12 or 20 (second series) questions with Pamela Gwyn Kripke
Pamela Gwyn Kripke is ajournalist and author of the novel, At the Seams (Open Books, 2023), andthe story collection, And Then You Apply Ice (Open Books, 2024). She haswritten for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, TheChicago Sun-Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Huffington Post,Slate, Salon, Medium, New York Magazine, Parenting,Redbook, Elle, D Magazine, Creators Syndicate, GannettNewspapers and McClatchy, among other publications. Her shortfiction has appeared in literary journals including Folio, TheConcrete Desert Review, The Barcelona Review, Brilliant FlashFiction and The MacGuffin. Pamela holds degrees from BrownUniversity and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and wasselected to attend the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. She has taughtjournalism at DePaul University and Columbia College in Chicago and has heldmagazine editorships in New York and Dallas. She has two daughters and livesnear Philadelphia.
1 - How did your first bookchange your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? Howdoes it feel different?
I wrote my first book,a memoir titled Girl Without a Zip Code,in 2018. I didn’t realize at the time, as a journalist without much knowledgeabout book publishing in general and small presses in particular, that I couldhave pitched the indie publishers. Instead, I sent it to a few agents, whorejected it, so I self-published it, too quickly I think. I love the book, andit confirmed for me that I could write longer than 1500 words. My recent work,a story collection titled And Then YouApply Ice, is similar in all the writerly ways but different, logistically,as it was published by a small press.
2 - How did you come to fictionfirst, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
I’ve been awidely-published journalist for 30-plus years and have written for somewonderful and prestigious publications. Just before the pandemic, I beganwriting and submitting short stories. This felt like a natural progression fromwriting essays, which I’ve done for a long time. During the lockdowns, Istarted a novel, At the Seams, basedon an episode in my family’s history, and it was published in 2023. Thecollection came a year later and includes a few of the previously publishedstories.
3 - How long does it take tostart any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly,or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their finalshape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
If by “start” you meanputting the first word on the page, physically, that does not take long. Butthe ideas run around my head for a while before I do that. Mostly, I’m thinkingabout whether something would make a good story or not, whether it has what itneeds. I’m not spending time gearing up to write or putting it off or indulgingsome desire to traipse around Thailand. As a trained journalist, I view thework as my job, so that is what I do. On the sentence level, the final draftsare quite close to the first. I like for each sentence to be great before Imove on, as they are a chain. The rhythm of one sets up the next. Sound isimportant to me. And to my dog, who has heard a lot.
4 - Where does a work of proseusually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combininginto a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the verybeginning?
I’m new to writingbook-length works, so I’m not sure there is anything usual about it yet. Thenovel began as a newspaper column, which prompted the idea for a memoir, whichultimately turned into fiction when I hit too many dead ends in the research. Afterhaving a few stories published in literary journals, I had the idea to groupthem. So, I analyzed them for common themes and then wrote new stories, withsome recurring characters, that would live nicely with the original ones.
5 - Are public readings part ofor counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoysdoing readings?
With At the Seams, I began doing readings.Though I’ve taught classes in rooms of people, I don’t really love speaking infront of groups. The beauty of writing is that people hear your voice withoutyour having to talk. But, the marketing. So yes, I do them. I enjoy answeringthe questions that people have more than the actual reading. I’d love it ifsomeone else would do that part.
6 - Do you have any theoreticalconcerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answerwith your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I’m interested in theways that beings interact and specifically, how the actions of one can affectthe life course of another in tumultuous and presumptuous and also welcomeways.
7 – What do you see the currentrole of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do youthink the role of the writer should be?
I think that writersoffer ways to see the world. We’re all seeing the same thing, but what affectsus, what the story is, is different person to person. So, I guess that we givereaders a look at what they may have seen, too, from a completely differentvantage point. The result of that, or maybe it’s a goal, is to broadenperspective and help people to be more tolerant and generous. I think we’ve hita low point with generosity.
