Curtis Sittenfeld is a New York Times bestselling author known for her insightful explorations of contemporary life and relationships. Her novels include Prep, American Wife, and Romantic Comedy, and her short stories have been featured in publications such as The New Yorker and The Washington Post. Her latest collection, Show Don’t Tell, releases in February 2025, offering a series of stories that delve into themes of marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition.
We are thrilled for the chance to talk to Curtis about her new collection, her life as a full-time writer and the art of short storytelling.
Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld
This collection features characters at pivotal moments of self-discovery, where long-held beliefs are challenged in unexpected ways. In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman reconnects with old friends after her divorce, while “A for Alone” follows a married artist testing the so-called Mike Pence Rule. Fans of Prep will be delighted by “Lost but Not Forgotten,” which revisits Lee Fiora at her boarding school reunion decades later. With her signature blend of humor, tenderness, and razor-sharp observation, Sittenfeld peels back the layers of everyday life, making each story as immersive as a novel.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Your latest short story collection features a mix of humor, introspection, and deeply relatable characters. What inspired you to return to short fiction?
Since my last collection was published in 2018, I’ve been writing stories off and on, and they just feel timely to me in terms of their cultural and political themes (though the stories are more about people experiencing culture and politics than about culture and politics in and of themselves). I’ve always loved stories as a reader and a writer. I find them to be such a satisfying format for focusing in a very thorough way on a contained stretch of time.
The characters in this collection often find their long-held beliefs challenged. How do you approach building such layered, dynamic characters within the constraints of a short story?
The dynamic of challenged beliefs tends to be baked into the story’s premise. It’s one of my favorite situations to explore because it’s so rich and painful and who among us hasn’t experienced it? I often think that a smart character who’s wrong is more interesting than a smart character who’s right, or a foolish character who’s wrong or right.
“Lost but Not Forgotten” revisits Lee Fiora from Prep. What was it like stepping back into her world years later, and how did you decide the story you wanted to tell about her at this stage in her life?
Prep was published twenty years ago, and during the last two decades, I’ve considered writing about Lee again from time to time. I get asked about her regularly, and I think the essential question is, was being insecure and self-sabotaging at boarding school an enduring part of her personality or was she just like that because she was a teenager. I’ve thought mostly it was the latter. When I realized Show Don’t Tell would be published twenty years after Prep, it seemed like the perfect time to dip back into that world. Taking on Lee’s voice as a middle-aged woman felt as comfortable as pulling on a Patagonia fleece jacket from 1988.
What do you think makes a short story “work” in a way that feels complete and satisfying, even if the length is limited?
A short story tends to hinge more on a moment, while a novel is more a series of moments. The advice that an ending should feel surprising yet inevitable (advice I’ve seen attributed to everyone from Aristotle to Flannery O’Connor) is hard to beat, and I think matters even more with stories than novels.
Do you find one format—novels or short stories—more creatively challenging or fulfilling? Why?
This might be an absurdly obvious answer, but I find novels harder to write due to length. You get sick of the topic after months or years, you’re managing a far higher volume of paper (I print pages often, usually daily), you’re creating a more complex plot.
Many writers struggle to transition between forms. What advice would you give to someone who wants to try writing short stories after focusing on novels (or vice versa)?
Just try! Write 500 words a day for five days (which might take a month, of course, depending on your schedule) and see where you are. I actually sometimes start a new short story either when I haven’t been writing for a while (because life has pulled me away) or when I’ve finished a novel and want to be immersed in creating fiction but am not sure what my next novel will be about. Starting a short story is far less daunting to me than starting a novel.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Romantic Comedy is being adapted for the screen, which is thrilling! Can you share how you felt when you learned about the adaptation, and what role, if any, you’ve played in the process?
My books have been getting optioned for twenty years, and the reality is that none have made it to the screen. This isn’t a complaint, just a fact. So I never take anything for granted, but certainly Hello Sunshine, which is Reese Witherspoon’s production company, and the specific individuals who are developing it have an excellent track record. I’ve read the script, and it’s delightful and funny. It was written by Jordan Weiss and Dan Brier, two highly talented people who are far more directly familiar with the world of comedy and TV than I am. I gave them a few notes that they’re welcome to ignore. If a film exists, it will be its own animal.
What do you think makes a novel or story particularly adaptable to film or television?
Ha, see answer above—I clearly have no idea!
Looking back on your career, what’s one piece of advice you wish you had when you first started writing
There’s very little to be gained by publicly saying almost anything negative about almost anyone in your professional field. And no, it makes no difference if you’re being totally sincere or gratuitously bitchy.
What’s your routine or process for staying disciplined and productive as a writer?
I’m extraordinarily lucky that since Prep was published, I’ve been a full-time writer. There’s just a huge difference between writing while having one or more other jobs and writing as your job. So I don’t congratulate myself for being disciplined or productive—I know my situation is anomalous. For most writers, even ones with published books, the structure of their life prevents more than facilitates writing fiction, and they’re writing on borrowed time. I sign book contracts in advance of writing them, and the structure of my life encourages me to write.
What are you working on next?
For years, I’ve aspired to write a short novel. Mohsin Hamid is my role model—his novels such as How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Exit West, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist are about 200 pages and feel complete and perfect. I’m trying now to write a 200-page novel that involves several 49-year-olds.
Leave A Comment