Curtis says he was struck by Pizzolatto’s “fluency with philosophical ideas and moral stringency”—qualities that will be familiar to viewers of True Detective. Curtis met Pizzolatto on a visit to Arkansas, and remembers him as “young, serious, and all business, with none of the repressed vanity or career anxiousness of many MFA students.” Pizzolatto, for his part, says, “The Atlantic really gave me my writing career—even just the conviction to be a writer.”

“Ghost-Birds” was published in the October 2003 issue of the magazine; “Between Here and the Yellow Sea” followed in November 2004. True Detective fans will find familiar themes running through the stories. Both feature protagonists with a penchant for philosophy, for instance. And in both stories the idea of a contaminated landscape hovers in the background, much as it does throughout the HBO series, notably during the title sequence. “I can see the nascent form of visuals and obsessions that I would embrace later on,” says Pizzolatto. The protagonist of “Ghost-Birds” even blames himself for the death of a loved one, as Rust Cohle does on True Detective.

Pizzolatto, who included the stories in his 2006 collection Between Here and the Yellow Sea, is also the author of Galveston, which was a finalist for the 2010 Edgar Award for best first novel. He’d like to return to print at some point. “I have quite a few books I’d like to make,” he says. “I’m just waiting to lose my day job.” (It may be a while: Pizzolatto’s current contract with HBO runs until the summer of 2016.)

Curtis retains another vivid image from the time when he met the fledgling author: “his truck, a red pickup he kept spotlessly clean.” When Pizzolatto confirms this, I ask the obvious question: Does Rust Cohle drive your old car?

“No, no,” he laughs. “Mine was a Nissan.”

You can read Nic Pizzolatto’s short story “Ghost-Birds” here, and “Between Here and the Yellow Sea” here.