Maggie Nye

Maggie Nye is the author of The Curators. She is a writer and teacher whose work has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the St. Albans Writer in Residence program.

My Q&A with the author:

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

For many years, while I was shopping my manuscript around, my title was How do you like these bad days? That original title came from a line in a postcard I found from murder victim Mary Phagan to her cousin. I dug up said postcard in the archives of the Breman Museum of Jewish History in Atlanta. I loved that it gave Mary a chance to speak, but editors and readers agreed that it was too long and obscure.

After much agonizing, I landed on The Curators because that title accurately depicts the desires of the adolescent girls who narrate my novel. They seek to collect and to control a historical perspective that is denied to them. An audience member at my book launch asked me recently: “Why not The Creators? They create a golem, so wouldn’t that title make more sense?” And my answer is that though they bring a golem to life, even that is an act of curation. Their golem can only act within the boundaries of history and the conversation that surrounds it. They can only manipulate the conversation and try to change the lens.

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

Honestly, I think my teenage reader self would really dig this novel. I suppose that either means that my selfhood is remarkably consistent or that I haven’t matured much intellectually since my teenage years. Either is possible. But the intensity of the adolescent friendships in my novel, the feeling of trying to uncover what is being shielded from you, and the desire to have agency in one’s own life, and to be part of--not apart from--history all seem like themes my high school self, at least, could get behind!

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

Endings, for sure! I am not a planner. Never have been when it comes to writing. So while my beginning remained pretty much consistent, the concept of the ending that I had in my head when I first started writing changed pretty radically as the characters made choices I hadn’t anticipated. I also changed my ending at the eleventh hour to give more space to Mary Phagan--the murdered adolescent factory worker at the heart of the historical tragedy that underpins my novel.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Ooh, I love this question! Well, first, I did a ton of research for this novel, so the cumulative time I spent in the archives of various museums in Georgia or skimming through historical issues of the Atlanta Constitution or reading issues of the popular weekly Collier’s pretty much created the novel. I really do feel like this novel hatched from the research I did.

But in addition to the research, I watched several movies to try to enhance my visual writing and to immerse myself in the intensity and urgency of adolescent girl friendships. The Turkish film Mustang (2010), for example, was very meaningful to me during this time. I see it as a more internal, more intimate Turkish answer to The Virgin Suicides. The films Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and especially Heavenly Creatures (1994) were also on repeat while I was drafting my novel too. The fervor of the fantasy world that the protagonists of Heavenly Creatures conjure made me giddy with desire to write!

Visit Maggie Nye's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Curators.

--Marshal Zeringue