SOURCE: Apple, Max, and Allan Vorda. “An Interview with Max Apple.” Michigan Quarterly Review 27, no. 1 (winter 1988): 69–78.

In the following interview with Vorda, conducted February 19, 1987, Apple discusses contemporary fiction and his own writing.

Max Apple was born October 22, 1941, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he spent his childhood and youth. He attended the University of Michigan, and received his first significant attention as a writer by earning several Hopwood Awards, as well as his Ph.D., in 1970. Since 1972 he has taught at Rice University where he holds the title of Fox Professor of English Literature. He has published four books: The Oranging of America (1976), a collection of short stories; Zip (1978), a novel; Free Agents (1984), a collection of prose pieces; and The Propheteers (1987), a novel.

The following interview took place on February 19, 1987, in the English Department at Rice University.

[Vorda]: What are your feelings about contemporary fiction? Do you feel comfortable...