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    Guernica Magazine

    The Grandmother Character

    I thought: I would never write a fictional scene like this, because it was too obvious—the art butting up against reality, as though my story held some kind of portentous power. The post The Grandmother Character appeared first on Guernica.
    by Maria Kuznetsova Mar 19, 2019 8 minutes
    Illustration: Somnath Bhatt.

    My grandmother had to go and die in her sleep the day before my story about her was up for workshop. This was inconvenient, to say the least. The story, which was about a girl and her grandmother who visit Yalta to work out their love troubles, was my favorite thing I had written, and now, I wouldn’t be able to absorb any of the feedback my peers would give me in class. Also, my parents had decided that because I was wrapping up the first year of my MFA program, I couldn’t attend her funeral in Kiev, and they had booked their flights without consulting me. Though I fought them bitterly, they refused to budge. I made it to workshop the next day, armed with wine and snacks, willing myself not to cry when the conversation about my Baba story began.

    I didn’t tell my classmates or my professor what had happened, because I didn’t want to influence their perception of my work. Somewhere, deep down below my mutant grief, I wanted to hear what they thought without pretense. I helped myself to a generous serving of wine and listened.

    Though what usually stuck with me after a workshop was the criticism, for once, I was focused on the praise. “I loved the

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