12 or 20 (second series) questions with Joy Castro

Joy Castro is the award-winning author of the 2023 historical novel One Brilliant Flame, set in the 19th-century Cuban anticolonial émigré community in Key West; Flight Risk, a finalist for a 2022 International Thriller Award; the post-Katrina New Orleans literary thrillers Hell or High Water, which received the Nebraska Book Award, and Nearer Home, which have been published in France by Gallimard’s historic Série Noire; the story collection How Winter Began; the memoir The Truth Book; and the essay collection Island of Bones, which received the International Latino Book Award. She is also editor of the craft anthology Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family and the founding series editor of Machete, a series in innovative literary nonfiction at The Ohio State University Press. Her work has appeared in venues including Ploughshares, The Brooklyn Rail, Senses of Cinema, Salon, Gulf Coast, Brevity, Afro-Hispanic Review, Seneca Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The New York Times Magazine. A former Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University, she is currently the Willa Cather Professor of English and Ethnic Studies (Latinx Studies) at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where she directs the Institute for Ethnic Studies.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

My first book, The Truth Book (2005), was a memoir that offered the true account of my childhood as a Jehovah's Witness growing up in a violent and impoverished home. I ran away at fourteen, and the book also chronicles a little of the aftermath of that difficult decision. In addition, it explores the complexities of my Cuban American heritage and the painful legacy of parental suicide.

Publishing The Truth Book changed my life because I had previously concealed those elements of my past. They seemed too strange and shameful, and I was trying to pass as normal in academia, a profession that was and remains normatively white and middle-class. To reveal those weird and troubling things about my past, I had to overcome a great deal of fear—and decades of silence—which took a great deal of courage, so that book was different for me than all those that have followed it.

This newest book, One Brilliant Flame, draws heavily upon my Cuban American family's background in Key West in the nineteenth century, a sociopolitical moment that is little-known today, and being able to recover that history and restore it to public view has been very exciting and deeply moving to me.

2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?

Well, I started writing made-up stories when I was extremely young, and my early published works were short stories. That just felt natural to me, as I was absorbed from early childhood in the world of storybooks and Bible stories and fairy tales.

It didn't occur to me to write a memoir until I was urged to do so in my 30s by an editor and a fellow writer. I actually felt quite shy and reluctant to do so.

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?

It depends somewhat on the project, but on the whole, I lay a lot of mental groundwork before I begin to draft, and sometimes much of the work has happened in my mind before I put pen to paper. I write everything longhand, which is immensely helpful in slowing my process down and forcing me to choose among various mental versions of each sentence as I write them.

I do love to revise, though, so I revise many times for various elements, and I always read every section many times aloud for rhythm, emphasis, and musicality.

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?

Well, my short stories are quite happy to stay short. That's my favorite form. I generally know when I'm embarking on a book; I can feel the weight and scope of it stretching out ahead of me, even if I don't know exactly what will happen.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

I do enjoy it. I've heard a few awful, flat, droning readings, so I strive to make sure I provide something intense and worthwhile. It's always top-of-mind that people could just as easily be at home enjoying their favorite series or reading a wonderful book. Instead, they've invested the time and effort to come out, so I try to furnish an experience that will make them feel it was worth it.

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?

Yes, very much so. But I don't like to talk about them.

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?

To write. To risk. To wake up.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

I've been very lucky and have loved working with all my editors. I've balked at a few things, certainly, but it's always a good and edifying experience, and it almost always strengthens the work, which is what we're both serving.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

"Nothing can stop you."

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (short stories to the novel to essays to memoir)? What do you see as the appeal?

Effortless. I don't see a particular appeal, exactly; it's just what happens.

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. A typical day begins with coffee by the fire, or coffee by an open window in warm weather, and sometimes I write in a notebook, but sometimes I don't.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

It honestly doesn't. Sometimes my heart and soul feel depleted because I'm working too hard at my dayjob or due to political horrors in the larger world, so I feel drained and sad and despairing, but that's not specific to writing. When that happens, I just try to rest and be gentle with myself and remember to do a few extra things I enjoy.

I do like Julia Cameron's notion of the artist's date very much.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

The salty sea.

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?

Trees and plants; music, yes; history, obviously; and visual art a great deal. I tend to go through phases of obsession with various artists: Artemisia Gentileschi, Remedios Varo, Käthe Kollwitz. Film, too, especially film noir: I love its sleek aesthetic, and hardboiled narration and dialogue crack me up.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys, Colette, Margery Latimer, Sandra Cisneros, Mariama Bâ, Clarice Lispector, Louise Erdrich. Also James Joyce and William Faulkner.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

Visit Churchill, Manitoba to see the Northern Lights, polar bears, and Beluga whales. Not during the same season, apparently, though.

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 would like to have married a forest ranger and been his little housewife up in a tower above the trees. (So I could write, mainly.) I'm not a good cook or cleaner, so he probably would have been disappointed.

I do like teaching, so I'm glad I stumbled into that. It's an excellent dayjob. I made a very poor waitress—absent-minded, not really interested in the whole process.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

I always wrote. I don't know the name of the thing inside that made me do so. I always just loved writing; it always felt natural and simple and necessary.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

Great is a tricky word. I genuinely loved the new translation of Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes, and I very much enjoyed the surprise of the gentleness of the stories in Banana Yoshimoto's Dead-End Memories. In film, I'm still so moved and impressed by No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now).

20 - What are you currently working on?

My next book of short stories and a suspense novel set outside Berlin.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Darrin Doyle

Darrin Doyle teaches at Central Michigan University. The Big Baby Crime Spree and Other Delusions is his fifth book of fiction. He’s the author of the story collections Scoundrels Among Us and The Dark Will End the Dark (Tortoise Books) and the novels The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo (St. Martin’s Press) and Revenge of the Teacher's Pet: A Love Story (LSU Press). He lives in Mount Pleasant, Michigan with three other humans and a cat. His website is darrindoyle.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?

