Kirstin Valdez Quade

Kirstin Valdez Quade is an American writer.

Quotes

 * When I read, if I don’t know where a story is set, I always feel unmoored. The same is true for my writing: Until I place my story in a specific place, I can’t get my footing in the world…
 * On the importance of location in her writings in “Kirstin Valdez Quade: How I Write” in The Writer (2017 Apr 21)


 * I love the short story: I love its flexibility, its distillation of language, the pressure it exerts on the moment. A story demands that the reader look closely. And yet, despite the intensity and constraints, a story can be surprisingly capacious…
 * On why she loves writing short stories in “Kirstin Valdez Quade: How I Write” in The Writer (2017 Apr 21)


 * It has absolutely been romanticized; it shows up in literature and art. I think there is a sort of magic to it that draws people and yet I think the reality of it is that it's an extraordinarily complicated place.
 * On the spiritual quality given to New Mexico in “'Night At The Fiestas' Spins Stories Of Faith And Family” in NPR (2015 Mar 28)


 * I do think one of the reasons I’m a writer is that we moved around so much when I was a child, and I was always the new kid. I was always in a new environment and trying to figure it out. I was always watching, trying to suss out what the social situation was, and where I might fit in, and who I was in this new place. We’re different people in different contexts; different aspects of our identities become more pertinent…
 * On how her childhood affected her writing in “HAVING FAITH: AN INTERVIEW WITH KIRSTIN VALDEZ QUADE” in The Nashville Review (2017 Dec 13)