Interview: Jami Attenberg
Midwestern Gothic staffer Michelle Torby talked with author Jami Attenberg about finding inspiration, extensive research, talking to her characters, and more.
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- Michelle Torby: What’s your connection to the Midwest?
Jami Attenberg: I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and left there when I was 17 years old, for college in Baltimore. My folks still live there, so I go back and visit.
MT: Joseph Mitchell’s 1940 New Yorker profile on Mazie Phillips, the generous-hearted woman who worked at New York City’s famous movie theater, the Venice, inspired you to write Saint Mazie. Typically, how do you find inspiration for your work?
JA: I just try and pay attention to the world around me, reading, thinking, walking, observing, and then pretty much every day I’m feeling inspired. I suspect it’s probably the same as everyone else.
MT: As your first historically based novel, Saint Mazie must have required extensive research. Was it difficult to balance research with the creative process of fiction writing?
JA: I did most of the research upfront and then filled things in as needed. At some point I just had to pull the trigger and start writing. I can’t explain to you how I knew when that moment was, only just that I was ready to go. I wouldn’t describe it as a balance so much as a chicken/egg moment.
MT: Did you ever feel torn between representing a fictional Mazie and wanting to know the “real” Mazie?
JA: I definitely wished I could have known the real Mazie! But I did the best I could representing her essence. I wouldn’t say that I ever felt torn. I just felt a sense of duty to do her justice.
MT: Your previous novel, The Middlesteins, is set in a Chicago suburb, which some have noted closely resembles your hometown of Buffalo Grove, Illinois. What is it that inspired you to set The Middlesteins, a work about the complexity and frailty of family ties in the face of unhealthy habits, in a place similar to Buffalo Grove?
JA: I hadn’t written about where I had grown up before and for whatever reason it felt like it was time. I can tell you that I read several books that people had written about small towns and families that felt instructional to me. Like, here’s a way to tell this kind of story. Olive Kitteridge is a good example of this. So seeing someone else do it was inspiring.
MT: Much of your work focuses on place. When brainstorming ideas for a novel, is setting one of your first considerations? Or is a developing character the first thing to catch your attention?
JA: In general characters tend to talk to me before anything else. The book does not exist without the characters. But I do seem to be switching back and forth between the Midwest and New York from book to book. It’s where I feel comfortable. Those are my two milieus. For now, anyway. I’ve only written five books! Talk to me in ten.
MT: What’s next for you?
JA: Writing a new novel and touring heavily this fall to promote Saint Mazie. Always working!
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Jami Attenberg is the author of five books of fiction including The Middlesteins and Saint Mazie. Visit her online at jamiatt.tumblr.com or @jamiattenberg.
August 12th, 2015 at 11:05 am
[…] Midwestern Gothic interviewed author Jami Attenberg. […]