Contributor Interview: Margaret Dunn

Margaret Dunn's story "Little Eden" appears in the Fall 2025 issue of Broad Ripple Review.

What is your favorite punctuation and a literary hot take you have?

Diehard fan of the em dash.

"The Rules of Attraction" is Bret Easton Ellis’s best work, and it’s one of the best campus novels ever written.

What led you to write “Little Eden”?

I’ve always been interested in girlhood and ‘loss of innocence’ stories. Adolescence is the first time girls experience intimacy outside of their families—especially with girls their own age, or, in this story’s case, a slightly older girl. Those relationships have their own power dynamics: admiration, dependency, secrecy, even cruelty, but also real love. The idea for this story started with a thought that came to me while spending a weekend in a beach town in New Jersey. I imagined a clique of girls hearing about some neighborhood boys

who had stuck sticks inside a bluefin tuna that had washed up dead on the beach. That act of

violation—violence, really—stayed with me for its symbolism. That bluefin was eventually cut, as was the “clique” of girls, but that was the seed of the story. I wanted to explore how girlhood relationships function in this time when girls are sexualized so young, when male approval is desired before it’s understood, and how technology catalyzes all of this. I became fascinated by Judith and how the narrator would take it upon herself to try to rectify that pain out of love for her.

What topics do you think are most notable in writing right now?

It’s so difficult to choose! I’m really drawn to stories that live in the gray areas—especially around sex and power. The first piece that comes to mind is Lilian Fishman’s short story “Travesty,” which came out earlier this year. I love work that embraces nuance and poses questions without black-and-white answers; I think that’s the job of good fiction. Stories that engage with climate change and consumerism, too, feel crucial at this moment. I recently read Samanta Schweblin’s "Fever Dream," which does so about the former so subtly and

hauntingly.

I saw that you’ve had flash fiction published as well. How does your flash fiction process differ from your short story process? Do you have a preference for one genre over the other?

I definitely see myself more at home in short stories than in flash fiction, though I do have a real love for flash. I write on the lengthier side, which makes flash more of a challenge. The process, in many ways, feels similar: making each word count, keeping the writing taut, being sparing with detail. A professor once told me to cut a quarter of the words out of my second draft, then do the same with the third, and the fourth. It’s a tough exercise, but it taught me how to tighten my prose. Flash is really the epitome of that discipline, and it often comes down to whether the story at hand lends itself better to brevity. Either way, the goal is the same—every word has to pull its weight.

I also noted that you’re a teaching fellow at Boston University. I’ve heard that plenty of creative writers feel pressured to teach. Did you feel the same way?

I’ve always wanted to teach, so I’ve never seen it as a pressure, but rather as a goal. I adored my time as a teaching fellow at BU and got to work with the most intelligent, kind, and thoughtful undergrads. Writing can be such a solitary exercise, so the classroom feels like a kind of fix for that—workshopping, discussing craft, connecting with people who share the same passion about books. And you get to make a bit of money!

Now that “Little Eden” has wrapped up, what’s next on the writing docket?

I’m currently revising my first novel, "Bea." It follows a woman in Manhattan as she grapples with her role in a tragedy that happens to a close friend, while also caught between the pressures of her banking job and an affair with an older man. It’s a post-college coming-of-age story about figuring out your priorities once the structures of school and family have fallen away. There’s a lot about sexual gray areas, liquor, and Latin grammar in it. I

will not elaborate further.

Do you have any advice for upcoming writers looking to get their work published?

Stay organized! Spreadsheets are your friend: keep track of opening and closing dates, word count limits, and notes about each journal—what they’re looking for and pieces you’ve admired from them. It makes the process feel less overwhelming. And of course, I’d also say not to take rejection personally—wear it as proof that you were brave enough to put yourself out there, and give yourself credit for that. I constantly have to remind myself of that.

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About the Author

Margaret Dunn is an MFA candidate in fiction at Boston University, where she serves as a senior teaching fellow and Leslie Epstein Global Fellow. Her short stories have received the University of Pennsylvania’s Honors Thesis Prize and have appeared in Princeton’s Nassau Literary Review and Flash Fiction Magazine. She is currently working on a novel.

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About the Interviewer

Ollie Sikes (they/them) is an evolving queer writer, editor, and creator based in Dallas, TX. They completed a double BA in Creative Writing and Theatre at Butler University. Besides volunteering with Broad Ripple Review, they also serve as Content Creator for the little things literary magazine. Their poetry has been published with Synchronized Chaos. You can follow them on Instagram @ollie.sikes.