Category: Interviews

Every month, I interview an author I admire on her literary firsts.

December’s featured author is Aimee Bender, author of five books including The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, a short story collection stories unafraid to meld the real with the impossible, the grotesque with the funny, the sacred with the profane.

Aimee’s other books are An Invisible Sign of My Own, Willful Creatures, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, and The Color Master. She teaches creative writing at University of Southern California, my grad school alma mater.

In this interview Aimee talks about writing without a plan, giving writerly advice, and eating cake on book tour.

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Siel: At a writing conference speech five or so years back, I remember you saying you’d decided to shelve a novel a few hundred pages long because it simply wasn’t working. For those of us who have also shelved writing projects — and may shelve more in the future — Do you have any tips or rituals or practices for setting a work aside and moving on to something new? I guess I’m asking about ways writers can come to some sense of closure for works that won’t go out into the larger world —

Aimee: What’s kind of reassuring is that the next novel I wrote ended up using a lot of that material— not directly, but in new ways. The work is like matter, it cannot be wasted. It just pushes you forward to the next thing. So, just write what you feel like writing. We are not so linear— the work resurfaces and resurfaces and so the drawer is really only a waystation.

How do you move between working on short stories and novels? Do you write both simultaneously, or work more on a project basis?

Simultaneously! I’m all about jumping around. Why not?

You’ve said in the past you tend to write without a plan. I’m envious and in admiration of this ability of yours — and also find that free-and-loose sounding writing process difficult to wrap my head around, because my own writing tends not to “go anywhere” without a plan. Is there any point in your writing process where you do sit down specifically to outline a story arc or create deliberate structure — or does all of that happen automatically for you in the process of writing the draft?

Thanks— it’s kind of painful as it happens but it also is the only way that works for me. It means A LOT of stuff never gets used. A lot of wandering. If you return to those pages that ‘go nowhere’ and you reread them, I would bet some cash that there are inroads to other parts in there that need slowing down and development and would begin to nudge you toward story. Jay Gummerman said it such a great way; “There is structure in nature”— meaning, there is structure inherent in your mind if you give it the room to explore. I really believe it.

As a professor at USC, what pieces of advice do you find yourself give most frequently to students? Do you adhere to them yourself?

Play around. Try stuff out. Don’t think too much. I very much try to do these things myself but I also believe we teach what we most need to hear and rehear.

Since my own forthcoming book is cakey, I have to ask: How much lemon cake did you eat during the launch of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake?

Cakey! Great. I ate a lot. And, I heard a lot about how you’re actually not supposed to put chocolate with lemon. Who knew? Not me. It tastes good to me.
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Every month, I interview an author I admire on his literary firsts.

November’s featured author is Elizabeth Ellen, author of Fast Machine (Short Flight/Long Drive), a riveting short story collection that takes a hard, unapologetic look at the complexities of womanhood.

Elizabeth is also the author of the chapbook Before You She Was a Pit Bull (Future Tense) and the poetry collection Bridget Fonda (Dostoyevsky Wannabe). She co-edits the lit zine Hobart and oversees Hobart’s book division, Short Flight/Long Drive Books.

In this interview Elizabeth talks about writing about life while it’s happening, publishing through her own indie press, dealing with the brutalities of internet culture, and much more.

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Siel: What I love most about your stories in Fast Machine is their sense of immediacy — the feeling of going through a visceral, intense, real-life experience. Do you think some of that immediacy comes from the fact that many of your stories hinge on experiences you’ve personally been through? How long do you wait (if at all) before writing about a real-life experience?

Elizabeth: Funny you should ask, I’ve been going through a pretty traumatic experience the last few days and I’ve found myself writing about it as it’s happening.

I used to hate Arthur Miller because there was the rumor, maybe confirmed, that he took notes on Marilyn while married to her (she allegedly found them) and I hated him for that because I loved Marilyn unconditionally and I imagined that finding those notes written about her must have been so painful for her. She must have felt so betrayed.

But as a writer, the habit of writing has become so therapeutic for me, it’s hard to deal with trauma without writing about it. And/or/also the habit of writing stuff down is just that: habitual, an addiction of sorts. Even when concerning the more mundane. But it’s definitely helped me the last few days. If only in that it is an activity, something to do other than simply worry. As well as a tool to try to make sense of life, and of oneself.