My first novel, Revenge of the Teacher’s Pet: A Love Story, was the culmination of 13 years of diligent writing. I’d written strictly short fiction for 9 of those 13 years, and Revenge was my first crack at a novel. So publication was an enormous validation and sense of accomplishment. Also, it eventually helped me get a full-time teaching job at a university (after four years on the job market).

2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?

I originally wrote both fiction and poetry. Poetry was my first inclination, and I felt confident in my abilities. Ultimately, however, poetry didn’t energize me the same way fiction did. I started to lose confidence in my poems. Maybe because poetry feels more autobiographical, I had a tough time figuring out what I wanted to write about. With fiction, I could imagine anything and anyone, and I could bury my personal life more deeply within the narratives (where only I would know what was “true”).

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?

Starting is the easy part for me; it’s the finishing that takes time. With short fiction, I often start multiple pieces, and many of them stall out after a few pages. I have loads of unfinished drafts lying around. I wait for one that can get over the hump, plotwise, and find momentum toward an ending. Once that happens, the draft usually appears similar to its final shape.

4 - Where does a work of fiction 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?

I’ve taken all of the approaches you mention. My first novel started as a short story. My second was meant to be a novel from the start. For story collections, I’m sort of always writing them, and eventually (with a little luck) enough pieces might cohere into a publishable whole. 

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

Readings are a necessary and enjoyable part of getting my writing in front of people. There’s a lot of competition for peoples’ attention these days, and if I can share my work with others and have the spotlight for 25 minutes, I’m all for it. I played in a band for ten years, and the experience is similar: lots of nerves and adrenaline; some nights of playing to near-empty houses; other nights of terrific energy and connection. 

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 would be lying if I said I wrote with conscious theoretical concerns, but I’m pretty sure that everything I write is dancing unconsciously around the question: Why are we here on this Earth? Unless you’re a person of faith and have belief in your purpose, this is an unanswerable question, and those are the best kind.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?

Creative writers (and all artists) are the documenters of the human story – even moreso than historians, philosophers, scientists, politicians, religious leaders. There’s a great quote by Cynthia Ozick: “It is the curious identity of books in general that history and philosophy, invaluable though they are, cannot, by their very nature, contain novels; yet novels can contain history and philosophy.” If you want to understand a culture, look at its art. This is where you’ll find the morals, beliefs, fears, values, mores – the whole zeitgeist. In our culture, this is especially true of small literary presses and independent producers of art. Commercial art tends to follow the money and therefore may show a skewed (or narrow) representation of who we are. The independent producers of art, less beholden to popular trends, reveal the heart of the human experience in any given time and place.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

My experiences with outside editors have been enjoyable and essential. I love to hear suggestions, and 97% of the time, I agree with what they have to say. It’s a wonderful way to learn and grow as a writer.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

Persist, persist, persist. 

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (novels to the short story)? What do you see as the appeal?

I move fairly easily between them, although when I’m working on a novel I’m only working on that novel. But the forms are so different. I remember a teacher of mine (Stuart Dybek) saying that the short story form is closer to a poem than it is to a novel, and I have come to agree with that claim. 

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 used to write every night for three hours after the rest of the world had gone to bed. These days, though, I find it impossible to write while the school year is in session (I’m a teacher), so I restrict most of my writing to summer. I escape to places with little or no internet, like rustic cabins, and binge-write for three days at a time. It’s exhausting but also immersive and productive.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

I read a quote from Ray Bradbury that was something to the effect of “Writer’s block is your mind’s way of telling you that you’re bored with what you’re working on.” (Those aren’t the exact words, but the meaning is accurate.) I agree with this. To me, the only cure for being stalled is to start something new, push myself to write something – anything – entertaining that will hold my interest. 

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

Beef stroganoff. 

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?

Books are number one, but I’m a huge movie buff and listen to a lot of music. Of course, nature is also a big influence; just taking long walks outside with no distractions clears my mind, gives it room to breathe, invites ideas. 

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

Shirley Jackson, Percival Everett, Franz Kafka. They are gifts that keep on giving. 

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

Visit Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains.

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 was pretty serious about being a musician when I was younger. I played in bands from age 16 until 26, and I continue to play, both alone and with my band Daryl & the Beans. Although the life of a musician is rough and exhausting, I would have loved to take it further. Recording in a studio, collaborating with good friends and an actual engineer is one of my favorite things. 

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

I returned to college after a three-year break (playing music full-time), and a creative writing professor told me I should consider applying to graduate school. That’s what really sparked the fuse. I also was feeling fatigue with playing music full-time. As I mentioned above, that lifestyle is tough, with a lot of effort and small rewards. Super fun at times; depressing at others. Writing was something that required a lot less physical exertion, and at least gave the illusion of more stability. Plus, I probably enjoyed having more control over the art I was making.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

The Lighthouse was a great film – weird, dark, funny, surreal, with excellent performances and dialogue. The tone of that movie is sort of what I’m going for in a lot of my stories. A wonderful short novel is The Auctioneer by Joan Samson. A chilling, believable, tense story of a con man who comes to a small rural town and starts taking everything away from the residents – and they happily oblige. It was written in 1975, but its characters and conflicts echo certain cult-like political leaders we’ve seen recently.

20 - What are you currently working on?

I’ve got a lyrical, dark novella that’s been in the works for a while, and I’m plugging away at a comical novel about a werewolf who works at Lowe’s. Stay tuned!

12 or 20 (second series) questions;