Marian Palaia - Given World

I am working on a new novel, and am much more deliberative about keeping the narrative cohesive, making sure all the pieces fit. I go back to the beginning a lot, to make sure the alignment is tight, and to make sure anything new I add is not random but actually belongs there. Nothing drives me crazier, when I am reading a book or a story, than to come to a part which feels as though the author woke up one morning, sat down at his or her desk, and said, “Oh, here’s an interesting thought I was having,” or “Here’s something unique I overheard; I think I’ll just throw it in,” or “Here’s this paragraph I’ve been saving, and I don’t have much to say today, so let’s just try to squeeze this in and hope no one notices it doesn’t belong.” I believe it is an author’s obligation to build a story, in the same way physical structures are built: you have to have a solid base, and each level (or chapter) has to be supported by what has gone before. Writing The Given World the way I wrote it, and having to go back to make sure that the structure was there, has taught me to stay on top of it all the way through. Going back to the beginning over and over means it will take me a very long time to write the first draft, but it also means less time (maybe) spent revising, even though revision is my favorite part of writing. So maybe going back to the beginning is actually a way to keep doing the part I like, and avoiding the hard part, which is creating new material. Who knows? As far as revisiting characters goes, Lu, or someone who is much like Lu, makes an appearance in the new book. She just kind of showed up, and I liked her, so I kept her. Themes? Oh, yeah. War and the wounded. Bad behavior and what underlies it. Wondering where, or what, home is. Loving the wrong people, or loving the right people the wrong way. Those will always be my themes.

Who are some of the storytellers who have influenced your work?

Graham Greene, James Baldwin, Malcolm Lowry, Michael Ondaatje, Arundhati Roy, James Welch, Lorrie Moore, Barry Hannah, Louise Erdrich, Thomas McGuane, Jim Crumley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. For memoir, Joan Didion, Mary Karr, Alexandra Fuller. For poetry, Richard Hugo, Terrance Hayes, Jane Hirschfield. A million others in all camps.

© KELLY RAE DAUGHERTY

Marian Palaia was born in Riverside, California, and grew up there and in Kensington, Maryland. She spent two of her college undergraduate years on a ranch in Montana and studied creative writing in Missoula with Richard Hugo, Rick DeMarinis, and Barry Hannah. She received her BA from The Evergreen State College, moved to San Francisco in 1985, and received her MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. In 2001 she moved back to Missoula, where she received her master’s in public administration. At the University of Wisconsin — Madison, she studied with Lorrie Moore, Judith Mitchell, Jesse Lee Kercheval, and Rob Nixon, receiving her MFA in 2012. In 2012–2013, she was a John Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University. She currently lives in San Francisco, and has lived in, among other places, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, and Nepal, where she was a Peace Corps volunteer. She has also worked as a bartender, a landscaper, a truck driver, and as the littlest logger in Lincoln, Montana.

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