Ask The Author: Katya Apekina

From the March Issue, Katya Apekina’s “The Deaths of Max Morozov.”

1. What mutant power does Max have that allow him to keep coming back to life?

I don’t know! The story started off with me wanting to write a short about someone’s life: birth to death. But then it became birth to death to death to death etc. The story just kind of stuttered. I think if people need a logical explanation there isn’t really one, but I guess you could go with the fact that he is a scientist who studies immortality, so he might have some secrets.

2. Would you want to be able to resurrect yourself at will?

Yes. Though I would rather just never die. I guess resurrection is the next best thing.

3. How do you want to go out?

I don’t. See above.

4. How did you map out all the ways Max dies in this story?

I didn’t really map them out. But I was reading a lot of obituaries and thinking about death as a way of understanding life. And his deaths were a way to understand the different phases of his life. At each important juncture he dies. People are always reinventing themselves and being reborn metaphorically, in each phase of their life they become a new person, even though they also stay the same. I just made it literal. I am very literal.

5. What would you like to kill?

The shittier aspects of my nature. Litter.

6. What is your favorite airport?

I was just in a tiny airport in Sheridan, WY that I liked. It had models of airplanes in glass cases and was smaller than a high school gym.