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Storyteller John Dufresne

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Storyteller John Dufresne

Introduction to John Dufresne. 1:56 min. Interview: Raymond Elman.  Post-Production: Lee Skye.  Recorded via ZOOM  10/21/2025. Miami.

 

JOHN DUFRESNE has won the Yankee Magazine award for fiction, the Transatlantic Review/Henfield Foundation Award, a PEN Syndicated Fiction award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His novel “Louisiana Power & Light” was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 1994.

He is also the author of a short story collection, “The Way That Water Enters Stone,” three chapbooks, “Lethe, Cupid, Time and Love;” “Well Enough Alone;” and “I Will Eat a Piece of the Roof and You Can Eat the Window;” the novel, “Love Warps the Mind a Little,” also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 1997; the novel “Deep in the Shade of Paradise;” the story collection “Johnny Too Bad,” the novel “Requiem, Mass.,” and most recently, the novel “My Darling Boy.” He is one of the thirteen authors of the mystery novel, “Naked Came the Manatee.” He has also written six books on the craft of fiction writing: “The Lie That Tells a Truth: a Guide to Writing Fiction,” “Is Life Like This: a Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months,” “What Would Chekhov Do?,” “Flash!: Writing the Very Short Story,” “Storyville: An Illustrated Guide to Writing Fiction,” and “What Would Chekhov Do?: Revised Second Edition.” He is the editor of the anthologies Blue Christmas, Holiday Stories for the Rest of Us., Having a Wonderful Time with Michael Hettich and Cynthia Chinelly, Everything Is Broke, I’m the One with the Blue Cap On. Poems by Jeffrey Knapp. His story “Johnny Too Bad” is included in New Stories of the South: Best of 2003.

Dufresne grew up in Worcester, Mass and received his MFA from the University of Arkansas. He has lived and taught in Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and Florida. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University in Miami and lives in Dania Beach.

https://www.johndufresne.net/

 

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 7 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

EMPATHY:   0:25 sec.  

The addiction problems you describe are so common these days.

 

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED:   4:13 min.

Have you seen improvements over the decades in the way addictions are treated?

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:   2:16 min.

When did you leave Worcester?

 

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES:   6:15 min.

What was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

 

RESILIENCE:   0:59 sec.

I have never heard of someone having 19 siblings.

 

SERENDIPITY:    1:29 min.

Was it normal to give birth to so many children in the 19th century?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:    1:27 min.

What kind of housing did you grow up in?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:    3:12 min.

When did you first think you were a better writer than most of your peers?

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:    6:42 min.

How did growing up in a large Canadian-Massachusetts family impact your writing?  How did moving to the South impact your writing?  How did moving to Miami impact your writing?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:    1:59 min

The Miami arts communities exploded with talent and recognition from the mid 1980s to 2025. Have you incorporated those communities into your novels?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:    1:30 min

There are a number of good writers like you, Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, etc. who incorporate the gestalt of Florida into their stories. Do you communicate with one another?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    1:20 min. 

You have written both fiction and non-fiction. Many of my novelist friends approach non-fiction as though it were a novel. Do you do that?

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:    3:10 min.

Compare the experience of writing your first novel with writing subsequent novels.

 

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED:    1:33 min

What is a typical day for you as a writer?

 

COLLABORATION:    1:10 min.

Have you tried to make movies out of your novels?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:   1:02 min. 

Have you seen Lauren Fisher’s 3 part series called “Believers: Boston Red Sox” on ESPN?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    3:32 min

Author Ben Mezrich, whose book about Mark Zuckerberg was made into the film “The Social Network,” told me that he now considers possible actors when writing a new book. Do you do that?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:   1:10 min.

What are you working on now?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:     1:48 min.

What’s your favorite movie?