Five Questions for Amy Hempel

Amy Hempel wraps up Mad. Sq. Read's summer reading series tonight, reading selections from Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs , which she co-edited with Jim Shepard. Attendees are urged to bring pups and pooches, for doggy treats and "some late-summer baying at the full moon."

Q.What is the status of your pet life?

A. I have two Labrador Retrievers, both broods from Guiding Eyes for the Blind--Savoy and Wanita. Savoy, age 10, is now retired, and her niece, Wanita, age 2, is an active breeder. Their pups become guide dogs. I've volunteered there for 10 years, and get to be surrounded by these heavenly, hard-working dogs.

Q. You have just published your collected stories. What are you working on now?

A. I'm working on short-short stories now, similar to the one titled "Sing to It," that appeared in O, the Oprah Magazine, in July. These extremely short stories have more in common with prose poems, I think, than with conventional stories, and that is part of their appeal for me.

Q. How does your teaching influence your work?

A. I don't think teaching influences my writing, but it does influence my reading. My students often recommend writers they've come across in publications such as Unsaid, and The New York Tyrant. One of my Bennington students just wrote a terrific review of the Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour that spotlights inventive books such as Mary Ruefle's A Little White Shadow, and the Joshua Beckman-Matthew Rohrer collaboration, Nice Hat.Thanks.

Q. Who do you read for inspiration?

A. For inspiration, I read good memoirs--people who got through something very hard, and write about it with grace. I just re-read Abigail Thomas's A Three Dog Life for this reason.

Q. Who do you read for fun?

A. For fun, it's not who I read so much as what: forensic psychology and criminology textbooks. The lighter side of this is Mary Roach, whose book Stiff is a great mix of science, medicine and entertainment.