1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Getting my first publishing deal made me feel like a writer in a way I hadn't previously, and being paid for my work allowed for me to treat writing as a job. There was no transformation other than the logistical, although that is big. My memoir, Natural Killer, is very different to my novel, The Honey Farm, although I think actually that they both have one thing in common: they show that bad things happen to good people for no reason, and that things can be beautiful or tragic or meaningful without any greater significance. Natural Killer feels very different to the novel because it's such a personal story, and incorporates parts of my medical record - nurse's notes, doctor's notes, emergency admissions, psychology reports - and also updates from my parents at the time, and blog posts I wrote as a 15 year-old. It's the voice of a community.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
The first things I wrote were poetry, actually - in high school and university writing classes - and my first fiction explored the story I write about in my memoir. I first started writing my personal story as fiction because I didn't think I really could write it any other way, I didn't think I could write a book of non-fiction or a memoir, I didn't think that would be possible or interesting, but also I wanted the main character to die. It felt important for me to explore the possibility of that in fiction, since it was what most people believed would happen to me.
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 really depends, but I will say that for me, the "percolating" time - the time I spend thinking about something before I actually sit down and start writing - is years. Once I feel ready, and begin in earnest, I'm a very fast writer and much of the original draft is the final book.
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?
A work of prose for me usually starts with a feeling. With the memoir, because I've written a lot of personal essays about the subjects, I was able to braid some of them in, but I did always feel like the essays were part of something larger.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love doing events and readings. I always find that in preparing to share my work - whether it's with a friend who will read a draft, or a crowd who will hear a reading - I see it with fresh eyes and edit in a frenzy knowing there will be an immediate audience. But I also love conversation - so many of my ideas come from interactions with people.
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?
In my writing I like to explore relationships, how they change; how people perceive what happens to them; the questions of fate and free will, and guilt and innocence; families; and what ties us together.
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?
There are so many different types of writers, so there are so many roles they can occupy. Writers reflect the world back to us, they show us who we are by creating these vivid and complex characters, and reading cultivates empathy and helps us understand other people, too.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I absolutely adore working with editors and think it's essential to making my books be their best. What a privilege to be seen, to be understood, and to have someone help you make yourself more clear, more precise.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Just focus on the work.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (fiction to memoir)? What do you see as the appeal?
I find it easier to write non-fiction because I know exactly when I am getting it "right," when I am saying what I feel and what happened. With fiction, it's a different kind of "right."
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?
Having a young child and living in a pandemic makes any type of writing routine difficult, but even when I'm in a heavy writing period, it comes in bursts and then I need breaks to let it all settle.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Reading.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Pancakes, verbena, lemons, beeswax, dogs.
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?
Forests and oceans, paintings - I write about art a lot - and I often listen to the same album, or even single song, throughout a period of writing a certain scene, or even an entire book.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I've found the work of Alice Munro, Eula Biss, Sheila Heti, Annie Ernaux, Mary Karr, Mary Oliver, and many others important for my work. I love Elizabeth Strout and Carmen Maria Machado and Toni Morrison. I love Lisa Taddeo and Rachel Cusk and Miriam Toews.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Live by the sea.
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 wish I could be a painter. I love making clothes, it would be fun to work with textiles, or even clay. I find it very rewarding to make physical objects.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
It didn't even feel like a choice, it's just what I do, what I can do, and have to do.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I read two novels this week that I was completely blown away by - Hamnet and Judith, by Maggie O'Farrell, and Such A Fun Age, by Kiley Reid. Just stunning. The last great film I watched was The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
20 - What are you currently working on?
My next published book will be a children's picture book I co-wrote with Rosa Rankin-Gee, and my next novel is inspired by the life of Leo Szilard.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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