We recently published Carolyn Oliver’s stunning “The Patron Saint of Fury.”

Here, we ask her two questions about her micro:

1) I love that this story opens with miracles, with healing and hope. And yet we are being introduced to the patron saint of fury. Do you see fury and hope as being connected, or is there a dichotomy that this story is wanting us to examine?

I do see a connection between fury and hope! Without hope — in a state of despair — there’s no reason to be angry. To be furious is to know that a better world is possible, to long for that better world, to need it. Fury is a force that can propel that better world into being.

2) This phrase near the end of this tiny piece, “bones of our untroubled dead” is so powerful. What makes these dead untroubled?

I tend to think of death as a long, long rest—a dreamless sleep. Only the living bear the world’s troubles and share its sweetness.