You’ve been dubbed an Alt Lit author, on Wikipedia on elsewhere. Is it a description you embrace?

I neither embrace nor reject the ‘alt lit’ label, though I think it’s a bit outdated as well as maybe irrelevant and just plain meaningless as a descriptor.

I’m curious about your decision to remain unagented, opting instead to publish your books with either your own press or with other small presses. Why have you made — and continue to make — this choice?

To be honest, it is a choice I feel I have both made and been forced into. I think on the one hand, I love being independent and publishing my writing through SF/LD because it means absolute creative freedom. On the other hand, absolute creative freedom can be scary. An editor can be a good thing. A good tool. Since I don’t have an editor I have to rely on myself. And it can be hard to separate yourself as a writer and then as an editor or to be objective. As a consequence, I know my writing is much messier, not as tight, more raw, and I tend to like messier, raw writing to read myself, but I also could probably stand to be reigned in a bit. I don’t know. We’ll see!

A couple years ago, you found yourself at the center of a controversy in the literary world. These types of controversies seem to be getting more and more common in the age of Twitter — There’s a growing list of writers who’ve been suddenly, publicly, and repeatedly castigated on the internet for (often private, long-ago) things they’ve said or done. Do you have any ideas for how we might make the internet a less punitive space for writers with a public profile? And do you have any advice for other writers who might one day unwittingly find themselves in the middle of a sudden controversy?

Well, I think what’s happening with writers on the internet is indicative of what’s happening in the culture in general. There seems to be little to no room for debate or conversation, particularly about the ‘grey areas’ of topics, and an addiction to deciding a villain and a victim in every dispute or disagreement, rather than in seeing every individual as a complex person, or rather than in viewing the subject being discussed for what it is instead of viewing the person speaking as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ There is the ‘one voice’ mentality, the ‘you’re either with us or against us,’ and questions of any sort are viewed as “against us.”

I was raised in the hippie days of ‘question everything’, which isn’t so popular or welcomed currently. But hey, I was watching a Bob Dylan documentary (the Scorsese one) last night and in it he says something like, “I was like an outsider, Anyway. I came to town an outsider. and in a lot of ways I was still more outsider than I ever was, really. They were trying to make me an insider to some kind of trip they were on. I don’t think so.” And that pretty much sums up how I feel about the current culture and the internet and the writing world; all of it.

How does your work as an editor and publisher for both Hobart and Short Flight/Long Drive Books affect your work as a writer?

My work as an editor has saved me in that I sometimes think, particularly in these last two trying years, to be ultra-DRAMATIC, if it wasn’t for my friendships and editorial relationships with Chelsea Martin and Chloe Caldwell and Mira Gonzalez, I don’t know that I’d have the determination to keep writing. Or to keep publishing my own work.

That’s ultra-dramatic, as I acknowledged, but they do inspire me, their friendships and their writing, to keep chugging along myself. I don’t think that’s really what you were asking, but it’s what’s most important to me, and so that’s my answer. Thank you, Siel.
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Every month, I interview an author I admire on his literary firsts.

October’s featured author is Stefan Kiesbye, author of Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone (Penguin), a spooky literary novel that made EW’s Must List and was named one of the best books of 2012 by Slate editor Dan Kois.

Stefan’s also the author of the novella Next Door Lived a Girl (Low Fidelity Press), the LA Noir Fluchtpunkt Los Angeles (Vanishing Point), and the novel The Staked Plains (Saddle Road Press). His latest book, the gothic novel Knives, Forks, Scissors, Flames (Panhandler Books), comes out later this month.

In this interview Stefan offers advice on finding the right indie press for your book, incorporating music into your literary readings, and much more.

Sign up with your email below to be entered to win a copy of Your House Is on Fire — and to get notified of future interviews!

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Siel: I’ve noticed several of your books are set in quaint small towns — places that appear quiet on the outside, but simmer with violence and mystery under the surface. What draws you to the small town setting?

