Featured Writer

Interviewed by Amber Sparks, June 2010

1. The three pieces in Emprise this issue share a common theme: girls at the cusp of becoming women. Would you mind telling us a little more about the pieces and the series they’re part of? Where did the idea for the series come from? What was the urgency to write about girls, and particularly girls at this age?

This was a project that popped up out of nowhere for me a few months ago. I’d been writing short stories of longer length and also working on a novel, and had no real plans to create a series of any sort. But these short little vignettes started coming, in bursts between working on longer pieces, and I began to recognize the pattern among them. I also paid attention to my own interest in them. I’m not sure where the urgency comes from, other than my own attention to the ways girls change over the course of girlhood due to a number of external pressures and factors. I’ve linked together about 25 different years of ages for these separate girls, though I’m still not entirely happy with the project as a whole. I think I’ll call it a work-in-progress for now. My biggest challenge with it is finding an overarching umbrella to link them all without putting forth a voice for the experiences of all girls and women. Surely there’s some common ground that women share, but not a single narrative by any means.

2. Sexism and gender roles play a major part in these stories. With Hillary’s run for the nomination two years ago, with other successful female candidates for office, and with women consistently outnumbering and outperforming men in the classroom and in college enrollment, the popular meme seems to be once again that sexism is over, that women have achieved equality. Yet women still make less on the dollar than their male counterparts in the workplace, and sexist attitudes and behavior still prevail in the media, in many classrooms and American homes, too. Do you think we’ll ever be done with sexism? Do you see a future in which stereotypical gender roles are totally obsolete? (Do we ever get rid of beauty pageants?) Why do you think it’s important to write about these issues, or do you?

I think it’s extremely important, and something I’ve always taken note of. But I’ve become more concerned by sexism and gender roles as I get older and notice more limits, strangely, than I did when I was younger. The advances for women that you mention are very present, but in a way, I think they make sexism even more insidious. They make it harder to talk about discrimination without an automatic shutdown or eyeroll, since the assumption is that women have everything now, so they need to stop complaining. But heteronormative roles are so ingrained, and they affect both men and women. They’re an unfair dome haloing everyone. I think it’s important to draw attention to them for the ways they pigeonhole all parties involved, not just women.

3. You need/want to write a story. How does the process work for you? Do you have a place, a time, or a method, or does a story need to find its way into your head first before you put pen to paper? How often do you write? Do you ever use prompts? Or is it different for you all the time?

As with most other practices, I write every day. Sometimes I have bad writing days, but in general, the daily practice almost always leads to something I can use or keep. Beyond the everyday habit, new story ideas do come along pretty often. I keep a notepad with me to write down ideas when they come up – sometimes from news stories, overheard dialogue, odd facts, animal behavior, observations. I don’t really use prompts, but I did finally start using the notepad after too many ideas were scrawled on ATM receipts and accidentally thrown away. I’m generally a morning writer, and almost always at my desk, though right now I’m in the process of moving and setting up a new workspace. Since there are moving boxes literally stacked in piles around my desk, with a very small space carved out for my chair to even move, I daydream often about that new workspace.

4. Who are your influences when you write? Writers, musicians, painters, poets, doctors, teachers, atheletes—who, living or dead, imaginary or real, has shaped your work in a big way?

Without a doubt, my family. They’ve always told me to just do what makes me happiest, which writing most certainly is. I don’t think I could do this without that unconditional core of support. Music and film are big influences too. I can’t listen to music while I write, but I do process what I’ve written by going for walks with my headphones. I often think in images with writing, and sometimes film crystallizes what I’m trying to do with words. But more and more, the outdoors and nature influence me heavily as well. Writing depends so much on technology, and mine is no different, but I do have to unplug, often and regularly. I live out in the woods now, and though I miss the daily luxuries of city life – shows, bars, a variety of restaurants – I kind of love the shock of deer in the yard, weird caterpillars, a span of constellations I can actually see overhead. Those things definitely expand the scope of my thinking.

5. If you were allowed to bring three books onto the proverbial desert island, what books would you bring? And no, you can’t bring a Kindle or a Nook. No chargers on the island.

Ha! No problem. I don’t think I even know what a Nook is! But that’s a tough one. I guess if I had to choose, I’d for sure bring The Brothers Karamazov. I read it when I was seventeen and it still holds a place as one of my favorite books, plus it’s big, so I’d have plenty of reading material for all those days beneath palm tree shade. I’d also bring Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I know this book gets a lot of flack, but I think it’s brilliant. And so beautiful. Both of those, I’ve reread and will continue to reread, though in general I don’t read too many books twice. So I guess for my third book I’d bring a field guide to the night sky, so I could know what I’m looking at over the ocean and island. And maybe navigate my way back to the Midwest.

6. What contemporary writers are you most excited about, and why?

There are so many! I feel like I’m constantly moving through journals, writing down the names of writers whose stories I admire. I do really love writers who can bring humor into their work, since it’s so hard to do well. For their humor and more, I love Lorrie Moore and Patrick Somerville. I also hold a soft spot for writers who do wonders with magic. I read everything Haruki Murakami writes, and I love Aimee Bender. Those are all-time favorites, in terms of excitement for months if they plan to release something new, but I feel like I’m devouring books lately. Right now I’m in the middle of Robin Black’s collection, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This. I also just got John Jodzio’s new collection in the mail, and I’m pretty excited to start reading it.

7. What projects are you working on right now? Any upcoming publications that we can look forward to?

I’m back to work on a novel I started last summer. I’ve maintained good momentum with it and will continue working until it’s finished. I’ve been writing shorter pieces here and there too, as a mental break from the long form, and I’d like to mold the girlhood series into a shape I’m happy with. As for upcoming publications, I have stories forthcoming in Unsaid and Wigleaf, the latter another of the shorts in the series.

8. Tell us how you would spend a perfect Sunday in June.

I really love days where every moment is filled with something unusual or amazing. My family and I just got back from a trip to Maine, the first time any of us had ever been there, and one of the days was bookended by whales in the morning and stargazing over the Atlantic on the beaches of Acadia at night. That was pretty perfect. The moon was incredible. But I’m happy with more ordinary days too. My partner Josh and I just moved back in together after living apart for the past two years, so most Sundays feel pretty perfect these days.

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Anne Valente is the Featured Writer for Volume 15 of Emprise Review. To read the stories referenced in the interview click on any of the titles: An Agreement, Just Beautiful Girls, and The First Amendment. Enjoy.

Also from Anne Valente, The Water Cycle, published in a previous issue of Emprise Review.

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Amber Sparks is the Fiction Editor for Emprise Review.