CR 011: Mary Jones on the Many Ways We Say Goodbye

The acclaimed author discusses her debut collection of short stories, “The Goodbye Process.”

Mary Jones, photo by Summer Barnhart

Mary Jones’s writing has been published in numerous literary journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Santa Monica Review, Brevity, and many others. Her essay “The Suicide Disease” was cited as notable in The Best American Essays, and her short story “When You Get There” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Now, 28 of her stories are available in The Goodbye Process, a beautifully written collection of fiction centered around the ways we say goodbye—goodbye to friends, to a simpler childhood, to a dying parent, to a dying spouse, to a phase in life, to secrets, to youth, to young love, to one’s own life. It is at times humorous, at times devastating, but stunning and wholly original throughout. (Library Journal gave it a starred review, calling it a “must-have” collection.”)

Jones shares that although she did not plan to write a collection of stories on goodbyes, she did leave the project with a new appreciation for letting go. “It’s a collection …