Robin Oliveira has the literary world on it’s heels with her debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter (Viking, May 2010). With the book released to rave reviews and picked as our SLR Read of the Month, Oliveira could have easily balked at yet another interview request. Instead, she gave her time generously and we think you’ll be fascinated by the insightful discussion we’ve shared below. Find the rest of Oliveira’s converation with SLR contributor Adele Annesi in tomorrow’s post.

You’ve mentioned the lead character came to you in a vision. That prompted you to discover information about 17 female nurses who worked as physicians during the Civil War. Mary Sutter is one of these women, but throughout the book, both male and female characters are equally well-drawn. How did you go about creating these fictional characters with such detail? What tools did you use –  e.g., character sketches, profiles, etc.?

Characters evolve as I write. I use none of the oft-recommended tools to develop characters. Whenever I do, I find that the characters are no longer interesting to me because they are already static in my mind. I want to discover them, as the reader might discover them, or as another character might encounter them in the book. As the characters respond to events erupting around them, I begin to understand who they are, even though initially they are frequently one-dimensional. Through subsequent drafts, the challenge becomes to develop them by asking what else the character wants other than the thing he first revealed to you.

I also keep in mind that subplots have the role of magnifying theme. This is the less intuitive guide to developing what any given character wants and therefore who they will eventually become. Characters in subplots are contrasts or mirrors of the main character’s desire and are therefore arranged along a spectrum related to that desire. In My Name is Mary Sutter, all the female characters are arrayed on a spectrum in regards to the love/knowledge theme. The male characters are delineated in their response to Mary, to the women in their lives, and to the war and its demands on their medical knowledge.

While writing, I remain open to whoever might walk onstage, always hoping for the wonderful surprise, while keeping in mind the developing theme and the structural requirements of the story.

Your research is incredibly thorough, and it leaves readers with increased knowledge about life during that era. With so many historical details to track, how did you keep all the information organized? Did you use a timeline? Colored note cards? Post-its arranged in various blocks or binders? A specific software program? We’ve heard a wide variety of authors’ tricks, and we’re curious to know yours. (more…)

Textbooks, poetry, novels—Mary Jane Ryals writes them all. Cookie and Me, her debut novel, will be released in September by Kitsune Books.

Ryals was named the first Poet Laureate of the Big Bend in 2008 and released her first book of poetry, The Moving Waters, the same year. Ryals performs with a popular poetry troupe, the Java Dogs. She currently is a professor at Florida State University. To give her Business Communications students a better understanding of the global marketplace, she wrote a textbook, Getting into the Intercultural Groove, peppered with anecdotes from her travels. As part of FSU’s International Program, Ryals spends part of the summer in Valencia, Spain, teaching business communication, literature, and writing.

Donna Meredith interviewed Mary Jane for Southern Literary Review.

DM: What compelled you to write about the Sixties in Tallahassee?

MJR: In grad school, I read Nanci Kincaid’s novel, Crossing Blood, which was set in Tallahassee during the late Sixties. It fell on me like rain that everything I knew—the Woolworths downtown, the pool closings, the movie theatre, the racial discord, the friendships—could also be literary.

Later in grad school, I gave birth to my daughter Ariel just as I’d finished preliminary exams for my Ph.D. and had to write a creative dissertation. Suddenly, I felt urgently that I needed to tell my era’s story to her. That was 17 years ago.

DM: You have a teenage daughter. Did she shape this book in any way? (more…)

With yet another bestseller on his hands, Louisiana author James Lee Burke kindly took a few minutes to answer questions from SLR contributor Phil Jason.

Why is it important to remind readers that Dave Robicheaux’s Vietnam War experiences have shaped him and are never really distant?  

Dave’s war experience serves as a background to the central political themes in the books, namely America’s neo-colonial empire and our military involvement in Latin America and the Mid East.

With 18 Robicheaux novels now in print, how do you keep the character fresh for yourself?

Each novel is intended to stand alone. It’s my hope also that each novel addresses a problem or issue that is more than a regional one.

Aside from a gem like Clete Purcel, which characters in the supporting cast are you most attached to?

All of them.

Are you teasing your own daughter a bit by having Dave distrust her namesake character’s taste in men?

Nope.

Conveying a sense of place is obviously important to you. Can you share anything with developing writers about how to evoke a vivid sense of place?

I was influenced heavily by the naturalists, particularly James T. Farrell, John Steinbeck, and John Dos Passos. I’d recommend others read them as well.

Do you write by wholes or parts? Revise by wholes or parts?

I don’t have a plan when I write. I see perhaps two scenes into the story and that’s all. I revise each morning.

Are you an outliner? How would you describe your writing process?

I never outline. As Hemingway said, if the author outlines he will know the end of the story. If he knows it, so will the reader.

For me there is only one way to write. I suspect it’s like chopping cotton, you do it from cain’t-see to cain’t-see and sometimes you do it in the middle of the night. Anyone who can compartmentalize his art is a better man than I.

