Kali Fajardo-Anstine's Sweeping Novel of the American West

Goodreads: What did you set out to do with this book? 

Kali Fajardo-Anstine: So I grew up in Denver, Colorado, the second oldest of seven children. I had this large, multicultural, multigenerational family. Our matriarch was my Auntie Lucy, who came north to Denver in the 1920s from southern Colorado. And when we would visit her, she’d tell stories about our people and who we were. Growing up, I heard all these stories from my elders.

But no matter what I read, no matter how many books I searched for, I couldn't find stories like ours in literature. So, what I set out to do is: I wanted to put us into novels. I wanted stories about people that were as mixed as me, who had gone through the ancestral struggles that my people went through. I wanted another person like me to go to the library and pick up a book and say, Ah, that's who we are. That's the story of how we got here. So, I had a very big ambition when I set out to write this book.

GR: What was it like growing up and not feeling represented in stories? Did you realize the unfairness, or did you question it?

KFA: I did. My mother is an activist in our community, and I grew up with a really strong sense of injustice. It did seem strange to me that when I’d go into the classroom, we were never presented narratives about the original peoples from what is now known as Colorado. But at home, I was told all kinds of stories: about labor movements, the Ludlow Massacre, the horrific Sand Creek massacre. At home, I was really educated in these things. 

GR: When did you realize you could write your own stories?

KFA: I remember in high school, I had this exchange teacher from Hungary, and he was the first person to introduce me to The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I remember him talking about how that book reminded him of carrying his grandma when she was ill to the outhouse behind their home in Hungary and how he really connected with it. When I read it, I also connected with it, even though I could tell that these are Mexican Americans in Chicago. This is a very different group of people, but I could see how we were all connected. And this teacher from Hungary, sharing that story, inspired me to think I can write about anything I want. And if I do a good enough job, someone from anywhere in the world should be able to connect to the stories. 
 
GR: Your novel pushes back against some stereotypes of Colorado. It makes me think of something you said in an interview that I thought was interesting. You said, "I'm always writing against this idea that Denver is a white space that was settled after World War Two." Does that quote still resonate with you?

KFA: Definitely. There are people reading this, who, for the first time, are considering the cultural plurality that made Denver the space that it is. They are seeing all the cultures: Chicano, Indigenous, Greek, Russians. I am a person of incredibly multicultural heritage, and the only way that a person like me could exist is because of the American experience, particularly in the American West, with all these different cultural groups coming together.

GR: Reading your novel, I learned a lot about the land that we call Colorado. 

KFA: I'm so glad to hear that because that was one of my ambitions. I wanted people to be entertained. I wanted them to blow through it and just keep turning pages. But I also want readers to reflect and learn about what the story is teaching them.

GR: I'm guessing you did a lot of research. There were so many details that stood out to me, like the young women drawing kohl eyeliner on their stockings. Maybe you made that up? But that just seems too real.

KFA: Actually, my grandma told me about that! She said during the Depression, they had to use eyeliner to hide the fact that they couldn't afford stockings. The research that I did is twofold. I grew up steeped in these stories. Storytelling, and the oral tradition, is very important in my community. But I also began doing a lot of archival research around 2015, when I was living in Durango and had access to archives and different museums. One of the things that I found really frustrating and difficult is that—Chicano people, Indigenous and Black communities, Asian communities, all these different marginalized communities of the West—our history had not been collected at nearly the rate of the lives of white Americans and European Americans before them. So it was a huge amount of research, but a lot of it was interviewing elders, visiting homes, visiting sacred sites, and immersing myself in the American West. 

GR: Can we discuss your process? You finished your first full draft of Woman of Light in 2019. Was the book done then?

KFA: Basically all of 2020, I was rewriting it. I rewrote it from page one. Some scenes were kept, they were better than others. But when I revise, I start over and go through everything. So 2020 was really difficult because I didn't have a stable place to live, and we were going through the beginnings of this pandemic. I’d had the success of Sabrina & Corina, and I had to refocus and say, “I love that book. But it's really important that I finish this novel because this is what I set out to do for my life's work.” 

