Ask the Author: Matthew Clark Davison
Answered Questions (8)
Matthew Clark Davison
To all the places visited by Marco Polo in Invisible Cities by Calvino. In other words, to Calvino's Venice, stripped of tourists, where I could just sit and watch the people going about their lives and pay attention to what I remember.
Matthew Clark Davison
Thanks for the question! In my opinion, "shoulds" and art don't mix. I think Conroy encouraged his students to start with what's most urgent, the thing they care most about. Often, that's close to home and Conroy had much success mining the territory of his lived experience. I'd be shocked if he meant that to mean that we shouldn't write to discover or uncover or reveal things about subjects or people we might have to learn more about to do so convincingly. No fiction writer I know wants to cause harm--so there's wisdom, too, in avoiding superficial portrayals of others--doubly so if the portrayals reinforce damaging tropes to historically marginalized communities. I hadn't known much about Portland before I started writing Doubting Thomas, and I've never been a grade school teacher, nor have I had to endure what Thomas does at the beginning of the novel. He and I are so different from one another--but I know other things--that are revealed in his inner life. So, yes! And: no! Depends on the context! (which is my answer to almost everything having to do with art).
Matthew Clark Davison
I trust that when the right subject matter comes, it'll come. I no longer panic. When I'm not in generative mode, I try and go for editing mode. Also, I read.
Matthew Clark Davison
That I can write off things that are fun? There are so many good things, practical (like the one I mentioned), but also spiritual and intellectual. Too many to pick the best.
Matthew Clark Davison
I'd just finished Justin Torres's novel We The Animals and couldn't stop thinking of trios of brothers, one queer (like my family and my husband's family). Also, the scandal in the book is based on a real-life experience (not the outcome, but the circumstances). The fictional scandal is what I needed to propel Thomas back into his family.
Matthew Clark Davison
By reading, seeing visual art, going to museums, listening to music, walking, exerercising. Nearly everything inspires me.
Matthew Clark Davison
A textbook (co-written with Alice LaPlante) partially based on a writing class I've taught in San Francisco called The Lab; a memoir tentatively called Failure; and a novel called Letters to the Dead.
Matthew Clark Davison
Write about subjects that are simultaneously mysterious to you and also absolutely brimming with meaning. If you don't care or aren't trying to figure something out, how can the reader?
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