8 - Do you find the process ofworking with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I’m used to workingwith editors as a magazine and newspaper reporter. And as a freelancer for along time, I’ve worked with many, most of whom have been excellent andgenerally make the work better in some way. I’ve also worked as an editor, so Iunderstand and respect the process. It’s always interesting and helpful to hearwhat other experts think.
9 - What is the best piece ofadvice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
When I began pitchingpieces to magazines and newspapers, I’d be ecstatic when a story was acceptedand pretty upset when one wasn’t. A musician friend advised me to rein it allin, to be just a little bit happy or a little bit annoyed. He said to only putthe work out there when I believed it was at its best. That helps to maintainan emotional equilibrium regardless of one person’s opinion.
10 - How easy has it been for youto move between genres (short stories to memoir to essays to the novel)? Whatdo you see as the appeal?
It’s been easy and fun.And, each genre uses different muscles, so one sharpens the other. It’s kind oflike cross-training.
11 - What kind of writing routinedo you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you)begin?
Now that my kids areout of the house, my dog is responsible for starting the day, and he does itwell. We are outside by 7, typically, earlier with the time change. For years,I had tea and plain toast upon our return. Now, it’s coffee, and the toast istopped with avocado and tomatoes. Without it, the world is crooked. I check theusual things on my computer - mail, the headlines in The Times, my book’samazon page - and then I continue writing where I left off the day before. Thisis never at the end of a paragraph or a chapter. I’ll always begin the nextchunk of writing, even if it’s a few words, which makes for easy entry the nextday. In the afternoon, I do the work that pays most of the bills, the teachingand editing and assorted assignments. There is exercise at 3:30 and often, areturn to the words after that.
12 - When your writing getsstalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word)inspiration?
I take a walk or do anerrand in the car. The radio is tuned to a country music station. Though I’m aNew Yorker, I spent 17 years in Texas, my daughters’ childhoods, basically. Alot was difficult for me there, but it’s where my kids grew into the peoplethey are now, so I love it for that. Listening to songs about trucks andsundresses and heartache is nostalgic, and that feeling gets me thinkingcreatively.
13 - What was your lastHallowe'en costume?
When my kids were little, theyinsisted I dress up with them. I remember being a flower child, a ballerina anda rock star in a pink Betsey Johnson. But my favorite costume came before theywere around. For a grad school party (I was studying Journalism), I dressed upas the NBC peacock. I constructed the feathers from wire and crepe paper, inone piece, pinned to my back. They extended over my head and beyond myshoulders; I remember having trouble getting into the cab.
14 - David W. McFadden once saidthat books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence yourwork, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
The arts and sciencehave been long standing interests. I’ve always made things with paint, fabricand yarn and still do. My grandfather was a dressmaker (he’s a character in mynovel), and my mom sewed, too, and painted. I grew up covered in oil pastelsand all else, and I played instruments and danced. Creativity was valued andencouraged. My dad was a surgeon, so I also learned about spleens and cellorganelles way before kids typically do. Many of my characters know about allof these things.
15 - What other writers orwritings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I try to read a lot ofdifferent things…short stories, newspapers, essays, novels. I’ll read sappywomen’s fiction and also scholarly articles on legal topics.
16 - What would you like to dothat you haven't yet done?
I’d like to choose asuitable boyfriend.
17 - If you could pick any otheroccupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think youwould have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I may have become anarchitect. I’m both artistic and analytical, and I love houses and buildingsand dimensions and design, so I think it would have made sense.
18 - What made you write, asopposed to doing something else?
My mother says that insecond grade, when the other kids wrote a paragraph, I wrote six pages.Apparently, my teacher, Mrs. Roman, stapled them up on the board, one paper ontop of the other like a book. Even for a year and a half in college when Ithought I’d be a doctor, I worked for my college newspaper and radio station.I’ve always carried a pen and paper. When people talk, I see the words intypeface.
19 - What was the last great bookyou read? What was the last great film?
I’ve just started Instructions for a Heatwave, by MaggieO’Farrell, which is promising to be great. And I loved the film, Nyad.
20 - What are you currentlyworking on?
I’ve just begun work on a novelabout a mid-life relationship.See question #16.
