North Park writer prowls the home turf

Bonnie ZoBell talks about new short-story collection

Bonnie ZoBell lives in North Park, near the site of the 1978 PSA crash that killed 144 people. In her new collection of short stories, “What Happened Here,” she uses the crash as a springboard to explore questions of fate, loss and what it means to be happy.

She’ll be at Rebecca’s Coffee House in South Park on Saturday at 4 p.m. for an event that will include readings and a video about North Park.

Q: The house you’re living in, was it a replacement for one destroyed by the crash?

A: No. There were 22 homes that were destroyed. Mine wasn’t one of them but there was debris that fell on the house and at my next door neighbor’s house, a body fell through the roof.

The houses that were demolished and replaced, they’re kind of funny because they stand out. Most of the houses were built in the ‘20s and ‘30s up here but those houses were clearly built in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, which is not quite as quaint.

Q: In what ways have you seen the crash haunt the neighborhood?

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