Classically trained actor and O. Henry Prize winning author Chanelle Benz created an experiment for herself: “What if I wrote a western, a spy story, a slave narrative, a post apocalyptic story?” The result is her debut collection The Man Who Shot Out My Eye is Dead, praised by masters of the form including George Saunders (“a riveting new voice in American fiction”) and Helen Oyeyemi (“Yes to Chanelle Benz and the skill, fluency, and panache with which her voices interrogate and elevate narrative”). With characters ranging from a monk in 16th century Britain, to a former slave telling her story in the 18th century, to a pudgy ninth grader in contemporary Philadelphia, the stories are thematically connected through the issues of race, history, and gender, as well as abandonment, mothers and fathers, acts of violence, and loss. Benz discusses her work with Lucie Shelly, Associate Editor of Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading.

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