When I hear the term whip smart, I see a ponytail. I hate this term. It feels too easy, too familiar. It also seems like it is always used to describe women. I am going on about this because I have to tell you that Nora Lange’s writing is very, very smart and if the term were not eroded by overuse I would call it whip smart because I want to convey to you not only Lange’s sharp insights but also the visceral alacrity of her lines and the movement—both mental and physical—that she brings to the page.
Today, I will consume my mother, Lange’s narrator tells us in the story “Last Boob Feed.” That’s what you do when you’ve lost someone. And to do this consuming of my mother, I will purchase a funnel…
I have this baby. We have this baby. This baby emerged like a lightning bolt onto the scene—this was how I preferred to see the hospital room, surrounded by strangers, and where the lower half of my body knelt bare, a leftover part like a tree stump in the woods.
Mary Gaitskill considers a writer’s style to be the “inevitable by-product” of the writer feeling their way through the shape of their creation, through word choices and small decisions as well as big ones. I kept thinking about this as I read Lange’s collection Day Care (Two Dollar Radio, April 2026). In these stories, every word feels thrillingly chosen. The characters come alive through the articulation of the grammar and juxtaposition of sentences, which I suppose is true of all writing, but in Lange’s prose I felt aware of it in a delicious way, as if with each and every sentence Lange was handing me a small and perfect gift.
To celebrate the release of Nora Lange’s incredible short story collection, we at Zona Motel wanted to debut a new column called “Zona Wants to Know.” This is our version of the Confession Album—a kind of social catechism which was popular during the Victorian era, and which Proust famously answered. Zona Hester Shue, our namesake and the only ghost to ever officially testify at a murder trial, lived during the time of the Confession Album and so we asked her what she might want to know.
1. Who are you?
I have never been asked this. I am a feeling. If I had to describe it, I’d say I’d say a bird (any) or a tree (of any size), maybe a tree where a bird likes to be.
2. What do you see right now?
A recently paved road which smells of being recently paved, some branches covered in green leaves which will not be the case for long (Utah is hot) moving to the wind. Dusty black blinds that are open but which on first arriving I found oppressive, but now I understand why the previous tenants had them installed. Soon the hundred-+-degree days will arrive and last until September.
3. What is your favorite weather phenomenon?
A wind storm. Honestly, I am pretty obsessed with all of them and once you start describing one you realize how each contains similar elements, right? Lightning storm, which often has wind, thunder, rain, the threat of rain, so forth. If there’s a storm, and you do not know where I am, chances are I’m outside in it. Or looking at it happening elsewhere. Or observing it build and move. I am at my happiest if it’s stormy and cloudy and everything that comes along with that.
4. What kind of student were you in school?
A delinquent who preferred selling coffee and cold beers at The Mermaid Cafe, located at the back of a warehouse-sized consignment shop called Cominichi’s, over high school. (At one point during high school I lived in the loft space that was behind the cafe where there was a stage set up for bands to play.) Hans was lanky, just the right temperature, and from Berlin. He and his blonde girl Laura - who was a decade or more younger than he was, she was probably thirty-eight at the time - ran the store for Gina, the owner. He wore black Ray Ban sunglasses at all times. I was more comfortable with him than any lover I’d ever have, even while in college when I’d eventually get there. Our relationship was a platonic one. To this day, I tend to think this is key. It’s like reading a book. Books are platonic relationships.
My education is sort of a long story. The other day, as Nick and I were leaving our daughter’s day care, somehow the topic of The Notorious B.I.G. came up and his being a high school dropout, Nick turned to me and said: You’re a high school dropout.
It’s true. Though, I did end up receiving my high school diploma, I never went back to pick it up.
5. What would you name your motel?
FREE MIRROR
6. What is your favorite bird?
Owls
7. What is your main fault?
I have a short temper at times, prone to irritation and getting snippy and cheeky.
8. What is your main virtue?
Generosity. I’m always feeding people.
9. What or who do you miss the most right now?
My mom and stepmom
10. Have you ever been fired, and if so why?
No. Or sort of. My old boss thought that when Nick (whom she liked) took a job in Utah that I should join him with our daughter.
11. What is a lot of money?
Any money in a certain light, right?
12. What non-human, living entity do you have the most respect for and why?
Trees. (Clouds are close second.) Trees help us to maintain and manage temperatures and of course help us with our air. They are also food and places for birds to build nests. Basically they help things live.
13. What was the last album you listened to all the way through in one sitting, and where did it take you?
We had friends over for dinner the other night and we listened to the Silver Jews’ record The Natural Bridge. It took me to August and to Berman’s death and to his life and then to this small town in California called Pacific Grove where many of the squat houses have gnomes in the yard. At least they did thirty years ago. My friend Anna, who was a few years older than I was, dated a young kid who still lived with his mother, and we’d stop off in this town to see the dude with his friends - all obsessed with Pavement - on our drive to Oakland to see our friends.
14. What question would you ask the next person in this interview series?
What is your relationship to death?
ooooo, this book sounds great and i enjoy this interview format
Ahh!!! So excited!!! My local bookshop here in San Diego does a "book of the month" and this was June's pick!!! Can't wait to dive in