Steve Almond's first collection, "My Life in Heavy Metal" is just out in paperback. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Tin House, Ploughshares, the Pushcart Prize 2002, the Best of Zoetrope II, and various other anthologies. Algonquin books will publish his next project, a non-fiction book about obscure candy bars, in Spring 2004. A second collection will follow in Spring 2005. You can read his new work at www.stevenalmond.com.

Felicia C. Sullivan: Congratulations Steve on the paperback release of My Life in Heavy Metal. In this sardonic and wonderfully drawn collection, you present characters that think and do unlikable things, even if the reader is secretly rooting for them. What drew you to create some of the different characters, notably David in the title story, Mamu (or Basha) in Run Away, My Pale Love and Holden in Valentino?

Steve Almond: Most of the characters in the book are either some trumped up version of myself or my friends. A guy like Holden is really me as a young guy, spouting overblown theories to obscure a broken heart. Most of the characters in my stories are flawed. They screw up. This is how the human condition works: we are, therefore we screw up. I take it to be art’s highest calling to forgive people their sins, which are, inevitably, a function of fear and weakness. Which is to say: I want people to recognize the failings of my characters AND to love them, as I do.

FS: In Delillo’s White Noise, he examined the rituals of a community – the return to college after summer vacation, congregating at the local supermarket, for example – as well as unwritten rules of social etiquette and order (in the case of Noise, apocalyptic disorder). You artfully poke at social and economic rules in How to Love a Republican and the dating etiquette in The Pass. What were you going for in these two stories?

SA: Most of my stories contain pointed observations about modern culture. In the case of “The Pass” I wanted to address the terribly loneliness that drives most of our romantic endeavors. “Republican” is an attempt to describe the ways in which a conflict of belief can wreck a loving relationship. Reviewers have sometimes used the word “anthropological” to describe these stories, but that sounds too clinical to me. I’d prefer to just think of them as determined to make sense of the world we live in.

FS: Which story (stories) in the collection resonate with you and why?

SA: Actually, the one that slays me is the title story, because you rarely read a serious literary short story that includes female ejaculation and White Snake.

FS: Your characters typically engage in rough sex, have voracious sexual appetites. Any eh-hem comments on this? ?

SA: Wait a second -- everyone has voracious sexual appetites! It’s simply a matter of how much we express them. All I’m doing is trying to tell the truth about sex. I mean, 5000 years ago some gorgeous human wrote the Song of Songs, the sexiest piece of poetry on earth. All that person did was tell the truth -- about how it feels to desire, to touch and be touched, to taste and smell and hear and see all the ecstatic and terrible sensations of physical congress. It's all about laying your characters bare on the page -- honoring the tremendous bravery required to get naked with another person. Or people.

FS: For emerging writers curious about the publishing process – story collection versus novel. Writers that usually publish a story collection then embark on a novel and all that industry jazz, what about a story collection worked best for you? What made you want to pursue a collection rather than a novel? Is a novel in the works?

SA: Sure, yeah. Already written a couple of them, but they sucked. A novel will come, when I’m good and ready. The next two books are a non-fiction work and a second collection.

FS: Although readers can read up on your book tour adventures on your website www.stevenalmond.com, any memorable or frankly forgettable moments you had touring?

SA: Probably the appearance of Viva Las Vegas, a lovely, well-read stripper, at my Portland reading. After I read, she invited us down to the club where she performs and did a "Heavy Metal" set for me. I'm not going to dwell, except to note that Portland allows FULL nudity. And that Viva appeared acquainted with some of the more tantrically inclined Yoga positions. Yup.

FS: From your spot-on commentary in Poets and Writers about the book review process (notably of your collection by the Times Book Review) to the recent book review politics (Devil Wears Prada, the launch of The Believer) – what are your comments on the evolution or pettiness of book reviews? Back in a day when Virginia Woolf penned “snarky” reviews for the Observer, have book reviews and their importance changed in your opinion?

SA: The problem is larger than reviewers. They’re just a symptom of the creeping contempt for art that besets our culture. But let’s be clear: there have always been snarky book reviewers, and always will be. Part of my point in writing that piece is simply to say: Hey, it hurts. And one other thing: writers don’t just have to sit there and let a bunch of envious/lazy/underpaid/embittered half-wits run smack on them. They’re allowed to smack back. In the end, though, being a snarky critic is its own worst punishment.

FS: What’s on your bookshelf?

SA: My pal Karl Iagnemma has a great new book of stories, “On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction.” I’m a huge fan of the novel “Stoner” by John Williams. It’s miraculous. And I adore “Mrs. Bridge” and “Mr. Bridge” by Evan Connell. Actually, I could do on and on here. “Howard’s End,” “Song of Solomon,” “The Palace Thief.” The list is endless.

FS: What would NOT be on your bookshelf?

SA: Anything by Henry James. Just don’t have the patience.

FS: Any closing comments, shout-outs, necessary pimpage?

SA: Shout-outs to anyone who reads, who feels, who gives a shit about their own insides. As to pimps – if folks wanna check out my music recommendations (all of which are suitable for sex) they should go to www.stevenalmond.com.