Lara Vapnyar

From Lara Vapnyar's 2005 interview at The Bloomsbury Review:

The Bloomsbury Review: I will start with the perennial question. You came to this country when you were 23. I take it you didn’t speak English fluently, even if you studied it as a foreign language in school. They say that the cutoff age for a relatively effortless transition to another language is 15, but you, like Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov, began writing in a foreign language as an adult. Did you find the switch from Russian to English painful, or did it come to you as naturally as a set of new clothes or a new Internet provider?

Lara Vapnyar: I’ve never written anything in Russian, and never thought of becoming a writer. The switch from no writing to writing was so shocking that it canceled out the shock of writing in a foreign language.

TBR: You are pursuing a PhD in comparative literature. Even though you have not written fiction in Russian, how would you compare the two languages as the literary tool?

LV: I miss the flexibility of Russian, the way you can invent new words in Russian by adding different suffixes and prefixes.

Read more of the interview.

--Marshal Zeringue

Susan Marie Swanson

In 2008, author Cynthia Leitich Smith (of Cynsations) interviewed 2009 Caldecott Medal winner Susan Marie Swanson.

One exchange from the Q & A:

Would you tell us about your apprenticeship as a writer? How did you develop your skills?

I wrote as a child--poems, letters, scrapbook entries, a diary, stories--and during my college years I began to develop the strong sense of vocation that is with me still. I spent several years completing an MFA in poetry at University of Massachusetts Amherst in the late 1970s and early 80s, taking literature courses that had me reading writers from A.R. Ammons and Gwendolyn Brooks to Tarjei Vesaas and Virginia Woolf.

I spent many hours in workshops with a lively group of mentors and young writers. I remember going with friends to hear readings by Tomas Tranströmer, Maya Angelou, and Louise Glück. It was a rich, challenging time.

I read children's literature during those years and did some writing for children, but I didn't have any context for that work. That changed when I moved back to Minnesota. I began teaching with COMPAS Writers and Artists in the Schools in 1983, the same year that my first child was born. I was reading and writing with children in elementary schools, and I was reading and writing in the midst of family life. That set me on the path to writing for children.

Read the complete interview.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jan Elizabeth Watson

From a Q & A with Jan Elizabeth Watson about her debut novel, Asta in the Wings:

What was the inspiration for Asta in the Wings?

A: At the time when I began writing Asta in the Wings I had been reading a lot of Victorian fairy tales. I found their moralizing overtones fascinating. And I was collecting old primers—school reading books—from various lawn sales and garage sales, and I wanted to incorporate the feeling of those as well, in a contemporary way. The first scene of Asta that popped into my head was the scene where Asta and her brother have that first conversation on Orion’s cot, pushing the can lid back and forth; I saw that very clearly in my mind, overheard their dialogue and wrote it down.

In Asta’s home life with her mother and brother, there is a strong theatrical life. Asta’s mother wanted to be a movie actress, as her mother was. Asta and her mother and brother reenact movies and plays. Were you ever involved in theater or acting?

A: I was always the writer, never the actress. However, I’ve always been fascinated with old movies and cinema history, and I wanted to channel this enthusiasm into the novel somehow. A few of my acquaintances have pointed out that I live my life as though I were a character in a movie or a novel, so maybe it wasn’t such a stretch for me to write a book in which the theatrical life and the day-to-day life are as one.

Read the complete Q & A.

Learn more about Asta in the Wings.

--Marshal Zeringue

Philippe Grimbert

From a Q & A with Philippe Grimbert, author of Memory, at the publisher's website:

1. The story depicted in Memory so closely resembles your own -- why did you choose to call it a novel rather than a memoir?

I had no choice! My family history contained so many gaps that the novel (my favorite genre) was the only possible way of overcoming them. If I had been a historian, I would doubtless have chosen another way to explore this secret. And, paradoxically, creating a novel gave me an intimate sense of having re-established the truth of this personal, familial journey.

2. Constructing the narrative of a once-secret past seems to serve an important therapeutic function for the fictional Philippe. Was the process of writing this novel similarly therapeutic for you? How do you understand the relationship between writing and psychoanalysis?

The narrator of Memory does take a journey that one could describe as therapeutic, in so far as he exorcises the ghosts of the past in order to become a proper adult subject, released from a guilt that didn't belong to him but whose weight he was nonetheless carrying. For me personally, it was not the writing of the novel itself that was therapeutic, but the psychoanalytic journey that I undertook as part of my training. My own analysis gave me the opportunity to consign my family history to its proper place, which is probably what allowed me, many years later, to write it with the necessary detachment. My work as a psychoanalyst enriches my writing on a daily basis -- not by drawing on my patients' stories (which I would never allow myself to do), but rather because it familiarizes me with the complexities of the human psyche, and the conflicts and contradictions within all of us.

