From acclaimed author Alan Cheuse, Santa Fe Writers Project presents two novellas of compelling intensity. In “The Fires,” Gina Morgan makes a pilgrimage to Uzbekistan to carry out her husband’s final wish only to discover that in this former Soviet republic things are not as they used to be. And in “The Exorcism,” Tom Swanson retrieves his angry daughter from her exclusive New England college after her expulsion for setting fire to a grand piano.

Alan Cheuse is the author of three novels, three collections of short fiction, and the memoir Fall Out of Heaven. As a book commentator, Cheuse is a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, The Idaho Review, and The Southern Review, among other places. He teaches in the Writing Program at George Mason University and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

How long did it take you to complete either story in The Fires? Did either one come really quickly, or did it take a while to weave the narratives and work the characters onto the page? /or/ Did the idea for the stories go through various incarnations? Or did you ever think, “EUREKA!” and plow straight ahead once the seed was planted? (read on…)