Ask the Author: David Joy
Answered Questions (19)
David Joy
I imagine they'll be giving ARCs away at all the regular places. I believe they're planning on those going out around early March, but I might be wrong. I don't have anything to do with any of that stuff. I just make up stories. Hopefully you'll get your hands on a copy, and, if so, I hope you enjoy it!
David Joy
The two that immediately come to mind are Steph Post and Bonnie Jo Campbell. Steph's got two novels out, A Tree Born Crooked and Lightwood, with another hitting shelves in January called Walk In The Fire. I think Lightwood was one of the best novels to come out this year, and Walk In The Fire is just as good. She's gritty and raw and has tremendous control over a story. Bonnie Jo's American Salvage is a story collection, and while it's not set in the South (set in Michigan), she writes about rural, working class people about as wonderfully as any writer I know. I loved all of these stories and I loved her collection Mothers, Tell Your Daughters as well. She's amazingly talented.
As far as other female writers I love, I think Megan Abbott is one of the most talented writers at work right now, period. I've loved every book I've picked up from her. I really love Crystal Wilkinson. Her latest novel Birds Of Opulence was absolutely beautiful. I loved Carrie Mullins' Night Garden. I just read a novel by a writer named Tess Sharpe called Barbed Wire Heart and she reminds me a lot of Steph Post and Bonnie Jo, so I think you'd dig that novel. That's a pretty good list, but if you work through that stack of books let me know and I'll be happy to send along some more.
As far as other female writers I love, I think Megan Abbott is one of the most talented writers at work right now, period. I've loved every book I've picked up from her. I really love Crystal Wilkinson. Her latest novel Birds Of Opulence was absolutely beautiful. I loved Carrie Mullins' Night Garden. I just read a novel by a writer named Tess Sharpe called Barbed Wire Heart and she reminds me a lot of Steph Post and Bonnie Jo, so I think you'd dig that novel. That's a pretty good list, but if you work through that stack of books let me know and I'll be happy to send along some more.
David Joy
I don't know that I'd travel to any fictional world. I'm very rooted to place. My home is Appalachia. I don't feel that sort of connection anywhere else. That being said, I love reading poets like Wendell Berry and Maurice Manning and Rebecca Gayle Howell and Denton Loving, novelists like Ron Rash and Silas House and Robert Gipe for that exact reason. They know these mountains. They have eyes and ears tuned to the details of this place, and so reading them is like shining a flashlight out of my back door. Their understanding helps me see this place more clearly.
David Joy
I do remember that, Gary. I think you saw similarities in the pacing of each book's ending, but to be honest with you my memory can't be all that much better than yours, my friend. Sure hope you're doing well.
David Joy
I'd add Larry Brown and William Gay to that list of Woodrell, Rash, and McCarthy. As far as contemporaries who are writing similarly, I love Donald Ray Pollock and Benjamin Whitmer. I think both of those writers are vastly underrated. Wiley's got a new one coming out this fall called The Last Ballad. Frank Bill also has a new one coming out called The Savage. Both of those ought to be good. Definitely check out Don and Ben, though, if you haven't. As far as which book by each, I'd start with the stories in Knockemstiff for Don and then move on to Devil All The Time and The Heavenly Table. With Ben, I love Cry Father, but Pike is also incredible!
David Joy
I think the big book that's on everyone's list this summer as far as crime fiction goes is Don Winslow's new novel The Force. He's definitely one of the most talented people working in the genre, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on that. I'm also looking forward to Ace Atkins' new Quinn Colson novel The Fallen. That's one of the few series that I read. I've read a lot of great books recently, a lot of great poetry. I loved Rebecca Gayle Howell's new collection American Purgatory. There was a novel by Jim Minick that came out recently called Fire Is Your Water that I've been meaning to get my hands on. Frank Bill has a new novel that's supposed to come out this fall called The Savage that I've read and loved. Also looking forward to seeing what Wiley Cash has been up to, he's got a new one coming out called The Last Ballad. I'm looking forward to all of those. Hope that helps.