Read more of the Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue

Keith Lee Morris

Keith Lee Morris is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Clemson University. His short stories have been published in A Public Space, Southern Review, Ninth Letter, StoryQuarterly, New England Review, The Sun, and the Georgia Review, among other publications. The University of Nevada published his first two books: The Greyhound Gods (2003) and The Best Seats in the House (2004).

His latest novel is The Dart League King.

From his Q & A with Willamette Week:

What are your favorite themes to write about?

Love-hate relationships with small towns; the enduring qualities of friendship; parents’ fears for their children; early failures in life; and the possibility of redemption.

The most beautiful word in the English language is:

“And”—or at least it’s the most handy, which makes it the most beautiful to me.

What authors made you want to pick up a pen in the first place and why? Or name an inspiring, amazing piece of work.

I always say As I Lay Dying, but I’m tired of saying As I Lay Dying, so I’m going to say War and Peace. Or maybe Crime and Punishment. Something big and Russian.

Read the complete Q & A.

The Page 69 Test: The Dart League King.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Francis

Curled Up with a Good Book contributing editor Michael Leonard interviewed David Francis about his new novel, Stray Dog Winter.

Their opening exchange:

Interviewer Michael Leonard: Stray Dog Winter is an unusual mix, tying in elements of the espionage thriller with one man’s journey toward self-discovery. What were the circumstances that led you to write such a dark, complex, and multi-dimensional novel?

David Francis: Back in Australia, I had an Aunt Ruth with whom no one in my family dared speak. Apparently she'd slept with various American soldiers under the cypress hedge when they'd visited the farm during the war. Aunt Ruth ended up in Kenya but returned to Australia in the late sixties. I saw her only once - she lay on a chaise and ordered me: “Boy, get me a gin and tonic.” I was six. My mother's umbrage was obvious but my father seemed secretly fascinated by his glamorous drinking sister-in-law. Decades later, having finished The Great Inland Sea, my first novel, I was in Paris on a fellowship from the Australian Literature Fund. There in my studio, I had a dream that my father had an affair with Aunt Ruth and that together they had a daughter.

The next morning I began writing long-hand about this boy called Darcy who lives outside Melbourne, Australia. An aunt he’s only seen in photos arrives from America with a young girl named Fin, his half-sister. The girl is dumped with Darcy's family unannounced. Scenes of these two children began to emerge, of them together and then separated when Fin gets sent off to boarding school. Re-united at university, they rekindle their unusual consanguinity, an interest in strange art and radical politics, and each other.

Then, unexpectedly, Fin receives a fellowship to paint the industrial landscapes of Soviet Moscow. I imagined Darcy traveling from Prague on a train to join her there (a trip I made in the early '80's), and the story of these characters in an alien winter unfolded, each chapter building on the last until their lust and proclivities revealed them in startling predicaments. I realized I had a suspense novel on my hands, emerging organically and unexpectedly, venturing where I'd never have dreamed of had I been a writer who structures a novel consciously. Stray Dog Winter became the story of what could have become of me had things gone differently when I found myself in Moscow, but I was luckier than Darcy Bright and my half-sister wasn't Fin.

Read the complete Q & A.

Visit the Stray Dog Winter website.

The Page 69 Test: Stray Dog Winter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bob Smiley

From Geoff Shackelford's interview with Bob Smiley about the latter's recent book, Follow The Roar: Tailing Tiger for All 604 Holes of His Most Spectacular Season:

GEOFF: The idea for Follow The Roar really started with an email from an ESPN.com reader?

BOB: It really did. During the 2nd round of last year's Target (now Chevron) World Challenge, I decided to dive into Tiger's mob for the day and write about the experience. I'd seen Tiger play at Riviera a couple times, but never from start to finish. I stuck with him from the second he stepped out of his beige Buick Enclave until he signed his card for a tournament-record 62. The piece triggered a wave of response from golf fans who had braved crowds to see Tiger and loved reliving the experience or those who had never seen him in person and wished they'd been there. Buried in the emails was a woman who asked me whether I would be following Tiger the whole year. It was a ridiculous idea. Until I realized it was a brilliant idea.

GEOFF: And when did the book deal come into play?

BOB: Twenty-four hours before Tiger began his season. I was up early and starting to pack for the trip to the Buick Invitational in January when the news came through that HarperCollins had made an offer on my book proposal to help me do this. I would have gone to San Diego with or without a deal and chronicled the tournament. But the following week Tiger would be in Dubai, and that would have been a little tough without some outside help.

