McSweeney’s interviews Diane Williams, author of this month’s Rumpus Book Club selection, Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty. Williams discusses the humor in her short story collection, being read to as a child, and contemporaries versus dead heroes.

“Elemental and timeless. You are very generous when you say this about my work. I can only pray it might sometimes be true. What are the features of such texts? Moral ambiguity? Complexity? Brave probes into the mysteries.”