writing and curating process of short stories and how important it is to find the perfect publishing partner to get your book out in the world.

Before we start, here’s Michael’s official bio.

Michael Goodwin Hilton is an award-winning playwright, poet, and short story writer who has had his work developed and produced in festivals across the United States and Europe. He is a two-time recipient of the Governor's Award for Best Play in the State of New Jersey and The Spotlight Award from True Acting Institute, among other honors. His work has been published by Tiny Seed Literary Journal, After Dinner Conversation, as well as several Smith & Kraus ‘Best Of’ anthologies. His debut short story collection, "What The Statue Thinks," has been published by Wild Ink Publishing. He lives with his family and teaches at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. He writes on Substack at “Little Things” and can be followed on Twitter/X @AuthorMGH.

1. Hello Michael, welcome to The Writer Story and congratulations on publishing your collection of eleven wonderful short stories- WHAT THE STATUE THINKS. Tell us a bit about what this collection is about and what it represents?

This is a collection of stories that I have been working on for a number of years, some of them have been with me, in various drafts, for at least a decade. They all take place in New Jersey or New York, mostly at the Jersey Shore, where I’m from.

I began working on these stories shortly after moving to Germany in 2012 to live with my then-girlfriend-now-wife. Living abroad deeply affected how I think about where I’m from. I gained a perspective I’m not really sure I’d had beforehand, a sense that where I’m from can also be treated artistically, as a literary landscape. I was challenged to think about what ‘home’ means in very new ways, with all the fondness and emotional baggage we would associate with the place that in some ways we know the most and in other ways the least.

So that crucial question of what home is, and what defines our relationship to that home, is very much, I think, at the heart of the collection as a whole as well as at least several of the individual stories.

2. That is such an universal theme, home, something everyone can relate I’m sure. What was your inspiration behind the people in your stories and how did you curate them into a collection?

My primary goal was to write as truthfully and as well as I could about people from the area where I grew up. I didn’t write about anyone specific, but I built a number of these stories based on impressions I had accumulated throughout my early life of people up and down the socio-economic ladder.

The characters in these stories almost invariably have to struggle in their lives. They struggle to be understood, to make ends meet, to heal from past injuries, to improve their lives and care for their loved ones. They deal, in short, with very human problems, very American dilemmas.

I had tons of other stories besides these, many with very different styles and themes, but I ended up curating this collection based on the ones that seemed to echo most off each other, the ones where I imagined the reader could draw a clear thread from one story to the next even if the content of each one was quite different.

It was important to me that all the stories were taking place in the same world, so to speak, while at the same time representing very different corners of that world. I wanted to represent, for example, people of very different social backgrounds as well as political affiliations. I think it’s important that, as readers, we encounter people on the page who we might not always have occasion to encounter in our daily lives. Someone can be living right next door who, in many ways, remains a total stranger to us. It’s easy, I think, for people to form certain static images of one another based on how we perceive them – almost like a statue, which is part of that metaphor – and fiction is an opportunity to try and imagine beyond that static image, to find the story and concomitant humanity therein. I think that’s partly what I hoped would be implied by the title of the collection, “What The Statue Thinks.”

3. Could you tell us a bit about your writing and publishing journey and your experiences with Wild Ink publishing?

I had very little hope of ever publishing this book. Practically none, to be honest. I’d had a kind of creative breakthrough in 2020, during the pandemic, when I realized how to revise and finish the stories that appear in the collection, and I felt strongly enough about what came out of it that I knew I wanted to get these stories in print somehow.

I sent out a few submissions of the manuscript, but I didn’t have much hope. I knew that short story manuscripts are a tough sell to publishers, especially from emerging writers. I was reconciled to self-publishing the collection, which would have been a valid and viable option; plenty of terrific writers self-publish their work. I was preparing to go full steam ahead along this route, and then one day I went on Twitter and noticed a thread about publishing, and somewhere in that thread Abby Wild had posted about having recently founded a small press and that the main incentive for her was “smiling authors.” I think that’s how she put it. I thought to myself, ‘Boy that sounds like a publishing company I’d love to be involved with’, but I didn’t realistically have much optimism.

But a few days later I took a chance and DM’ed Abby via Twitter, writing that I had a manuscript of short stories and was in the early phase of shopping it around, and she wrote back very encouragingly that I should send it to her. And the rest is history. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with Wild Ink. Abby and the team are absolutely terrific, hugely supportive and inspiring. I had a wonderful editor in Laura A. Wackwitz who helped make the book so much better and more polished. I am absolutely among its ‘smiling authors.’

4. That sounds wonderful. It’s so important to have a publisher who believes in their authors. Now, let’s talk a bit about writing process. Do you have one for short stories? Is there any technique you use to focus straight to the core of the story, since short stories don’t usually have the luxury to loiter around in world-building, character backstory etc.

That’s a really good question, and not easy to answer since large parts of my process are based on intuition. However, I do consciously, in a number of the stories, try to locate a central symbol that captures and represents something crucial about that particular story. I then try to foreground that symbol so that its power – whatever meaning the main character might imbue it with – encompasses the backstory and world of the story that I can’t elaborate on in as much detail.