Burke’s work has been awarded an Edgar twice for Best Crime Novel of the Year. He has also been a recipient of a Breadloaf and Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant. Two of his novels, Heaven’s Prisoners and Two For Texas, have been made into motion pictures. His short stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, Antioch Review, Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Learn more by visiting his website. Also, read the review of his latest bestseller, The Glass Rainbow.

Suzanne Supplee was first recognized as a talented children’s author with her works Artichoke’s Heart and When Irish Guys are Smiling. When Dolly Parton read Supplee’s latest young adult novel, Somebody Everybody Listens To, she said, “Reading about Retta Lee Jones’s journey to Nashville was a lot like reading my own diary, except she had prettier boots.”

This month, Supplee graciously took time to talk to Southern Lit Review about her role as an author and the path that led to her publishing success.

In Somebody Everybody Listens To, Retta Lee Jones represents the dreamer in all of us. But, unlike most dreamers, she actually pursues her dreams – against all odds. Does her story relate to your desire to be a writer? If so, how did you find courage to seek publication?

Absolutely!  I think for most writers, real writers, writing isn’t really a choice.  Sounds cliché, I know, but I have to write.  And if I go too long without writing, I’m depressed and anxious and irritable.  Seeking publication is just a natural next step.  For all you writers out there, just remember this:  Somebody is going to publish a book.  Lots of people, actually.  Why shouldn’t you be among them?

Throughout the book, you include biographical information about successful country music artists. You also provide details about Retta’s feelings while performing publicly. Out of curiosity, are you a singer/musician? Have you ever performed onstage? (more…)

Bestselling novelist, Karen White, took time to discuss her latest release, On Folly Beach, selected by SLR as our August Read of the Month. She describes this book as “Southern women’s fiction grit lit” and reviewers are raving.

Throughout this story, you’ve excelled at making the reader wait as the story develops. As an author, how do you break a story apart and deliver just enough to keep the reader turning the page? Do you pen the entire tale first, and then go back and break it into bits? What is your personal strategy when you “build” a mystery?

I really wish I knew the answer to this! I write books the same way I read them—not knowing exactly what’s going to happen next. This book was written in the same order you read it, with each chapter in the past paving the way for some revelation in 2009.

(more…)

Ron Ellis is an accomplished nature writer with works including Cogan’s Woods, Brushes with Nature: The Art of Ron Van Gilder, and Of Woods & Waters: A Kentucky Outdoors Reader. His newest release, In That Sweet Country (Skyhorse Publishing),  is a collection of work by acclaimed nature writer, Harry Middleton.

Recently, Ellis took time to discuss his work with Southern Lit Review contributor, Philip K. Jason.

Can you tell us something about your selection process for In That Sweet Country?

Because all of Harry’s books have fly-fishing at their core, I knew I wanted to feature the uncollected work that speaks to his readers about that shared pleasure, along with a generous sampling of stories about hunting—“Gobblers in the Mist” and “Hard Winters and Crazy Birds” are two of my favorites. I also wanted readers to experience Harry’s writing about nature in general, which is always beautiful and informative. And since Harry’s self-acknowledged addictions were mountains and cold trout-water, they figured into the selection process, too. The cover painting, Boy Fishing by Winslow Homer, seemed the perfect visual representation, on so many levels, for Harry’s beloved “sweet country.”

Of the selections in this book, do you have any personal favorites?

I’m rather fond of “Downriver, Again,” “High-Country Trout,” and “A Hunting Dog’s Days Afield,” since these stories contain the “germs” of stories that Harry would build on for his first two books, The Earth Is Enough, his widely acknowledged masterpiece, and the superb On the Spine of Time. I also love “Buffalo River Sequence,” a rare poem from Harry, and his eloquent and magical nature essays, such as “Song of the Whippoorwill” and “Southern Lights.” 

What are the qualities of Harry Middleton’s writing that you most admire? (more…)

Octavia Spencer, who portrays Minny in the upcoming big-screen version of The Help, took time to talk to Southern Literary Review about Stockett’s bestseller and the upcoming film.  Spencer spoke openly as an African-American southerner, confronting the controversial issue of dialect and the fine line an author must walk when giving “voice” to her characters.

Do you think Kathryn was able to correctly capture the dialect of that era?  

I think Kathryn Stockett does an excellent job in capturing the voice of that era especially in regards to Aibileen. Using dialect to portray characters of a certain social class is not a new concept. I’m reminded of Twain’s Huck Finn, or various characters (all white) in Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights.” When done well, it’s quite an effective device that enriches the narrative.

Some people say that writing the black dialect is, in itself, a racist act. Most blacks here I’ve spoken to disagree and say she got it right for that time period and location. What do you think?

(more…)

historic print available at Amazon.com

Thomas Wolfe was born in 1900 in Ashville, North Carolina.  His parents split when he was a child and he lived with his mother in a boarding house.  Wolfe’s loneliness was his greatest resource for writing, He rarely saw her as she worked to provide for her children.

He was an avid reader and an excellent student. He attended the University of North Carolina where he wrote plays and performed them.  He graduated in 1920 and went on to earn a master’s degree at Harvard, but had no luck publishing his work. (more…)