David Joy
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
David Joy
The novel started with an image. I was at a friend’s hog lot and I had this image of a young boy standing over a pig he’d killed. I knew two things: one, that his father was there and had told him to kill it, and, two, that the boy suddenly realized how much power he had over life and death. I wrote that scene, a scene that winds up happening later in the book, and I knew that the boy had a story to tell. I kept trying to write his story and I kept getting it wrong, at one point burning about half a novel and starting over. After about a year or so of living with that image I woke up one night in the middle of the night and I could hear Jacob speaking clear as day. At that point it was just a matter of trying to keep up, and I wound up writing the first draft of Where All Light Tends To Go over the course of a few months. I think I tend to live with images and characters for a long time before I ever actually get anything on the page.
As far as the darkness and the violence, I think there are also elements of hope, and I think it’s that balance between hope and fate that, with any luck, keeps the reader invested. As for writing within that space, I can remember after finishing the novel I was talking to my sister and I told her, “It’s going to take a long time to find my way out of the darkness I’ve created.” I’d spent months inside of that space, immersing myself to the point that I was walking into walls, to the point that when I had to go somewhere like the grocery store it felt as if I was moving within a dream. The world I’d created was more real to me at that moment than anything else around me. I think for an artist to create anything meaningful it takes that type of immersion. There’s a sort of sacrifice that has to be made, and, for me, the end justifies the means. I tend to tell stories of heartbreak and circumstance and desperation as I think those types of elements allow you to immediately get to the heart of a character. When things fall apart a person can’t be anything aside from exactly what they are. That’s what interests me most.
As far as the darkness and the violence, I think there are also elements of hope, and I think it’s that balance between hope and fate that, with any luck, keeps the reader invested. As for writing within that space, I can remember after finishing the novel I was talking to my sister and I told her, “It’s going to take a long time to find my way out of the darkness I’ve created.” I’d spent months inside of that space, immersing myself to the point that I was walking into walls, to the point that when I had to go somewhere like the grocery store it felt as if I was moving within a dream. The world I’d created was more real to me at that moment than anything else around me. I think for an artist to create anything meaningful it takes that type of immersion. There’s a sort of sacrifice that has to be made, and, for me, the end justifies the means. I tend to tell stories of heartbreak and circumstance and desperation as I think those types of elements allow you to immediately get to the heart of a character. When things fall apart a person can’t be anything aside from exactly what they are. That’s what interests me most.
David Joy
Just don't want you to have to do without on account of some electronic glitch. I've got some books laying around and it'll all come out in the wash.
As for writing, yeah, I ain't much good at anything else. Kind of a one trick pony. So I've got a novel coming out next year with Putnam titled, The Weight Of This World. And I'm finishing up a new novel, which has also been sold to Putnam, tentatively titled, The Line That Held Us.
I'll get that in the mail to you directly. Hope you enjoy the story.
As for writing, yeah, I ain't much good at anything else. Kind of a one trick pony. So I've got a novel coming out next year with Putnam titled, The Weight Of This World. And I'm finishing up a new novel, which has also been sold to Putnam, tentatively titled, The Line That Held Us.
I'll get that in the mail to you directly. Hope you enjoy the story.
David Joy
Unfortunately I didn't have anything to do with that giveaway, something I imagine was either done by the publisher or Goodreads. I tell you what, though, if you'll send me your mailing address I'll send you one my damn self.
David Joy
So sorry it's taken me a week to get back to you. I've been on the road and haven't had access to a computer. Using a guest computer in, wouldn't you know it, Ann Arbor right now to write you. Sure hope you've enjoyed the work and I look forward to meeting you this evening at Literati. It ought to be an absolutely wonderful time.
David Joy
I'm so sorry it's taken me a week to get back to you. I've been on the road and haven't had access to a computer. Different city everyday. Using one at a library in Ann Arbor to write this. Still ain't home, but headed that way tomorrow.
