This interview with Lesley Thomas was first published in March 2006.
To find out even more about the author, you can
visit our
Lesley Thomas page.
Where were you born and raised?
Born in Seattle but raised in Alaska (in Southeast Alaska on a small
fishing boat,then the Alaskan Arctic, Bering Strait region. That is
where my family still lives, 50 miles from Russia.
What was it that first got you into writing and when did
you start writing?
I've been writing since I was seven, when I wrote my first
"novel" of 100 pages. It also had a title with a goose in it. I sent
it to my Norwegian grandfather but he lost it in a tavern.
Which writers have influenced you the most?
The old classics, but in particular, the Victorians Thomas
Hardy and Dickens (and the Romantic poets); the Russian novelists, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Also, Norwegian Knud Hansen, William
Butler Yeats and Japanese authors Kawabata, Kenzaburo. Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas,John Fowles, Peter Matthiessen,
Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and the oral literature of indigenous
cultures around the world. I grew up with no TV or film, so there were only
books and stories told verbally, and a lot of it was OLD.
Where do you stand on the nature v. nurture debate? Were
you born a writer, or were there factors in your environment that
enabled you to become a writer?
Both. I think I was born with a lot of propensity and it
was strongly encouraged even though my family knew it was no way to make a
living. My mom had us keep journals when we could barely write, and often
this journaling took the place of actually going to school, when we were out on
the fishing boat or backpacking thru Europe as a family. Many older family
members on both sides wrote (and illustrated), political rants, articles,
novels, journals, madcap satires, and poetry. They were all prolific letter
writers too. Even the so-called blue-collar farmers and fishermen and women
wrote - by kerosene lantern. That is probably why one of my main characters in
"Flight of the Goose" does this, all the writing in a tent by
kerosene lantern. There was a desire in my ancestors to change the world, its
social injustices, and to heal and redeem through the written word. Perhaps
there was missionary-like aspect in my roots, to "spread the word".
Books COULD save the world, they thought, and maybe I agree, but I am wary of
dogma.
Beside the innate tendency and the encouragement, the Irish
blarney and Viking skaldic genes and traditions, I think my life itself has
been perfect for the creation of a writer. I've lived in many radically
different cultures,often from the intimate "insiders" view,
having parents from different races and cultures, or marrying
cross-culturally. This has lent me an eye for ambiguity and detail that the perpetual
traveler needs to survive.
I also attribute to the Nurture factor my picayune life in the
wilderness and huge cities, here and overseas, and so many colorful jobs:
potato picker in Northern Norway, tree-pruner in Yakima, teacher in Japan,
farmer, carpenter, massage therapist, textile importer, nude art model,
subsistence fisherwoman, longshorewoman, cannery worker, editor, gardener,
janitor, cook, university professor, (etc. etc.). I have been a mother, a
divorcee, experienced unrequited love, rapturous love, spiritual
transformation, enslavement, near-death by drowning or freezing to death, near
mauling by sled dog and grizzly bear, tragic or violent deaths of loved ones,
poverty, abuse, hurricanes, earthquakes...gee...this all seems like the makings
of a writer, doesn't it?
There are a lot of courses teaching creative writing
nowadays, but do you think that good writing can be taught?
First let me say: What is good? Does "good" mean
fashionable, what is trendy this year or decade? Does "good" mean
dollar signs? If that is so, then yes, "good" can be taught. Just as
you can teach people to style their hair the right way, raise or lower
hemlines. If a lot of writing coming out of the current proliferation of
courses is poor writing, and boring in my opinion. Cookie cutter writing,
following rules and censoring one's voice or ideas to fit - to norm to - what
the class wants (and later, what editors seem to think readers want). I can't
tell you how many devout readers of fiction I know - even teachers of
literature who have given up on fiction in the last decade, bored stiff. They
have returned to the classics or "lowbrow" escapist potboiler genres
for want of a good plot and strong characterization, and "soul" if
youwill. Heart.
Younger adult readers seem to be left cold by post-modern
fiction too. The wonderful stories of childhood have dried up. They turn
to movies.My fiction, which many have told me is superb, comes from a different
time, a different sense of what good literature is. But is not what the big
presses are sellling, in general. Perhaps the best storytellers have all
gravitated to non-fiction, the gripping stories seen in much "creative
nonfiction" now (see "The Grizzly Maze" by Nick Jans. If he had
written that story as a novel, he wouldn't get published, I think. Not just
because it is fiction and presses don't want fiction now, or because Ameicans
mostly buy nonfiction. Even if it had been accepted as a literary novel, they
would have altered it radically. There is too much story, plot, character,
emotion for literary fiction. The post-modern novelist and editor would want to
mess with the storyline to make it stylish, or do that fakey
"show-but-never-tell" thing they try to say is the only way to
write,and the horrible inevitable ending of Timothy Treadwell getting eaten by
a bear (but deservedly, as we see in thebackstory) would be lost in a lot of
brilliant smoke and mirrors.
Now for whether good writing can be taught: Tools can be given;
you can teach people how to form complex sentences and to recognize when more concrete details would be good, more
natural sounding dialogue, consistency of voice, etc. I hope good
writing can be taught - I taught writing for 20 years
(academic writing and when I could get away with it, creative writing, to
international students needing to write in a language not their own). But was
it good? That depended on the writer's imagination, not ultimately the tools.
