{"id":4172,"date":"2019-10-03T09:20:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T06:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/?p=4172"},"modified":"2019-10-03T09:24:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T06:24:58","slug":"interview-with-m-m-de-voe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/2019\/10\/03\/interview-with-m-m-de-voe\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with M. M. De Voe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why is it important to bring\ndiaspora authors together? Or perhaps not only diaspora authors but Lithuanian\nwriters who live in Lithuania and Lithuanian writers who live in diaspora?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arts thrive in community. In isolation, an author can push\nthemselves to create, yes, but to truly realize their full potential they must\nbe challenged in an inspiring way. The more diverse the ideas that the artists\nand writers discuss when they come together, the more intriguing ideas bubble\nup \u2013 instead of just beer, you get champagne. Writers of the diaspora see\nLithuania from a different perspective, from a bit of distance. Do you know the\nfable about the elephant and the blind men? One saw a wall, one saw a rope, one\nsaw a tree, and one a spear? Only by adding this all together could they\ndiscover an elephant? It is both challenging and inspiring to hear about how\nother writers work, where they find peace, how they get through writing blocks,\nwhat themes and ideas matter. There is something about being in a room full of\npeople who care as much about the perfect word as you do \u2013 and then discovering\nthat person lives across the globe from you \u2013 and yet you have similar roots,\nyou both know the blue of a cornflower, you both remember some adult showing\nyou as a child how to get to the sharp, bitter scent of a r\u016bta by crushing one\nleaf between your thumb and forefinger, you both know the savory taste of dill.\nIt pulls the world closer, like a drawstring. And what you keep in that secret\nsack\u2014that is up to you, but it is nice to know that everyone is carrying some\nmemories that are all tied together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Could you tell more about\nyour creative writing studies at Columbia University? If I\u2019m right, Michael\nCunningham, the author of \u201cThe Hours,\u201d was one of  your teachers? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes! He is a brilliant instructor. This was just a year before he won\nthe Pulitzer Prize and he was still writing that book while we were in class\nwith him. I will never forget the day he came to class a bit late and very\nunhappy because he had gotten stuck writing and was feeling depressed about it.\n\u201cGuys,\u201d he said, \u201cI am writing a book about my mother and Virginia Woolf. Is\nthat crazy?\u201d I look back on that day whenever I feel doubtful of my own\ncreativity, or when I am second-guessing a very strange story I am working on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day I had workshopped a long story about a grandmother and a young\nsinger that the class wasn\u2019t very favorable about, and Michael called me into\nhis office and told me that I had a gem, but it was buried in descriptions. He\nsaid, never be afraid to cut \u2013 and he took out actual scissors and cut and cut\nuntil my 24 page story was only a 12 page story. The second paragraph became\nthe last paragraph. It got published the first time I sent it out. He was\nwonderful and very insightful as a teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had other fine teachers too: Helen Schulman was one. She told me to\nwrite about whatever caused me pain, never to be afraid to go to the dark\nplaces. The workshop structure taught me to figure out who the good critics\nwere and only pay attention to them, ignore the people who didn\u2019t understand\nthe work at all\u2014they would find other writers to enjoy. Write for people who\nlove your writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our \u00a0Lithuanian Studies Unit at the National Library of Lithuania wants to offer our readers \u00a0creative writing classes. Hopefully, it\u2019s a project we\u2019ll be able to implement in the future. However, a number of Lithuanian authors, whom we intended to invite as lecturers, refused our invitation saying that creative writing is purely a question of author\u2019s talent: You either have it or you don’t.\u00a0 What\u2019s your take on this? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that writing talent is something that you have and that it is\nconnected to your powers 1) to observe and 2) to make people interested in what\nyou observe through your ability to communicate. Curiosity and the desire to\ncommunicate can\u2019t be taught, but what can absolutely be taught is to reconnect\nto your creativity, to use richer words, to describe more freely\u2014the craft of\nwriting can absolutely be taught. You can also be encouraged by a good teacher\nto let go of your insecurities and your blocks \u2013 you can be shown what your\nstrengths and weaknesses are as a writer. Can you always overcome them? Not\nalways. But you can absolutely become a better writer with training and\npractice. Will you be guaranteed a brilliant bestselling novel? No, but you can\u2019t\nexpect every doctor to become a great brain surgeon either, even if they want\nto. There is a combination of dedication, hard-work, desire, and yes, talent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have noticed that Margaret Atwood is among the authors who have had an influence on your work. Does feminism play an important part in your life? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am surprised to say that it does. For decades I held that men and\nwomen were equals and if all things were blind (judging, no names, no\nappearance-based decisions) then talent would rise to the top regardless of\ngender. While I still believe that, in the past ten years or so, I have come to\nbelieve that there is a systemic sexism that prevents women from achieving as\nhighly if people know that they are women. I do think that women have to work\nharder than men to receive the same accolades. I definitely think that a woman\nlosing her temper is seen as a negative thing, while a man losing his temper is\nseen as ordinary. I guess, if anyone is still asking if women can\/should be the\nequal of men, then the fact that a question remains means that there is still\nfeminist work to be done\u2014because the goal is to see all of humanity as\nthemselves. People that all have strengths and flaws. None better or worse than\nany other, just more useful or less useful, more agreeable or less, more\ntalented or less, etc\u2026all on an individual basis. Why do we group ourselves so\nreadily? I do not think like all of the other women in the world. I do not\nthink like all the other New Yorkers. I do not think like all the other\nLithuanians born in Texas, even. I barely think like the other people in my own\nfamily! We are all individuals. Instead of competing against the groups that\nare most dissimilar to us, why don\u2019t we seek what we have in common with them\nand try to band together into an even larger group?