Stefan: Before I moved to Berlin, I lived in a small town surrounded by small villages. As a teenager I hated that, but looking back it’s fascinating to me how much you knew about your neighbors and the people in town. Secrets were always open. What fascinates me the most is how villagers have to pay for transgressions. Below the surface of modern law, there’s an older set of rules.

In Knives, Forks, Scissors, Flames, people don’t call the police if you commit a crime. They keep your secrets safe, but they want favors in return. Maybe not right away, but sooner or later you’ll have to forfeit power or influence, or support something you believe is wrong. And events and crimes are never forgotten; the village keeps its narrative intact.

You moved to California not to long ago, to teach at Sonoma State. Has the move affected your writing?

I think all moves do, you just can’t help it. New things come at you and want your attention. You meet people who are specific to a certain place. I’m a big believer in place and that every place creates its own people and challenges and ways of life, and I love looking at new places because they force you to look at life from their angle.

I find your publishing history really interesting! First, a novella with a small press, then Your House Is on Fire with Penguin, then back to small presses for your three latest books. Was the return to small presses a deliberate choice, or was it simply a matter of different books each finding the press that fit them best?

Large presses have more money and more marketing and advertising power, so that’s to your advantage. Small presses operate very differently, and in most cases your involvement with the book itself, from cover art to font to illustrations, is much higher – a great plus. That said, each book seems to take its very own way, and I’m happy to follow. All the different experiences have been wonderful.

What advice do you have for new authors trying to find the right small press for their first book?

That can be a daunting task, but it helps to go to AWP and walk around the exhibition hall and talk to representatives from the presses, to look at their books and authors. Reading the Writers Chronicle and scouring it for contests is a good idea. And friends will always help you, tell you new things you need to know, point you in the right direction. The thing is, there’s no quick solution. In publishing, everything takes a very long time.

I first met you through the Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon last year, where you gave a reading accompanied by a soundtrack! Can you share some tips for incorporating music and other sounds into a literary performance?

For me it started with meeting these super-talented musicians in Portales, NM, who were open to spending their evenings rehearsing a certain piece with me. We improvised together, then wrote general directions and themes down. Live music is not always an option (in Lisbon it wasn’t, though I might have been able to convince the violin player who always stood at the corner on the way to that bookstore), but it makes you less lonely on stage, and it gives you more time for small pauses, shifts in the narrative. It also adds a layer of immediate meaning the writing otherwise misses out on. I love when someone just brings a guitar or a mandolin and says, “Okay, let’s try,” and we can improvise the reading that night.

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Every month, I interview an author I admire on her literary firsts.

September’s featured author is Jillian Lauren, author of New York Times bestseller Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, her first memoir. Jillian’s also authored the novel Pretty and a second memoir, Everything You Ever Wanted, about the process she and her husband, Weezer’s bassist Scott Shriner, went through to adopt their first son.

In this interview Jillian talks about dealing with strange questions people ask about her personal life, overcoming fear and resistance as a memorist, and much more.

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Siel:  I read in a Rumpus interview that you struggled as an unknown writer for years — before selling both your first memoir and novel in one deal, then rising to sudden fame (New York Times bestseller list, The View, Howard Stern, etc.). How did that first book deal finally come about?

I had been trying to sell my second novel for about a year (after the first one also didn’t sell!) and had gone back to school to get my Masters in Library Science. I figured I’d be happy being a librarian, if the writing thing never came to pass. At least I could spend all day around books.

But the Some Girls story kept knocking at the door of my consciousness, so I told my husband, I’m going to put school off for one semester and work on this proposal. I finished it in three months and I sold the book, packaged with my novel in two days. It was bananas. I had been working so hard for so long and it seemed I’d never be writing for anyone but me and the wall. Then one day my whole life changed on a dime. That’s why I tell people to never give up.

You’ve said that when Some Girls came out, the book’s sexual content often had people asking more about your personal sexual history than your writing — the craft of it, the years of work, the future ambitions. Has this reaction to your work changed, now that you have three books out?

I knew that was the risk I took when I published a book with such a splashy hook — the harem thing casts a long shadow.

As women artists, there is always going to be an aspect of objectification, and a focus on both appearance and personal details to which men aren’t subjected for the most part. This is doubly true if you’re a woman who speaks in a candid way about sexuality. This remains true for me, even though I’ve since published two books that are way less saucy.

