Conversations with Tim Gautreaux

"I consider myself to be a Catholic writer in the tradition of Walker Percy. If a story does not deal with a moral question, I don't think it's much of a story." Louisiana writer Tim Gautreaux (b. 1947) writes fiction that mixes equal parts dry humor, tall tales, and deep tragedy. His stories and novels of working-class Acadiana portray lives of inimitably poignant love, loss, and longing. The depth and complexity of Gautreaux's writing invite scholarly appraisals as critics mine the richness of his moral vision. These interviews reveal the intensity of his sense of place, his deep connection to the mechanical and working world, his commitment to the craft of writing, and his Catholic view that has been shaped by the work of Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy. Conversations with Tim Gautreaux collects interviews from 1993 to 2009 with the author of The Missing, The Clearing, Welding with Children, and many other vital works of fiction. Readers who have been engaged with the themes in his stories and novels will find themselves equally taken with the kind and thoughtful voice they discover in interviews. L. Lamar Nisly, Bluffton, Ohio, is associate dean of academic affairs and professor of English at Bluffton University. He is the author of Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy and Impossible to Say: Representing Religious Mystery in Fiction by Malamud, Percy, Ozick, and O'Connor.