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INTERVIEW:Alice Fulton's new stories are set in her hometown of Troy, New York, where four generations of a fictional Irish American family unfold in a decaying part of America that tourists never see These streets, once familiar to Fulton, now make her nervous. No wonder, writes Anna Mundow

FOR AN ACCLAIMED poet, fiction writer and Cornell University professor, Alice Fulton is surprisingly considerate. She urges me to eat another muffin, drink more iced tea before we set off to explore Troy, New York, her hometown. She thanks me again for coming here even though hers has been the far longer journey. Fulton has returned to show me the sites depicted in her sublime new short-story collection, The Nightingales of Troy, which portrays four generations of the fictional Irish-American Garrahan family.