Performed by Val Cole

1. What is your short story about?

It’s about a woman watching her own life from the inside, noticing what disappears before it’s officially gone.

2. What genres would you say this story is in?

Literary fiction, psychological realism, quiet reckoning.

3. How would you describe this story in two words?

Uncomfortable truth.

4. What movie have you seen the most in your life?

Wings of Desire.

5. What is your favorite song? (Or the one you’ve listened to the most.)

“Stairway to heaven” It keeps aging with me.

6. Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

Zorba the Greek. It’s complicated.

7. What motivated you to write this story?

The moment I realized silence can be a form of survival—and also a form of erasure.

8. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

God. I wouldn’t talk much. I’d listen.

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Art. The kind made from what people throw away.

10. What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?

I wanted the words to exist outside of me. To be witnessed.

11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Don’t make it pretty too soon. Tell the truth first. Editing comes later.