When my first book came out, I often got asked if I actually wrote it. Which was terrifically offensive, and demonstrated to me the depth of what I was facing. The assumption was that no woman with a past like mine could possibly write a book with complex insights, original perspective, and sophisticated prose. I’ve been through this for a long time and have come to the conclusion that it’s not really my business what other people think of me. It’s just my business to continue to ask the tough creative questions, to examine the world unflinchingly, and to make the most outstanding work I possible can.

Before your books got published, did you consider yourself more a fiction writer or memoir writer — or did you draw those distinctions at all? Do you consider yourself more one or the other now?

I started out thinking of myself exclusively as a fiction writer. I never wanted to write a memoir! But the work really finds you, and the memoir kept bugging me until I finally sat down and gave voice to it. Now I love both fiction and nonfiction! I appreciate the freedom to move fluidly between the two. Nonfiction has turned out to be both a passion and a calling.

What advice would you give to a young writer working a first memoir, but is held back by fears that her life has not been as “exciting” as say, an ex-member of a harem?

A memoir is never about a subject; it’s about a perspective. Some of the most fascinating books in the world have been written about life’s minutiae — a walk to a lighthouse, a ride up an elevator. Writing is very hard, and all writers are haunted by resistance. Resistance can take on many forms. Maybe it’s a fear that you’re not important enough. Maybe it’s a fear of what your mother or your kids will think.

I tell my students that there may be a time for those questions, but that time is never before you’ve actually written the work. Otherwise it’s so easy to become paralyzed. Write the story you need to write. Write what is urgent to you. Don’t second guess it before you’ve even given it a chance to get onto the page.

If you were to go through the entire first book process again, from acceptance to post-publication, is there anything you might do differently?

Every single time I write a book I think it’s going to get easier and it never really does. The process is a mysterious thing. I have a lot of faith in it, though. If you just sit down and keep putting one word after another, you will eventually write a book. You will — it’s a fact.

The two most important pieces of advice I give beginning writers is first of all to be tenacious and second of all to seek a supportive community. Contrary to popular belief, writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. That’s why I started Story and Soul with my best friends Jenny Feldon and Claire Bidwell Smith. We teach workshops and retreats, but more importantly are working to create a supportive community of woman writers. We believe that there’s room for all of our voices, and we want to empower other women to tell their story.
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Every month, I interview an author I admire on her literary firsts.

August’s featured author is Edan Lepucki, author of New York Times bestseller California, her first novel, as well as the novella If You’re Not Yet Like Me. She’s also a staff writer for The Millions and the founder and co-director of  Writing Workshops Los Angeles.

In this interview Edan talks about her tough decision to give up on publishing the novel she wrote before California — as well as her unexpected rise to fame — and bestseller lists — via The Colbert Report.

Sign up with your email in the right sidebar to get notified of future interviews — and to be entered to win a copy of Edan’s novel!
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Siel: Your dystopian novel California depicts a dark, grim future Los Angeles. The image of the fountain at The Grove, turned “sludgy with poison” especially comes to mind. Does L.A. appear differently in your mind’s eye now, post-book? Also, was it strange doing a reading for California at the at The Grove’s Barnes & Noble?

I have always thought L.A.–and California in general–emitted a post-apocalyptic vibe. It’s so beautiful and sinister at once, and you can see why so many end-of-the-world narratives take place here. The freeways! The earthquakes! The bougainvillea! LA hasn’t changed for me since writing the book; it’s just as magical and weird and frustrating as ever. I destroyed so much of the city while writing California, that I suppose I’m just glad that was fiction and the place still exists!

As for doing my reading at Barnes & Noble: that was amazing! To read at The Grove…the height of absurdity and achievement, right?!  I read the opening scene there, just so I could narrate how terrible the mall was, while performing at the mall. It was fun, and the people who work at that store were, I should say, good sports about it all.

You’ve said you didn’t expect California to become a bestseller — but that it became one, partly because Stephen Colbert featured your book on his show twice during the whole Hachette vs. Amazon kerfuffle. Should other authors get so lucky, what advice would you give writers for making the most of an unexpected opportunity?

