Marivi Soliven

Marivi Soliven has authored seventeen books, taught creative writing at the University of the Philippines and the University of California San Diego and was admitted to the Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence Program in 2012. Her debut novel The Mango Bride won the 2011 Grand Prize at the Palanca Awards, the Philippine counterpart of the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally, two of Soliven's books for children were awarded silver medals at the 1991 and 1993 Palanca Awards. The film adaptation of her story “Pandemic Bread” has screened at film festivals across the country. She writes and works as a Filipino interpreter in San Diego, California.

Soliven's new novel is Taxi Dancer.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A decent amount of work seeing as folks are unfamiliar with the term Taxi Dancer which refers to the profession fairly common among young white women who worked in taxi dance halls in the 1930s through the '50s. They were called Taxi Dancers because patrons paid for the time they danced with these women - a dime bought you about 3 minutes of dancing time. Because the term is no longer in common use, it draws readers into a bygone era, an era alluded to by the Art Deco border that frames the book's image of a couple dancing.

What's in a name?

I named the Filipino protagonist Eli, which is short for Elias who was a major character in Noli me Tangere a seminal novel written by the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, published in 1887. In that novel Elias is a farmworker who represents the oppressed, suffering Filipino masses who struggle for reform. Likewise, in my novel, Eli is also a farmworker who yearns to get around the anti-miscegenation laws that prevent him from marrying the American taxi dancer he's fallen in love with, Lucinda. Lucinda means "light" or "illumination." I chose the name because she seeks to bring to light the murder conspiracy that ensnares Eli. Mamie Savage is the actual name of a taxi dance hall owner involved in the real life 1930s murder that inspired this novel. I simply couldn't resist using a name like that.

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

Pretty stunned, considering my teenage reader self back in Manila would never have imagined that 1) I could write an entire novel and 2) that it would be published in the US.

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

They are equally hard to write. I changed the beginning of this novel multiple times, even as I always knew how it would end. On the other hand getting to that ending turned out to be a bit more complicated and challenging than I expected.

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 some of myself in both Lucinda and in Mamie. Lucinda for her stubborn perseverance; Mamie for the way she manipulates people with her charm.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I watched every film of James Cagney and Fred Astaire I could find, as well as film noire to get the feel of the movie, to learn how folks dressed and danced, fought and flirted. Additionally, while writing I listened to a playlist that included Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway and Louie Armstrong. One of the novel's drafts actually had chapters named after songs from the era, but I figured that would present a copyright issue.

Visit Marivi Soliven's website.

--Marshal Zeringue