Pulling the Strings of Coincidence

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Coincidence often gives fiction its chance to mean something.

Over at Lit Hub, in an excerpt from her new book The Kite and the String, Alice Mattison walks us through brilliantly executed coincidences in E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End, Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” and Andre Dubus’s story “The Winter Father.” She argues for action and resonance, an alignment of a character’s inner life with outside eventfulness.

Kirstin Allio is currently a Howard Foundation Fellow at Brown University. Her story collection, Clothed, Female Figure comes out with Dzanc in 2016. Her novel, Garner (Coffee House), was a finalist for the LA Times Book Award for First Fiction. She has received the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” Award, a PEN/O. Henry Prize, and has published many short stories, poems, and essays. More from this author →