I found precious gems of writing in barely fluent, nearly
illiterate writers. What gripped me was their sense of story or their passion,
their eye for detail, their courage and honesty, their connection with the
deepest truths and their lack of censorship of what many would deem
"sentimental". The soul and ideas and what you see and hear cannot be
taught - these come from the muse, the morphogenic field or wherever. And... A
person can be taught to get more in connection with their feelings and soul,
the collective unconscious, their right brain.
Perhaps through breathing, psychotherapy, falling in love,
being in nature, a near death experience... the burning bush...
But storytelling is like all art, and it is like movement: you
can teach color techniques to the painter but their pictures might not make the
hair prickle on the back of your neck and make you lust after it for your wall.
You can teach a klutz how to be more coordinated but he or she may never have
the kind of movement that makes us thrill to watching the great dancers and
athletes. I have taught massage therapy to beginning students and it is like
teaching writing and art: some people are naturals and you just give them a few
tricks and they are off as great healers. Others spend 20,000 dollars in
tuition and still give really bad massages. Nothing makes them better, not even
being forced to give 20 massages a week. It could be that way for much of human
endeavors: great auto mechanics are born and not made, though some training
helps. But that should be okay - Nature wants us to be diverse and have
different talents, not for all of us to be equally brilliant at everything.
The upshot is, no, you probably can't teach someone to be a
good writer, just a better one. Maybe that is elitist, and a
terrible thing to say in a culture where 90% of us want to write the great
American novel. But eventually we accept that we are not good businesspeople,
or good basketball players or good with small children in daycares, so why
can't we accept it if we aren't good writers? I think I am a good writer but I
have always been, since childhood, since I was seven, just like I was good
illustrator, and a fast runner. But a terrible person with keys or organizing
desks - a really bad secretary.
One last thought on good writing - "good" is so
subjective I don't know how we can really answer this question. What is good?
What I find good others find terrible. I have been told my writing is not good,
by some people I later killed. Writing is like beauty - who I find handsome,
another woman finds a dog.
Have you entered writing competitions? If so, have you won
any prizes?
I have won a few dinners out for my poetry. I am waiting
to see later this spring whether I win any awards for my novel "Flight of
the Goose".
What kind of things do you write?
Poetry, novels, and a few essays. I've written a sci-fi
novel, (speculative fiction, really) and now literary fiction with "Flight
of the Goose".
I tend toward the blending of ancient and modern, with
cross-cultural elements, and always with themes of redemption and healing. I
like a good love story too, and set my work in the wilderness and in history
rather than in a contemporary urban Americana. I like to deal with
non-gratuitous violence and peril, too, and I tackle big issues such as war and
racism, ecological destruction, slavery, gender inequality...
Until recently,"political" issues were forbidden in
modern literature, unless you were writing "ethnic". Maybe things are
changing fast - look at how "Crash" won the Oscar gold. Surely
that will spill over into books.
What is the best piece of prose that you have ever written?
"Flight of the Goose"
What are you working on now?
My next novel, which is a literary psychological thriller set
in ancient times with a bit of detective novel thrown in.
What is your writing day like?
The ideal writing day involves a long long walk, when the
best ideas and images flow, and even whole sentences. I have been blessed with
time on my hands, for the first time in my life. I can write the whole day in
fits and starts For me thinking and mulling is a huge part of it, and I can
easily do this while sweeping the floors or pulling weeds (which I do for a
living). It was much harder when I had to raise children and teach fulltime and
lessonplan and grade papers late into the night.
Where would you like to be in 10 years time?
Alive on earth. Oh, you mean in my writing career? I'd
like to be known as one of America's great authors but not classified as female
or Alaskan. I'd like the Pulitzer. I'd like to be richer than poverty level,
and be able to retire before I am 95 years old.
What's the most exciting thing about writing for you?
Getting on a roll when I can't write fast enough, the
words and pictures come so fast. And in the dull revision process, it is
wonderful to cross out stuff and say, good riddance, or to realize in an
epiphany that I should move this whole section to a different part of the
story, or to kill someone off.
What's the most frustrating thing about writing for you?
A bad day when I seem to be forcing or dredging ideas
artificially - when the muse is not visiting. It is better to just not write
then. The other frustration is needing more time alone to write without people
needing me, continually interrupting the flow. I don't have that problem
anymore, but when I wrote my last book I was working full time and a mother of
a young child. I had to write very late at night (and get up at 6:00) and it
was hard on my health and my writing. I also really don't like having to market
market market.
What's the best piece of feedback that you've had from your
audience?
"You are brilliant and wise and I worship your book,
"Flight of the Goose", which is the most powerful, sad, complex,
beautiful story I have ever read. Please write more."
Do you write for a particular audience, or is your first
priority to satisfy your own creativity?
I write a book I know I would like to read and that
satisfies myself and a few other people too.
Do you have a homepage? If so, what's the URL?
http://www.lesleythomas.alaskawriters.com
Lisez cette page en français avec
Babelfish Lesen
diese Seite auf Deutsch mit
Babelfish
