October 28, 2010 It was clear from the beginning that Lydia Peelle’s debut story collection, Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing, was something special. Though small—it contained only eight stories—and published in paperback, it immediately caught the eye of critics. (The The New York Times Book Review compared Peelle to “masters of the unsettling short story like Mary Gaitskill, or even Alice Munro.”) Peelle has won two Pushcart Prizes and an O. Henry Award; twice she has been included in Best New American Voices. No wonder, then, that the National Book Foundation named her to its 2009 list of the best “5 Under 35” writers, or that in March she was short-listed for the PEN/Hemingway award. And last night, the Nashville resident and former Bredesen speechwriter won her biggest prize to date: a coveted Whiting Writers’ Award, which carries a stipend of $50,000. She took a few minutes to answer questions from Chapter 16 about the prize.