My experience was so strange and unexpected, and exceptional–I mean, the luck involved was just out of this world!  In her book Still Writing, Dani Shapiro talks about how some books are just successful in this inexplicable way; I believe (if memory serves me well), that she refers to it as the books that get dusted with some magical fairy dust.

So…if your book gets the magical fairy dusting, I’d say: be open to every opportunity. Go do the readings, the email Q&As, the phone interviews, answer the fan emails, write the personal essays. Say yes because you want to make the most of your very lucky and miraculous situation.

Also, and this goes for any publication, no matter what happens: Enjoy yourself! Let yourself marvel at your achievement. You did it!

Lastly, never ever read the 1 and 2 star reader reviews of your book. NEVER.

At a reading, I remember you mentioning a novel you’d written before California — that never got published. Could you talk a bit about what you went through there? How did you know when to let it go and focus on new work?

My first, unpublished, novel was called The Book of Deeds. I started it right after graduate school and worked on it for 3 or 4 years. When I was finished, my agent at the time read half of it, said it would never sell, and broke up with me. It was pretty tragic, but I was so happy to get a new agent a few months later (through a friend’s referral). I revised the book for her, and it went out–but no one bought it. After about 9 months, we decided to stop trying, since I was writing California and we both felt it was a better book, and also more commercial.

The first book was about violent teenage girls–and it just wasn’t totally working. It wasn’t ready, I wasn’t ready. That said, I feel a little tug of pain each time a book about violent teenage girls comes out and everyone loves it. I was ahead of my time!

I started writing California right after my first agent dumped me. I needed to fall into a new project, even as I tried to get new representation for the old project. Writing California saved me–it kept me feeling sane, and alive, and itwhole life wasn’t about this unpublishable novel.

Since you’re the founder of Writing Workshops Los Angeles, which gives writers a place to get feedback and advice, I’m curious about the support you seek out for yourself now, at this stage in your writing career. At what stage in your writing process do you share your work — with friends, fellow writers, mentors, editors, or agents?

At this stage I have a few trusted readers. My husband Patrick has been my first and last reader for a long time now–he can help me work through ideas and plot points early on, and he reads my manuscripts before I send them onto my agent and/or editor. I also have been working with a writing group for the last three years. They’ve read parts of Woman No. 17 (forthcoming spring 2017!) since day 1.  We all read each other’s work beforehand, but our discussions are more casual than a workshop might be. They’ve helped me by asking questions about character and theme as I moved forward.

I also have a couple friends from graduate school that read my work every now and again–my friend Madeline McDonnell is a line-edit genius and has a really keen sense of scene that I appreciate. As I move forward in my career, I see that I’m depending more and more on comments from my editors. With both books, their feedback has been instrumental in revision.

If you were to go through the entire first book process again, from acceptance to publication, is there anything you might do differently?

I don’t think so. It was hard to face all the rejection with Book of Deeds, but I’m glad it happened because I ended up publishing a better first book–and a fairy-dusted one at that. And I worked very hard to enjoy the ride, even when it got intense!  And I kept writing. That’s what is important, right?

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Every month, I interview an author I admire on his literary firsts.

July’s featured author is Kevin Sampsell, author of This Is Between Us, his first novel, as well as the memoir A Common Pornography and the short story collection Creamy Bullets. He’s also the man behind the indie press Future Tense Books and bookseller at Powell’s Books.

In this interview Kevin talks about his varied publishing experiences (from self-publishing to tiny indie presses to a big five publisher), his favorite cover art, and his long path to feeling legitimized as a writer.

Sign up with your email in the right sidebar to get notified of future interviews — and to be entered to win a copy of Kevin’s novel!
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Siel: Both your memoir A Common Pornography and your first novel This is Between Us are written in snippet form, giving us little snapshots that collage together to form a bigger, fractured narrative. What draws you to this form?

I think it comes from my early days of writing poetry and then moving on to flash fiction and short stories. I’m a self-taught writer and I think I have a short attention span, so that probably factors in too.

When I wrote the first parts of A Common Pornography, it was basically an experiment in remembering things and when you’re dealing with memories, there’s only so much you can remember before it becomes blurry and mysterious. I figured out–probably accidentally–that the mysterious stuff can work in a way that invites the reader to engage in the story and relate to it in a new way.