Read the complete Q & A.

Visit Bob Smiley's Fore Right blog.

The Page 99 Test: Follow the Roar.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kit Reed

Kit Reed's many books include the soon-to-be-released Enclave.

From her November 2008 interview with SF Signal:

SFS: What themes do you address in your next book, Enclave (January 2009)?

KR: I don't really think about themes, I think about people and places and things and ideas, and let somebody else get back to tell me what the theme is. That's the critic's job. I remember being sort of shocked when my (teacher-type) college roommate started telling me about the "theme" of my first novel. I'm like, "WHAT? It's about these people..."

So the people in Enclave are Sarge, a crazy, idealistic ex-Marine who thinks he can improve the spoiled kids of the mega-rich by putting them into his tightly sealed, high-tech Academy; Cassie, who's always loved him; Killer Stade and Teddy the prince guy, two geeky kids trapped in the place; ancient Brother Benedictus, the last of his kind, and the nameless stranger who shows up mysteriously in a locked environment. And a cast of dozens enclosed in the Academy, the ragtag faculty, paramilitaries and the wild spawn of the privileged classes.

The place is Mount Clothos, a former Benedictine monastery on an isolated mountaintop on a remote island that doesn't show up on any map. For reasons.

The ideas. Well, er. There's the virus that attacks the island's server. There's the fact that kids are getting sick, and... There is, as well, the nature and function of discipline. What the um, THEMES are? Tell me when you've had a chance to read the novel

Read the complete Q & A.

Learn more about Enclave.

Visit Kit Reed's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Erica Bauermeister

Erica Bauermeister is the co-author of 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide and Let's Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14, and has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Washington.

From an interview about her debut novel at her publisher's website:

Q. What led you to write [The School of Essential Ingredients]?

In 1999, my family had just returned to Seattle after spending two years in northern Italy. I found that I missed the food and being around people who celebrated even the most simple meals. So, I took a cooking class. The first night, we killed crabs. I’m the kind of person who takes spiders outside when I find them in my house and it was a deeply unsettling experience. I had an image of a young mother, Claire, and I began wondering what effect it might have on her to kill something. In the end, her story wasn’t at all what I expected. And then I started thinking about all the different characters you could have in a class, and started wondering which foods would affect each one – revive a memory, create an epiphany, change the direction of a life – and that’s where the book came from.

Q. How are food and cooking connected to the way we live our whole lives, not just the time we spend in the kitchen or at the table?

The act of cooking provides us with an opportunity to slow down, to focus on our senses rather than the speed of our world. I think we all want that, miss that, in our everyday lives. The people I know who pay attention to those things simply seem to be happier and more fulfilled, in the kitchen and out of it.

My children were incredibly lucky, in that they were 7 and 10 when we moved to Italy and they learned that lesson early. They are both dedicated foodies and truly creative cooks. My son just went to college and he inherited my college blender. The funny thing is, he took it because he wanted to be able to make pesto – a far cry from the margaritas and protein shakes it made in the early 1980s.

Read the compete Q & A.

Visit Erica Bauermeister's website.

The Page 69 Test: The School of Essential Ingredients.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tim Dorsey

Tim Dorsey is a former editor at the Tampa Tribune and author of the novels Florida Roadkill, Hammerhead Ranch Motel, Orange Crush, Triggerfish Twist, The Stingray Shuffle, Cadillac Beach, Torpedo Juice, The Big Bamboo, and Hurricane Punch. His new novel is Nuclear Jellyfish.

He participated in a Powells.com INK Q & A last year when Atomic Lobster, his tenth novel, was released. Part of the interview:

Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

Yes. I tracked down the last home of Jack Kerouac in St. Petersburg and collected a baggie of dirt from his yard. Then drove away fast.

True story: found his address in an old phone book in the bowels of the local library — and the directory actually spelled his name "Kerowac." I live for that kind of stuff.

What is your idea of absolute happiness?

This is it. I couldn't write a better job description: travel Florida wherever my curiosity leads me, talk to locals, venture down the most remote back roads. Then come home and weave all the cool things I found — historic, obscure, funky — into seemingly outrageous crime plots that are but thinly veiled reflections of what fills our newspapers down here every day. The books' satire also provides a cathartic vent to keep me sane in my home state, which I love too much to ever leave, while thinking I'm crazy for staying.

Read more of the interview.

Visit Tim Dorsey's website.

The Page 69 Test: Atomic Lobster.

Learn more about Nuclear Jellyfish.

--Marshal Zeringue