I first met Elizabeth Oness while visiting Winona State University several years ago and found her to be a writer with great insight and profound energy. Oness not only sustains a biodynamic farm in southern Minnesota, she is also a musician. Her books include: Articles of Faith (Iowa Short Fiction Prize), Departures (Penguin), Twelve Rivers of the Body (Gival Press Novel Award), Fallibility, (New Rivers Press Many Voices Award) and Leaving Milan (Bright Horse Books Novel Award). Her latest collection of stories, The Hopefuls, was published by Cornerstone Press in May 2025 and it is wonderful.
I had a chance to talk with Beth while she recovered from a serious horse accident. Her recovery, like so much of her life, is remarkable.
- How does it feel to be back from the brink of death?
I’m feeling very grateful and peaceful really. I can’t hurry. Literally. When Mayo surgeons start saying words like “paralysis,” and “neurological” and “incontinence,” it puts things in perspective. I’m very fortunate because my body & spinal cord are intact, and it could have been otherwise.
- The Hopefuls is a wonderful addition to your many novels and story collections. How is it unique in terms of your overall writing?
The stories were written over a long period of time, and between novels, so when I put the collection together, I wanted it to cohere, but I didn’t know what form that would take. I admire Joan Silber’s IDEAS OF HEAVEN, and it would be hard to describe its structure here, but one linking element in the book is that a main character in one story is sometimes a minor character or an ancestor in another story. I knew my collection wouldn’t work quite that way, but I originally thought I’d have 3 triads of stories with some repeating characters. And some of the stories were edited after they were published in journals to create those connections. Then the final story, “Look Both Ways,” stands on its own.
- You don’t get up to the Twin Cities much, even though you have so many friends and former students here. How is this reading at Magers & Quinn special for you?
It’s going to be fun to see people! One of my first trips to Minneapolis was when we first moved to Wisconsin. I came up to the Cities for an Irish Studies conference & realized how much I’d missed the happy buzz of a real bookstore.
- You are always so generous to other writers, including inviting them to campus, discussing their work, and championing your peers. What inspires this generous approach?
I only hang around with writers and people I like! And I read their work first. My impulse about who I’ll enjoy isn’t necessarily based on subject matter, but a kind of empathy, which is a pretty good barometer.
- What advice do you have for writers who want long careers as novelists?
You have to enjoy the writing itself. It’s natural to want a pat on the back, or to feel as if you’re making progress, but writers who are too needy or hungry for glory will never be satisfied. When I was younger, I was more ambitious. I’d spent a lot of my twenties working for famous men, so part of me wanted to make my own mark, but as I’ve written the books I wanted to write, I think I’ve worked out a lot of the ideas I was thinking about, so I feel content about that.
When I was living in DC, Ethelbert Miller said to me, “You have to start with the community you’re part of.” And for me, that was a diverse group of writers from DC, Maryland, and Virginia —not a cliquish or necessarily academic group. I’ll always remember this: Ethelbert was hosting a conference for women writers of color at Howard University and told me I should come. I laughed and said I wouldn’t quite fit in, and he said, “Buddy Beth, I wouldn’t leave you out.” That’s a vibe I learned a lot from. We should appreciate our communities—not always based on geography or obvious identifications—but based on what we love.
