Sybil Baker’s non-fiction collection, Immigration Essays is one of C&R’s best sellers! She also has a novel out, too: While You Were Gone. Follow the links to order a copy and keep reading for an interview with Sybil.
In between winter storms, our editor Jenna R. London talked shop with Sybil Baker and discussed her two most recent books, While You Were Gone and Immigration Essays.
Jennna R. London: How do you incorporate reading into your life as a writer?
Sybil Baker: In my creative writing classes, I assign a fair amount of contemporary fiction, which I read as well. I also try to read at night before I fall asleep. This year I’m trying to read a minimum of 25 pages a day, and hope to stick to that challenge this year.
What are the last few books you read and how do they influence your current writing endeavors?
I read a lot of nonfiction as well as fiction. On the nonfiction side, some of the more recent books I’ve read that I really enjoyed are Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Educated by Tara Westover, and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee.
In fiction, I’ve most recently read C&R Press titles Ivy vs Dogg by Brian Leung, Made by Mary by Laura Catherine Brown, and Life During Wartime by Katie Rogin.
I also recently read Less by Andrew Shawn Greer and am currently reading Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart. Both are comic travel novels, and they have inspired me to write my own comic travel novel with a female protagonist.
How has your writing process evolved over the course of your writing career?
For my first published novel, I worked hard developing a detailed outline and character profiles because I knew so little about three act novel structure. Now a lot of the outlining takes place in my head, with me jotting down only a few notes before I begin. That said, each project is different and difficult in its own way. I’ve learned to allow the writing process to absorb a lot of missteps and failures.
How does teaching influence your writing process and vice versa?
I try to teach what I wish I’d been taught when I was taking workshops—so in addition to workshops and reading assignments, I spend time on sentence writing, imitation, and structure. This then helps me keep those elements in mind in my own work.
Of all the books you’ve written, do you have a favorite?
Usually the most recent book I’ve written is my favorite.
You have shared that While You Were Gone was inspired by Chekhov’s Three Sisters and influenced by King Lear. Are there any contemporary novels that influenced the book?
Not any novels in particular, but I tried to read novels about sisters as inspiration. I really enjoyed Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, which is a retelling of King Lear and centers on three sisters.
Which plot twist in While You Were Gone surprised you the most?
Spoiler alert–the biggest plot surprise for me (this only happened late after many revisions) was that Jeremy is Tammy’s son.
With which Nash sister do you most identify? Do you see portions of yourself in all of their characters?
I channeled different parts of myself when writing all three characters, but the one I most identify with is Shannon.
What was the most challenging aspect of revising this novel?
I revised the last third of the novel many times. I had a lot of problems writing the ending. Some versions of the novel were too dark for what I wanted, others too melodramatic. I killed off characters then brought them to life and revised the ending’s plot points many times.
Tell us how you conceived of your novel While You Were Gone?
For unknown reasons, I wanted to write a novel about sisters living in Chattanooga who lose their parents. I love Chekhov’s short stories and when I read his play Three Sisters, I decided to use that story as a loose structure for mine. As I revised the novel, many parts moved farther from the play, but the original inspiration was there.
If you could control part of the experience of the reader, what would you have them take away from While You Were Gone?
I would hope that they would view the characters with compassion and generosity, and to remember that life is long and its paths are circuitous.
Immigration Essays has been quite popular and the subject matter is very much relevant to our time. Did you conceive of the book with an inclination that the issues it discussed would become more relevant?
I had no idea. I wrote about the topics because they were relevant and interesting to me, and hoped that my writing about them would make them relevant and interesting to my readers. I didn’t know that political events would bring make those essays relevant to an even wider audience.
What are people most surprised about when they read IE?
College students are often surprised by how the book is put together and the variety of approaches to the essays—they are often not familiar with literary essay collections. Readers from Chattanooga are surprised about some of the history of Chattanooga, especially the existing income disparities. Other readers are surprised about my living abroad for 12 years, and my experiences from that time.
What was it like going through your past, even the sordid parts, and putting those experiences and that information down on the page? Was it trying? Do you have words of advice for other writers who want to plum their familiar histories?
For IE, I didn’t write about any sordid events. I did mention my divorce, but that is a common life event for people. I also wrote about my Dad’s family being slave holders, but that also is something to be discussed and examined rather than ignored. I think each writer has to decide who they want to write about and why. I think it’s important to ask yourself, is this my story to tell or is it another family members. I have several stories related to my family that I would not write about for that reason, unless those people gave me permission to do so.
What can you tell us about your current project(s)?
I’m starting a nonfiction project that develops some of the themes from Immigration Essays—looking at my family’s slaveholding past within the context of the American Dream through letters to my (deceased) father. I’m about to begin revisions on my novel manuscript The Dead Guru’s Ex-Wife, which traces the relationships of the narrator, her deceased ex-husband, and her best friend from first grade. This summer I hope to begin work on the comic travel novel.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sybil Baker is the author of The Life Plan, Talismans, and Into This World. She is a UC Foundation Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and teaches at the Yale Writer’s Conference. She has received two Make Work Artist Grants and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission. She is Fiction Editor at Drunken Boat.
Get a copy of Immigration Essays here!
And While You Were Gone here!