Planet Unflinching
An Interview
with author Kelly Cherry

It was the pale pink pedal pushers that made Kelly Cherry do it.  Her wardrobe, both in memory and reality, inspired her to write a dinner table scene in which a girl is simultaneously age 10 and 17.  At 10, she eats ham and green beans; at 17, she wears pink and is ready for the world. 

Cherry has been thinking about the concepts of two times/one place and two places/one time for a while.  To render these concepts, she created a planet called “Unflinching.”  Nature and time are thrown off course there.  In order to keep her piece short, Cherry formed this planet in the matter of....one paragraph.

"I was just interested to see how far a paragraph could veer from its beginning while remaining the same paragraph," she explains.  Her paragraph includes a kaleidoscope of scenes, characters, and emotions: A woman who eases her pain with codeine and bad beer.  A family eating dinner.  A toxic leaf.

Cherry has published an autobiography and two books of essays; in each case her goal was to be exact, clear, and upfront.  Writing nonfiction enables her to "record a truth that might benefit someone."  However, she cannot describe her style as a particular kind of writing.  "If I could, it would make me way too self-conscious to write." 

—Katie Kurtzman and Rob Markowsk