Thanks so very much for, one, reading the book, and, two, sharing your enjoyment. This means the world to me. And, yes, the second novel, The Weight Of This World, definitely comes from a similar vein, perhaps a tad darker (but don't let that scare you off). I don't have a release date for the novel yet, but you can go over to my website and read a bit about it, even read the prologue if you'd like. I sure hope you enjoy it, and thanks so much for reaching out.
http://david-joy.com/TheWeightOfThisW...
Thanks so very much for, one, reading the book, and, two, sharing your enjoyment. This means the world to me. And, yes, the second novel, The Weight Of This World, definitely comes from a similar vein, perhaps a tad darker (but don't let that scare you off). I don't have a release date for the novel yet, but you can go over to my website and read a bit about it, even read the prologue if you'd like. I sure hope you enjoy it, and thanks so much for reaching out.
http://david-joy.com/TheWeightOfThisW...
David Joy
If you enjoy that type of darker story I'd suggest reading all of Ron Rash's work, particularly the short story collections (Chemistry, Burning Bright, Nothing Gold Can Stay), though I really like his novels as well, my favorite being The World Made Straight. If that's the type of story you're into, you might want to broaden to the rest of the South and read Larry Brown, William Gay, Barry Hannah, and Harry Crews, who I consider the godfathers of what I'm trying to do, their own writing being rooted in Faulkner and O'Connor and even McCarthy.
If you're wanting to stay within the North Carolina mountains, Charles Frazier and Wayne Caldwell are really great, but if we can open the conversation up to all of Appalachia the list gets really big. I love Silas House, especially his novel A Parchment of Leaves. As far as women, read Lee Smith and Darnell Arnoult and Pamela Duncan and Sharyn McCrumb.
There are a lot of really great young writers too, writers like Mark Powell and Charles Dodd White and Denton Loving and Sheldon Lee Compton. My favorite novel this year has been Robert Gipe's Trampoline, which is set in the Kentucky coal fields. There are just loads and loads of really talented writers in this region.
Also check out some anthologies like Degrees of Elevation, which collects a lot of these writers, with a new installment of that anthology series coming out this summer called Appalachia Now. There are also some really great journals like Still or Drafthorse or Appalachian Heritage that showcase a lot of emerging talent in the region. These journals are online, for the most part, and free to read.
If you're still reading this then that ought to keep your bedside table stacked up for a while. Hope that helps.
If you're wanting to stay within the North Carolina mountains, Charles Frazier and Wayne Caldwell are really great, but if we can open the conversation up to all of Appalachia the list gets really big. I love Silas House, especially his novel A Parchment of Leaves. As far as women, read Lee Smith and Darnell Arnoult and Pamela Duncan and Sharyn McCrumb.
There are a lot of really great young writers too, writers like Mark Powell and Charles Dodd White and Denton Loving and Sheldon Lee Compton. My favorite novel this year has been Robert Gipe's Trampoline, which is set in the Kentucky coal fields. There are just loads and loads of really talented writers in this region.
Also check out some anthologies like Degrees of Elevation, which collects a lot of these writers, with a new installment of that anthology series coming out this summer called Appalachia Now. There are also some really great journals like Still or Drafthorse or Appalachian Heritage that showcase a lot of emerging talent in the region. These journals are online, for the most part, and free to read.
If you're still reading this then that ought to keep your bedside table stacked up for a while. Hope that helps.
David Joy
Neal (M.O.) is an incredible guy and one hell of a writer. We share a publisher and have novels debuting about a month apart so we became quick friends. We're actually reading together in New Orleans at Octavia Books here in about a month. Anyhow, if you're approaching my work coming out of My Sunshine Away, then you'll definitely want to read Where All Light Tends To Go, which releases on March 3 from Putnam. Neal and I are coming out of the same vein of literature, though our stories and how we approach those stories are worlds apart. We're both very much rooted in the South and branching from writers like Barry Hannah and Larry Brown and Harry Crews and William Gay. So if you enjoyed his novel, I imagine you'll enjoy Where All Light Tends To Go.