GR: What was it like trying to finish this epic novel during a pandemic? 

KFA: It was really difficult, but in some ways it offered me escape because I could go and hang out with my character friends, Diego and Luz and Lizette. They always cheered me up. But also, we were experiencing this racial reckoning in America, and I was seeing that the 1930s also went through these social movements where people were demanding fair labor, fair rent prices, and equality. I was starting to realize, We are actually experiencing sort of a mirror to what's been happening in social movements throughout this country for many decades.

GR: I definitely felt that in your book. And I wondered if you were thinking of events of May and June 2020 while writing? 

KFA: I was living in downtown Denver, where Luz works. And one of the stories that I heard growing up from my Auntie Lucy is that the KKK would march outside their home. When that would happen, they’d have to lie down on the floor and hide beneath the windows so they weren't harmed. And I remember, in 2020, there were counter-protests in Denver by right-wing militias. I couldn't leave the house because I didn't know if I was going to run into somebody with a rifle walking around downtown. 

GR: I'm sorry you experienced that.

KFA: It was hard to realize that, like my ancestors, we've made a lot of progress in this country, but there are so many things that are still deeply poisoning us. 

GR: Have any of your elders read the book? 

KFA: My Auntie Lucy's daughter, my godmother, Joanna Lucero, is this awesome queer woman in her mid-80s. She read the novel twice, and she told me she never reads books twice. I actually don't even know her to be a reader, so I was surprised. She said that while she was reading it, at one point, she looked up to heaven and said, "Look, Mama, we have a whole book about us!" Her pride in the book is the biggest positive response that I will ever get because it's my own family and I wanted to honor us. 

GR: I love that! Switching gears a bit, what books have inspired you in your career?

KFA: One of the biggest influences in my life has been One Hundred Years of Solitude. I remember reading that as a teenager when I was very depressed. I struggled with depression my whole life, and my dad would leave books outside of my bedroom door as sort of like a pick-me-up. And one day, I opened up the door and there was One Hundred Years of Solitude. I was just absorbed for days. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison also greatly inspired Woman of Light, just seeing that enormous scope. And Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop. I actually was just asked to write the introduction for Penguin Classics for that novel. I'm very, very honored.

GR: Congratulations! What are you excited to read now? 

KFA: I'm almost finished with Invisible Things by Mat Johnson. It’s a really fun, satirical sci-fi novel, and it's just blowing me away. I'm really looking forward to reading the short story collection If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery and the new Mieko Kawakami novel, All the Lovers in the Night. 

GR: Before we go, is there anything I didn't ask you that you wanted to talk about?

KFA: One thing I did want to mention is that I've been noticing that some readers think [one of the characters] is involved in a love triangle. And I think that's really interesting because the man is so much older than she is. It's really making me think about how we still view it as a woman’s responsibility to ward off people in power. To me, she’s in an abusive relationship. It’s really interesting how we're still viewing it as a woman’s responsibility. And maybe it's because it's a different time period? It also could be because she's Latina and Indigenous.

GR: It must be very hard when you want to get in there and correct the record—or maybe you don't? 

KFA: I don't. I think that's why this book will be really good for book clubs. I think there will be lively discussions and disagreements about certain things. And that's the kind of literature I'm setting out to write. I want complicated characters who stir up a lot of human emotion.

GR: It’s great you're not quietly fuming! 

KFA: I mean, I did for a little bit, but now I'm just trying to be Zen. I actually told my team, “No more reviews!” But I think it's something to mention because, as readers, we're programmed to look for love triangles or romance. I'm like, “Wow, you're looking for what you've always looked for, but this book maybe doesn't supply it in the same way.”

GR: Well, I have read Goodreads reviews of Woman of Light, and I saw so much love and appreciation for the book.

KFA: That's good!! I stopped looking at reviews a long time ago. Also, it’s blowing my mind that Goodreads wants to interview me. I remember being a teenager and adding my little books to myself. It’s such a big deal to be interviewed by Goodreads. So, thank you!