Interview by Kavon Franklin
Q. The stories in Everybody Loves Somebody span from the late 1910s to the beginning of the 21st century. What time period are you most interested in writing about?
A. I usually go out in pursuit of a character first, before I set my sights on a particular time period. But what I love about rendering the context and setting, whether it’s past or present, is building it up from an interplay of invention and fact.
Q. So many of your stories are set in a bygone era. How much research do you feel is necessary to accurately portray those times?
A. I’d better leave accuracy to the historians. What I hope to do is to persuade readers to be interested in the unfolding premise of the story. Within the frame of the fiction, the details need to have purpose and coherence. But they don’t necessarily need to mirror physical reality or parrot historical accounts. That said, I’m pleased to find the world endlessly fascinating. “I throw books across the room. I watch TV. I ride a horse. I take refuge in the arms of my loved ones. And then I return to my desk and start the next page.” I can’t get enough of it and am eager to continue to search for new information. Then I can use facts to bolster the invention…or maybe I should say I can use invention to bolster the facts.
Q. Are there any characters from your short stories that you now feel you gave the short shrift, any that you feel might have been better served in a novel?
A. I suppose I don’t reliably attend to the general rules of either genre. I like to shape stories that are open, paradoxical, unfinished, and populate them with characters who might seem to be visiting from a longer work. And I like to fill novels with anecdotes that are punctuated by (temporary) conclusions.
Q. Name one thing that you do well as a writer and one thing you’re still struggling to master.
A. How about I just mention the struggling part? I’m still trying to figure out how to convince readers to share in the dream. That’s the challenge that keeps luring me back.
Q. If you had to write a book of nonfiction, what subject would you tackle?
A. It’s my good luck that I’m allowed to choose what to write. So far, I haven’t written any book because I’ve had to. A subject has to be interesting to me. The problem is, there are more interesting subjects, including some rooted in memory, than I’ll ever have time to explore.
Q. How does reading students’ work affect your own?
A. It teaches me about being human.
Q. You’ve been quoted elsewhere as saying, “I’m always wondering about strangers I see at a glance.” What’s the last piece you wrote that was inspired by a stranger?
A. You can find some of those strangers in Everybody Loves Somebody. There are a few I pay tribute to in the last story. They have the final say.
Q. Which one of your books gave you the most fits?
A. Fits—I like that word! It suits the process of writing, which involves trying to arrange the words into sentences in such a way that they fit precisely. When it doesn’t work, well, that’s when my own fits begin—a common occurrence on any given day, in the midst of any given project.
Q. How do you deal with professional rejections or disappointments?
A. I go into the woods and wail. I throw books across the room. I watch TV. I ride a horse. I take refuge in the arms of my loved ones. And then I return to my desk and start the next page.
Q. What type of child were you? How has your childhood affected your writing?
A. I guess others who knew me back then are the ones to ask about this. I wonder if they’d say I was a lonely waif with dirty feet? Or was I a spoiled brat with big plans?
Q. Name a writer whose work makes you envious.
A. How about we change the word “envious” to “excited”? Then we can fling the doors to the library wide-open. Since I never know where to begin the list of writers I admire, I like to celebrate the ones I’m currently reading. I’m immersed in Isak Dinesen right now and have her to thank for reminding me of the potential power of narrative.
Q. What questions do fledgling writers ask you most often?
A. This question is new, but now that you’ve asked it, I bet I’ll be asked it again.
Joanna Scott is the author of four novels, including 1997 Pulitzer Prize finalist The Manikin, and a short story collection, Various Antidotes, which was a finalist for the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Lannan Award. She lives in Rochester, New York.
