Kate Manning

Kate Manning is the author of the critically acclaimed novels My Notorious Life, Whitegirl, and Gilded Mountain. A former documentary television producer and winner of two Emmy Awards, she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Time, Glamour, and The Guardian, among other publications. She has taught creative writing at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan, and lives with her family in New York City.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Gilded Mountain is about the stark divide between rich and poor in a Colorado marble-mining town in the 1900s. The word ‘gilded’ implies wealth, as in the Gilded Age, but also hints at a superficial beauty: sometimes a shiny gold object is actually made of gold-painted tin. One contender for the title was Avalanche Days, because avalanches--real and metaphorical--feature in the story. But Gilded Mountain won out because the word ‘gilded’ carried hints of beauty and intrigue while ‘avalanche’ spoke only to disaster. In this novel, the young protagonist is tempted by luxury and must choose between a life of ease—and a daring adventure. I hope the title helps conjure a mountaintop outlined by the sunset in a rind of gold, while underneath that beautiful gilding of light is something hard, sometimes dangerous or cheap.

What's in a name?

Sylvie, the heroine of Gilded Mountain, is named in honor of Sylvia Smith, a real-life female newspaper editor whose story I found while researching the history of Marble, Colorado. Between 1908-1912, Smith published a paper that was pro-labor, pro-woman’s suffrage, in a time when women did not even have the vote. She wrote highly critical stories of the company that dominated the town, and for that she suffered severe consequences. When the young heroine of the novel is apprenticed at a newspaper like Smith’s, she begins to see the world through newly- sharpened eyes. Naming the heroine Sylvie was a nod of thanks to the real historical figure—and also helped me to create a protagonist who defies stereotype.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I was an earnest old soul of a teen bookworm, with a secret burning to write stories. I kept a cheesy heart-encrusted diary, reading all the time, even while walking home from school, bumping into trees and lamp posts. I didn’t know any writers. The women novelists I read seemed to exist on an inaccessible mountaintop. So teenage me would be surprised to have published a novel at all. Gilded Mountain is about a young woman learning to follow her ambition, to use her voice, daring to speak up. That aspect of the character comes from my own experience—of going against female social training to “be nice,” keep quiet. So, of course my young self would be elated, as I am, to have written this particular book.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

It’s middles. Ghastly. The beginning is in some ways the easiest. When I start something and find a voice, language, that feels strong, an idea of plot, the work motors along till it hits the sagging middle. Gilded Mountain started out written in the third person—but I changed to first person after I had 50 pages done. For me, first person lends itself to a stronger voice. I’m always editing as I work, and can’t go forward unless the voice and character are working well. When I finally type “The End,” I go back to the beginning and fix that first page, change it around and write what I hope is a hook—a lead that poses a question the story must answer, one that pulls a reader through to the last page.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Writing fiction seems to me to be a kind of radical empathy, putting yourself in the shoes of another person. So there’s some of me in all the characters. Even if they are worlds—or centuries--apart, the question is: what would I do in a certain situation if I were this character, with his experience? With her social constraints? In the context of her time and circumstance? In Gilded Mountain, a young woman is trapped in a snowbound mountain cabin and fears a life circumscribed by poverty and the greed of others. She is raised to be quiet and subservient. But in her thoughts, she is subversive. In some ways, that’s me: polite, cheerful—my subversive thoughts kept to myself—except in writing. It was especially fun to write scenes where Sylvie’s dialogue is interspersed with sly mental asides.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Acting. Painting. In high school and college I did a lot of theatre. As an actor you are using your voice and body and experience to inhabit a character. You must understand everything about the character’s past—her back story, her motivations, actions and desires, even if they are not spelled out in a script. At my desk I often will do voices and facial expressions of characters in scenes I’m writing, in order to feel emotions in the body, and describe them on the page. My mother is an accomplished painter, as was my grandmother, acute observers of detail. Art and photography fuel and inform my work. Gilded Mountain was sparked by a photograph I found in the family attic. The novel’s setting, character, and plot were all inspired by historical pictures of Colorado in the early 1900s. These images provoked my imagination, and gave me information that found its way into the novel.

Visit Kate Manning's website.

The Page 69 Test: My Notorious Life.

--Marshal Zeringue