With the novel, I was basically shaping these short chapters–or scenes–in a similar way. The brevity hopefully adds a mystery and power to the book as a whole. No one thinks short poems are less powerful than long ones. I took comfort in thinking that the way I write short prose wasn’t too far off from how I’d write a poem. And poems can really resonate. I read a book of linked poems, like Sharon Olds’ Stag’s Leap, and it’s like reading a really complete memoir overflowing with emotions, scenes, and disturbances. A story about a life or a story about a relationship is made up of small details and scenes. It’s hardly ever just one big plot.

Though you’re better known for these two latest books, I think you mentioned (when we met in Portland in January) that early on in your career, you first self-published books of poetry. What advice do you have for young writers considering going this route?

Half the time, I didn’t really know what I was doing with my early stuff (both writing it and publishing it). My naivety was probably one of my best qualities. It allowed me to learn how to write and what to write. But one of the main things I did was I went out and read everywhere–open mics, poetry slams, cafes, bars, house shows. I became part of a community, even before the Internet was a thing. I think I’m lucky that I did a lot of crazy stuff with my writing and publishing experiments in the 90s, because people were so excited about it and no one was jaded or overwhelmed yet.

So I guess that would be my advice. Don’t be jaded, don’t be judgmental, read a lot, let yourself be influenced and blend stuff together if you want. Don’t compare yourself to other writers. Talk about your life. Make your life interesting.

Oh, and make your cover art nice.

On top of your early self-published works, you have three books out with three very different publishers (Harper Perennial, Tin House, Chiasmus). I realize this is a big question, but could you talk a bit about your varied experiences with your book launches, ranging from working with a big five publisher to a tiny indie press to just yourself? What was great about each, and what was challenging?

The degrees of visibility are the main difference. When you’re coming from small presses like Word Riot, Chiasmus, and doing the self-publishing thing, you really have to work and self-promote more, which is uncomfortable for some people.

You may notice that a lot of writers who come from the small press world and move onto bigger presses are people who are good at connecting to readers and know how to talk about their writing in a way that promotes their work to a larger group of readers. A lot of bigger presses these days appreciate that and look for authors who already have a growing following or “platform” or whatever buzzword they’re using now.

In some ways, bigger presses have learned from small presses and even self-published authors and they’re figuring out ways to sell their books that they haven’t done before. I feel like it was only ten years ago when a friend told me she had to really urge her major press to use social media more to promote her books. It seems obvious to do that now but that’s a good example of traditional publishers maybe being too stuck in tradition.

My experience with bigger presses has been good though too. It’s just a bigger stage and a different level of respect. It’s a little silly but being published by HarperCollins made people take me more seriously and that made me feel more legitimized–when that book (A Common Pornography) came out I felt like I was a real author finally, twenty years after I started publishing.

Sorry if this answer is a bit rambling, but another thing I want to say is that working with small presses has so many benefits too, even if you only get paid in copies of your book. For one thing there is a sense of family when you work with a small press. I’m friends with so many Tin House authors and editors and that’s been such an enriching part of my life. And running Future Tense is like that too–a big, extended family.

In addition to being a writer, you’re also well-known in the literary community as an editor, publisher, and bookseller at Powell’s. What advice would you give newbie writers in search of their own literary communities?

I touched on this in my other answers, I think. Go out to readings. Talk to the writers you like. Support others. Read a lot. Surround yourself with books and literary culture! Maybe start a blog or something where you talk about reading and writing. Self-publish something if you have to. Don’t be afraid to experiment. DIY and don’t die! Find people who believe in you.

Of all your books, which has your favorite cover, and why?

This is a fun question. For my own books, I actually really like the cover for Creamy Bullets. It just seems very funny and odd and mildly homo-erotic. Those skiing guys flying through the air are a nice image for that goofy book title. My friend, Pete McCracken, designed it.

For the Future Tense books, I love all the covers that my designer Bryan Coffelt does, but I think the most effective one has been Wendy C. Ortiz’s Excavation. It’s so spare, yet direct. It captures the mood and the turmoil of the book. The look on Wendy’s face with that vast blue-green sky behind her. It’s amazing.

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