Jacqueline Faber

Jacqueline Faber is an author and freelance writer. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Emory University, where she was the recipient of a Woodruff Scholarship, and taught in the Expository Writing Program at New York University, where she received an award for excellence in teaching. She studied philosophy in Bologna, Italy, and received a dissertation grant from Freie University in Berlin, Germany. Faber writes across genres, including thrillers, rom-coms, and essays. Her work explores questions about memory, loss, language, and desire. Steeped in philosophical, psychological, and literary themes, her writing is grounded in studies of character. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Faber's debut novel is The Department.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Like all departments, the eponymous department of my novel hints at some kind of authority, bureaucracy, a place where boundaries might be transgressed. But it holds back as much as it gives away. Something has gone very wrong in this academic setting, but it’s not quite what you think.

What's in a name?

There are two protagonists in The Department. Neil Weber and Lucia Vanotti. Neil’s name feels like a blank slate. A man who has yet to claim agency over his life. Lucia’s name bears within it a kind of indeterminacy. There’s a debate in chapter one over the proper way to pronounce it. Lu-see-ah or Lu- chia. She’s Italian, so the correct pronunciation is the latter. But misrepresentation and misunderstanding are so central to her character, it felt important to capture that in her name.

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

For an early writer who never wanted to subject her characters to any form of hardship (which didn’t make for page turners, as you can imagine), my teenage self would be surprised by the devastation I’m now willing to heap on my characters.

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

Beginnings! Once I understand the story, the ending feels sanctioned. But the beginning is always challenging. It carries a heavy burden. Building a world, introducing character, revealing stakes, hooking readers and making them care. A beginning is a tall order. I’m in awe of books that do it well.

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

I see pieces of myself in every character I write. Our circumstances and experiences may be different, but I have to understand their psychologies and belief systems to write them authentically. I come to each of them – even the most depraved of my characters – with a sense of empathy.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Dance. And also foreign languages. There’s something about rhythm and cadence that informs my writing.

Visit Jacqueline Faber's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Department.

--Marshal Zeringue