Interview with Stephanie Yee

Stephanie Yee contributed an illustration to our open call for stories on Love and Heartbreak. Check out more of her work here.

PenTales: What are the ingredients of a good illustration?

Stephanie: I have no idea. And by that I mean that my favorite drawings are usually the ones that require the least thinking.

PenTales: Tell us about a favorite character in a story, and why you relate to this character.

Stephanie: Jack Burden in All the King’s Men. Every time I’ve read this book, I realize that he and I are similar in a new way. The way in which I relate to him (and to the other characters in the book) is an internal barometer.

PenTales: Tell us a 100-word story to help us get to know you better.

Stephanie: I live in a one-bedroom, second story apartment surrounded by furniture boutiques and restaurants. It has a white board, but not a coffee table. As of January 31st, I will have lived there for six months, but I have not yet bought a dresser, unpacked all of my clothes, or found my glasses. Each day, I wake up resolved to move in once and for all but get distracted by something else. When I say something else, I mean a “mind-bending suspenseful psychological movie” or a “critically-acclaimed imaginative animation.” And when I say my apartment, I mean my mind.

PenTales: Continue this story (five sentences or less): “There were 200 fish in the sea. No more, no fewer…”

Stephanie: One of the fish was a “large predator” that lived on the top of the food chain. He was the lord over the other one-hundred-and-ninety-nine little fish, whose sole purpose in life was to eat his dead skin and ectoparasites. They were loyal and kind, but not his friends. The big fish was rather lonely and dreamed of leaving the sea and the little fish to find friends in a smaller pond. It didn’t happen.

PenTales: What was your first thought this morning?

Stephanie: “I woke up before my alarm. I must have had an interesting dream.”

PenTales: What question should we ask the person (writer, storyteller, artist) we interview?

Stephanie: What was your most recent dream?