K. KIRK

Stand | Two Excerpts

K. Kirk’s Stand is a novel in progress. Set in the second half of the twentieth century, it follows the history of a family’s and a community’s connection to a western Virginia vineyard. The sections published here, Kirk notes, feature Marcus, who

arrives on the scene of the novel around 1950 after having been away for quite some time. Needless to say, many things have happened while he has been elsewhere, and were still happening as he made his debut. These two excerpts do not appear next to each other in the novel, but they take place during the same trip to Virginia.

Kirk says as she began writing the novel it concerned a struggle for property—for right of ownership, for due rights, and for resolution after injury. With the introduction of each new character, however, the terms of struggle became more personal. As she continued writing, the struggle—no longer simply about land—shifted to how one character’s choices brought trouble to many. This culmination is apparent in these two excerpts about Marcus, who is affected by and at the mercy of the decisions of others.  

   Marcus I: Tell me what happened to her
    Marcus II: I was a man with pure intenions

   Contributor’s notes

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