Ivy Grimes lives in Georgia, and her writing has appeared in The Baffler, Maudlin House, hex, ergot., Vastarien, and elsewhere. Her collection Glass Stories is available from Grimscribe Press. For more, please visit www.ivyivyivyivy.com.
1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
I just started it all! I had a fiction chapbook out last year: Grime Time. I had a lot of fun working with the editor, Matthew Stott, and I enjoyed my online conversations with everyone who read it. My current collection, Glass Stories, was also a lot of fun to edit, and I also loved working with editor Jon Padgett.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or nonfiction?
I actually started writing poetry first. It was quicker! I transferred my energies to fiction once I realized how much more time I spent reading fiction than poetry. I love both, but fiction is the truer love of my writing life.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I tend to either do things quickly or not at all. I also have many more ideas for projects than I actually start. My first drafts are often rather close to their final shape, but I feel uneasy about that. I’d like to experiment with more radical revisions. On the other hand, too much editing is dangerous for me since I want to be led by my unconscious mind rather than my analytical mind. I suppose I can’t win!
4 - Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
With Glass Stories, I wrote a couple before I realized I wanted to keep going. I got really excited by the idea of having a different glass element in each story, and having a number of “Glass ____” stories. The concept came before the story for most of these, as it often does for me. Again, it’s the initial idea that excites me, and that excitement pushes me through the sometimes-slog of finishing a project.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
Heck no, I don’t enjoy giving readings…I don’t want to feel the gruesome weight of everyone’s eyeballs on me!
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I’m very interested in ideas about spirituality. I often explore various kinds of anxiety as well. Often existential anxiety, which I suppose goes hand-in-hand with spirituality. My hope is that when someone reads a story I’ve written, they leave with their own questions.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I hate performing. I know that’s not what you’re talking about, but I can’t help but think of “roles” that way. I think ideally, any person (regardless of hobby or profession) cares about the world at large and tries to live with empathy and improve matters. I don’t think writers have a special call in this way, though, and I don’t think this care has to be expressed in one’s writing. Ultimately, I think the role of the writer will be different for each writer.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
To be perfectly honest, neither! Working with an editor is wonderful because it helps me see my words from another perspective, and many editors have great ideas and a more thorough sense of the literary landscape than I do. I don’t feel like I’ll die without an editor, though.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
When lecturing about storytelling, Kurt Vonnegut said - “The truth is, we know so little about life, we don't really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.” He was giving the example of Hamlet, how many of the events in the play aren’t obviously good or bad, but simply things that happen to Hamlet. I think this advice favors storytelling that allows the reader to wonder rather than telling them what to think. It also encourages someone to retain a sense of humility and mystery about writing as well as life, which for me is essential to survival.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (short stories to the novel)? What do you see as the appeal?
Shorter and longer fictions each have their challenges for me. Short fictions are easier to tackle, but longer fictions give me more space to play around. I enjoy the thrill of a quick short story, of course, and I appreciate that its world can be much more sparsely decorated. On the other hand, I also enjoy telling longer stories without having to create a new world every few pages.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I don’t adhere to a writing schedule. On days when I write, sometimes I like to keep hammering away, and other times I come and go. I add a little here, subtract a little there, and in between, I look up a bunch of stuff online.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Fun facts, history, new films, old films, art museums, poetry, surrealism, memories of childhood landscapes, favorite authors, fairy tales….
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Magnolia blossoms, with their hot lemon breath.
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Other than books, I’m most conscious of the fact that films influence me. For example, David Lynch was an important influence for me in writing eerie, strange fiction.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Too many, with more to come! Every writer I’ve encountered has been important in some sense. Some writers who’ve especially influenced my writing include Kafka, Beckett, Murakami, James Joyce, Flannery O’Connor, Barbara Comyns, Lorrie Moore, Dostoevsky, Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, Evelyn Waugh, Kazuo Ishiguro, Barbara Pym, Tana French, Raymond Chandler, Maya Angelou, Donna Tartt, Richard Brautigan, Ralph Ellison, Tove Jansson, Tolkien, the Victorians, Sayaka Murata, Iris Murdoch, Paul Auster, etc., etc.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Reach enlightenment!
17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I have a lot of half-baked pastoral dreams of farming or shepherding. I’m not crazy about getting my hands dirty, though, truth be told.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I’ve always loved to read so much. It’s one of my very favorite things in life. That’s the only reason.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I really enjoyed the memoir Work by Bud Smith, which is about his experiences working heavy construction and growing up in New Jersey. He’s very funny and finds poetry in unusual places.
I’ve been going through the Japanese Horror section of the Criterion Channel, and I especially enjoyed a film called Cure by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I haven’t even watched half of these movies yet, though, so I have more to go!
20 - What are you currently working on?
I’m doing secret experiments in the semi-darkness.
