Back Draft: Sterling HolyWhiteMountain
College relationships sometimes go up in flames. In the case of Sterling HolyWhiteMountain’s short story, “Featherweight,” the breakup is particularly incendiary: “Allie cast me from her room, first striking me in the face with an open hand and then throwing a lighter at me that exploded against the wall as I left.” With a realism that’s both raw and mythic, HolyWhiteMountain hurls us into the heart of a timeless drama; he tells the story of two fiery lovers whose ancestors are sworn enemies.
When I asked the former Stegner Fellow and Iowa graduate about this story, he talked to me about the arduous editorial process. After The New Yorker accepted the story for publication, he found himself scrutinizing every single word. Growing up, he never imagined someone like him would publish in the magazine. “Has The New Yorker ever been sold on my reservation?” he wondered aloud. “Seems very doubtful.”
—Ben Purkert for Guernica
Guernica: How many rounds of revision did “Featherweight” go through?
I wrote the first version in spring of my first year at the Stegner. April of 2019, I think. But I had been thinking about this story for probably seven years before I drafted it. I knew I wanted to write a story about two characters like this, this particular kind of relationship. The original opening line was, “She came as fire. I left in flames.” I had totally forgotten about that until I was preparing for this interview, trying to figure out what to send you. It’s wild, there’s so much in the original that didn’t make it into the final. But, and drafted it in just two days. I revised it again last fall before sending it to my agent. Then we went through the whole process, which is really intense.