The first story “A Hole in the Water,” for instance, is about a recovering alcoholic from a broken home, one of the central symbols is his father’s boots which he has carried around ever since his dad left him when he was a child. The story, in a manner of speaking, wears those books from start to finish and speaks on behalf of the character’s troubled life, all the burdens he’s had to carry over the years.

In the second story, “Blind Spots,” there is something similar with a ten-speed bicycle that the main character, Terry, absolutely has to have no matter what. Fixations on certain objects can reveal a lot about characters, their hang-ups and desires, their dreams and frustrations. I try to allow such symbols to wield as much authority over the story as possible to communicate the heart of the story to the reader. That’s certainly one way. Dialogue, for me, is also something I lean on very heavily. Since I am a playwright by training, character dialogue often functions as the primary engine of any work of fiction.

5. What is your advice for newer writers who are starting on their writing and publishing journey?

I would offer the most cliché advice imaginable: don’t give up. Submitting work to be considered for publication is frustrating, thankless work, and there are mostly dead ends that await you. But every once in a while one of those roads actually leads somewhere, often when you least expect it. That’s at least been my experience with Wild Ink. And to a large extent, the work itself needs to be its own reward. Many years ago, when I was struggling mightily to advance my writing career in any meaningful way, I had to check in with myself and ask: “If nothing ever comes of this, will it still be worth it?” And the answer to that question was yes. It was and is and will always be worth it because the work itself is the reason for everything. It is the one thing no one can take away from you as a writer. You’ll always have the work, no matter what, even if it’s only your friend or your partner who ends up reading it. Cultivating an audience is important, trying to take your career to the next level is important, but it all has to begin and end with the work.

Fall in love with the work and then use that love to empower the work by making it as excellent as you can; treat it as well as it deserves to be treated, through craft, through revision, through development, through reading and re-reading non-stop. It’s a long, difficult road, but if it begins with love then you’ve already arrived.

6. We love it when writers suggest us books that inspire them, so we can add to our TBR. What are some of your favorite books you'd suggest anyone and everyone?

Oh gosh. Where to begin. Well, I think I’ll start with a few classics that I think the whole world should read. So, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It’s the ultimate high school reading list book, and it has come under a lot of attack and scrutiny in recent years, but it remains an absolute American classic, in my view. It was the first book I think I really fell in love with as a kid. So warm, so funny, the pages move along like water, and it remains a powerful testament to what it means to have moral clarity and courage, something the world absolutely needs right now as much as possible.

Then, also from the South but a bit more challenging, Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. A dense, confounding, oddly compulsively readable American classic. I’ve read it half a dozen times and each reading yields something entirely different; it’s one of those rare books that move every time you look at it. Not an easy read, but an essential one.

Last classic: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. For anyone looking for a text to help America heal its divisions, look no further. Whitman wrote about everything and everyone, regardless of who they were or what they believed. He wrote a book of poetry as big as his own heart, so practically infinite in scope.

Then, more recently, one of my favorite short story collections is Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins, whose stories take place in the author’s home state of Nevada. The stories are often devastating and the writing truly dazzling.

Then, because I just finished reading it and feel inclined to shout it from the rooftops, Molly by Blake Butler, a memoir of the author’s late wife who died by suicide. Yes, it’s a heavy topic, but the writing is so heartbreaking and exquisite, with passages that are so insightful and profound that the book manages to somehow transcend the trauma which prompted it. Those are just a few recommendations that come to mind.

7. Wonderful recommendations, thank you. Now, what is next for you? Are you working on a new collection or full-length work of fiction?

I’ve recently completed a chapbook of poetry called Extraordinary Things. These poems, like the stories in What The Statue Thinks, have been with me for many years. It would be great if I could get that in print somehow, so I am currently working on that. Beyond that, I am gearing up to work on a full-length play later on this year.

My top goal as a writer is to advance my dramas on the American stage, so I’m going to get to work on a new project as soon as I can. I do aspire to publish another short story collection at some point, perhaps one that is different in terms of style and tone from What The Statue Thinks. I have a number of stories that tip toward magical or supernatural realism. I might like to explore this in greater depth in the future. I’m not sure about a novel, honestly. I’ve written two in the past but am not prepared to further pursue either of them at present. So right now, I am focusing on dramas, primarily, but am continuing to work on short fiction and poetry as well.

8. That’s so exciting. Wishing you all the best. Finally, where can our readers find you online?

My Twitter/X handle is @AuthorMGH. My plays can be found on the New Play Exchange (NPX). I also write on Substack at “Little Things,” where I publish short stories, poems, and other writings. I hope to have a website up and running by the end of the year, but for now those are the best places to find me.

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A big thanks to Michael for spending the time with us for The Writer Story interview. Make sure to order WHAT THE STATUE THINKS now and support his writing adventures.

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Until next week,

~Toodle-oo~