If you're into fishing, the outdoors, and trying to understand our relationship to the natural world, Growing Gills may very well be right up your alley. It came out of a vein of literature with writers like John Gierach or Harry Middleton or Dave Ames, where a collection of essays work together to function as memoir with fly fishing being used as a vehicle to illuminate self.
If you're into fishing, the outdoors, and trying to understand our relationship to the natural world, Growing Gills may very well be right up your alley. It came out of a vein of literature with writers like John Gierach or Harry Middleton or Dave Ames, where a collection of essays work together to function as memoir with fly fishing being used as a vehicle to illuminate self.
David Joy
I wake up in the morning and I read. I immerse myself in language, a lot of times poetry, and allow myself to stay in that place, stay focused on the language until the words find me. Sometimes the words find me quickly. Sometimes I wake up with words. Other times the words never come. And on those days I read. I read all day. I read until I can't hold my eyes open a second longer and then I set my bookmark, fall asleep, wake up, and start again.
David Joy
I’m currently working on a novel tentatively titled Waiting On The End Of The World, and, yes, I think it falls into a similar vein. The catalyst behind the story is that these two addicts go to buy methamphetamine and while the dealer is showing off firearms that he took in from customers as payment for drugs he accidentally kills himself. In an instant, two very ill-equipped people have a pile of guns and money and drugs at their disposal, and what ultimately ensues is a meth-fueled race toward disaster. More than that, though, the novel seems to be about the pasts that paint our futures. It seems to be about the ghosts that follow us through our lives and the impact those ghosts have on the decisions we make. I think it’s about the burdens we carry with us as we make our way through this world.
David Joy
Read. Read broadly. And when you're out of books, buy more.
David Joy
A lot of writers I've known very closely write everyday. I don't. And so for a long time there was a part of me that felt like I was doing something wrong. Then one day I stumbled onto an interview with Raymond Carver in the Paris Review where Carver is explaining his process and it was identical to how I work.
Carver said, "When I'm writing, I write every day. It's lovely when that's happening. One day dovetailing into the next. Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is. The 'paddle-wheel of days,' John Ashbery has called it. When I'm not writing, like now, when I'm tied up with teaching duties as I have been the last while, it's as if I've never written a word or had any desire to write. I fall into bad habits. I stay up too late and sleep in too long. But it's okay. I've learned to be patient and to bide my time. I had to learn that a long time ago. Patience."
When I read that I suddenly felt justified in my process. I don't write everyday, and on days when I'm not writing I indeed feel as if I've never written a word. But what I've learned is to trust in my process, to have patience that when I have something worth writing, I will write. Time and time again, it happens.
Carver said, "When I'm writing, I write every day. It's lovely when that's happening. One day dovetailing into the next. Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is. The 'paddle-wheel of days,' John Ashbery has called it. When I'm not writing, like now, when I'm tied up with teaching duties as I have been the last while, it's as if I've never written a word or had any desire to write. I fall into bad habits. I stay up too late and sleep in too long. But it's okay. I've learned to be patient and to bide my time. I had to learn that a long time ago. Patience."
When I read that I suddenly felt justified in my process. I don't write everyday, and on days when I'm not writing I indeed feel as if I've never written a word. But what I've learned is to trust in my process, to have patience that when I have something worth writing, I will write. Time and time again, it happens.
David Joy
As with a lot of writers, I start with character, so there was less an emergence of narrative than there was the birth of an image. I was with a friend at his hog pen and I was watching this big boar hog root around in the dirt when the image of Jacob McNeely lit in my mind. This friend of mine both hunts and traps hogs in the area where I live and he was explaining to me how they kill these hogs with a knife. It was in the middle of him explaining this to me that this very vivid image of a young boy kneeling over a hog and watching the last bit of light draw back in the hog’s eyes came to me. I was haunted by that image for a very long time, and then one day the character spoke.
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Jan 30, 2018 11:21AM · flag