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If my information is correct,\nyou had an apartment just a block away from the WTC Towers when the attacks of\nSeptember 11 happened. I presume that the tragedy has touched you very deeply.\nWould you mind telling more about that experience? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a terrible day, however I still live in that same apartment. Just\nas my life has changed since that day \u2013 I have two children now that are nearly\ngrown \u2013 the neighborhood has also completely changed. If anyone has visited,\nthey will know that there is now a beautiful park with two extraordinary\nwaterfall monuments to the Twin Towers and the lives that perished that day,\nthere is a museum, and there are clothing shops and restaurants and new train\nstations and boutiques and the whole place is vibrant with community. That day\nwas very shocking: I had a meeting on the plaza that morning that I had\ncanceled the night before \u2013 I should have been on the plaza having coffee with\na colleague working on his musical script. Instead I was still asleep and a\nlarge boom shook me out of bed. My husband should have left for work but was\nstill home and said it was a bomb \u2013 I came running. There were white office\npapers flying outside the window like snow in a snow globe. Random swirling\nwith no end in sight. My neighbor brought her baby to our apartment because\ntheirs faced the Towers and she didn\u2019t want the baby seeing the fires and the\npeople jumping. So she put the baby with a banana into our windowless bedroom\nwhile we contacted people to see what was going on. The second plane hit and shook\nour building again. It felt like an earthquake and other neighbors told us our\nbuilding was being evacuated. While we were discussing this, the first building\ncame down and plunged our apartment into darkness. It was such a pretty day\nthat we had not turned on any lights and the debris was so thick it blotted out\nall the lights including the sun. My husband (a hero!) got wet washcloths to\nbreathe through and told me to put on long pants and hiking boots in case of\ndebris. I grabbed our passports and my camera and took pictures as we walked.\nThe second building collapsed while we were in the street and we ran ahead of\nthe billowing cloud of dust and into a random office building where the fire\nwarden gave us emergency water and welcomed us to stay as long as we liked. We\nended up hiking all the way up to my mother in law\u2019s house, which is not far\nfrom the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Two things are memorable about that walk:\n1) once we were out of the cloud it was a beautifully clear hot day and we had to\ngo to a shop to buy shorts and flip-flops so we would not overheat. And 2) it\ntook us a long time to figure out a route because we were afraid other\nbuildings were targeted. We ended up taking Second Avenue because there were no\nlandmarks on that route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does New York or Manhattan have\na special place in your heart? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love Manhattan. I love New York. When I arrived here around 30 years\nago, I felt home for the first time. Here, no one thought I was strange or out\nof place, no matter who I was, what language I spoke, what I wore, what I\nthought \u2013 New York City could handle anything from normal to completely weird,\nand just accept it. I love this still. I also love the endless change and the\nendless movement. So many completely different people, speaking a hundred\nlanguages, looking a hundred different ways, all getting along (mostly). This\nis a home to anyone who doesn\u2019t fit in anywhere else. This is my home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please tell about your project\n\u201cPen Parentis\u201d? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a creation of love. I was co-host of a reading series where my\nfriend and I brought together writers who had kids to talk about how they\nmanage to keep writing books while caring for their child. There were so many\nwonderful stories \u2013 but everyone agreed that community was important. Having\nthe support of friends who were writers was important. So I decided to add\nstructure and create this community. We have a membership of writers who are\nalso parents, we have monthly literary salons that are open to the general\npublic where we try to expand people\u2019s ideas of what a parent writer can\naccomplish, we give an annual Fellowship to one talented writer who is a\nparent. The website is penparentis.org \u2013 I encourage everyone to have a look!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You really enjoyed visiting the\nChildren and Youth Literature Department at the National Library of Lithuania.\nWhat was so exciting about it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was so beautiful, and so thoughtful. I loved how independent the\nchildren were\u2014I loved the soundproof study section where everyone I saw was\nactually studying. I saw only one girl on a cellphone and she put it away after\nlooking at it for only a moment. The self-discipline was beautiful. I was also\nimpressed by the  quantity and quality of\nthe books offered in the children\u2019s section: I loved that there were classics\nfrom all over the world both in the original language and in translation. I was\namazed that the library provides childcare for toddlers so that adults can work\nwithout interruption. The space allotted to children was enormous and welcoming\nand the children were all studious and well-behaved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could you recommend a book\nor a shorter literary piece for our visitors? It could be a light summer read\nor something more solid. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw that you had \u201c100 Years of Solitude\u201d on your shelves in Lithuanian\ntranslation by Gabriel Gracia Marquez \u2013 that\u2019s an amazing book which seems so\nrealistic even though it is entirely fantasy. I wouldn\u2019t call it light, but it\nis a good read for the summer because it is so easy to get deeply lost in it.\nFor summer, I really like books that transport the reader and show them\nunfamiliar worlds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your best tips to overcome writer’s block? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What works for me won\u2019t necessarily work for everyone, but I like to walk around. It brings circulation back into the body and while you are walking, you often see things that seem relevant to the story\u2014sometimes you can fix a plot problem or solve a character issue quite naturally. Just make sure you leave your phone turned off! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is it important to bring diaspora authors together? Or perhaps not only diaspora authors but Lithuanian writers who live in Lithuania and Lithuanian writers who live in diaspora? The Arts thrive in community. In isolation, an author can push themselves to create, yes, but to truly realize their full potential they must be challenged … Toliau skaityti „Interview with M. M. De Voe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-naujienos","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lnb.lt\/lituanistika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}