OV Interview Series: Elizabeth Merrick

I met Elizabeth Merrick through Jessa Crispin, at a party Jessa had for Elizabeth while Elizabeth was in from New York doing a stint at Ragdale. Elizabeth and I bonded over the dilemma of bringing the wrong shoes to Ragdale (read: anything not suitable for trekking through prairie mud), and I soon discovered that this woman has some wonderfully radical beliefs about independent publishing, and that she's putting her money where her mouth is by having founded Demimonde, a book press that published her own first novel, GIRLY. The founder and director of the Grace Reading Series, Elizabeth also keeps scary statistics on how the publishing industry treats literary fiction by women, starting with the ratio of women to men who publish short stories in the New Yorker (it's not pretty, people). Not only a rebel voice with Demimonde, Elizabeth is also working for change from within, currently editing a forthcoming Random House anthology called THIS IS NOT CHICK LIT. She lives in New York where she works as a writing coach and runs Elizabeth's Workshops , a popular writing school. Elizabeth took the time to answer questions in between bridesmaid duty out in the Pacific Northwest, and running off to a baptism on her home turf. (Ah, even women who are changing the literary world still get stuck in pastel dresses with puffy sleeves . . .)

OV: How would you describe the current publishing climate? What do you see as the role of the independent literary press today?

EM: Current publishing climate: little too much Applebee's, despite the hard work and best intentions of the amazing people who work there. The corporate pressure, the lack of readership, what's going on in our educational system now just make this such a tough business, and the people who work in mainstream publishing are doing their best. Independent literary press is crucial—every little bit we can do to maintain culture is at this point like the unicorn tapestries. Every thought that is a thought and not an ad, not a moment to crave plastic surgery or a role in a reality TV show or a mcmansion is crucial. It comes down to imagination verses self-loathing, every time, and the independent literary press pushes for imagination, so thank goodness for that.

OV: Can you tell us how your fiction first broke into print, how you got your first book published, and what, if any, barriers you encountered en route to publication?

EM: I published my first novel Girly myself. That is what I get for wondering, all those years, where the literary Sleater Kinneys were, while agents were telling me they loved my book but it wasn't commercial enough, etc etc. Be the change you want to see is all there is to it, and that can get a little bit exhausting, but it is exhilarating too. And after seeing so many writers struggle with their publishers, or feel so out of control of what happens to their books, I see how it’s cosmically perfect for me to own my first book completely and be in control of it. I’ve been reading a lot by and about Alan Moore and his struggles with not owning his early work and Tori Amos’s struggles with not owning her work when Atlantic tried to fuck her over, sit on her old albums, not promote anything new, and not let her leave. Studying the paths of these two on the road ahead of me has multiplied my gratitude for the way Girly played out for me (a path which I fought for so long). You want to maintain control without having to depend completely on your own resources, and this is a tricky balance. But doing it myself was amazing--I really understood then that the work stands on its own without anybody's imprimatur, and it’s a gift as a young writer to know that.

OV: How do you juggle teaching with writing? Does teaching enrich your work, or is it simply essential to pay the bills?

EM: I looooove teaching but I do it outside of an institution and I only teach adults who come to my little writing school that I started—no college kids, no sweating grad students. I get to do whatever I want and emphasize what really works rather than battle with certain English departments' academic discomfort with creativity. I am really not interested in being this heavy, line-editing teacher. My specialty is cultivating the beginning enthusiasm and teaching people how to protect their creativity and get it to blossom. People want that and I am more than happy to provide that. I get to be this happy, blissful, approving creature, with a bag of editorial tricks that work much better than the standard workshop-speak-crap. My students are heaven so I pretty much always have one class going and probably always will.

OV: Do you believe writing workshops are necessary to the development of a young writer?

EM: Yes, you need to take classes, at least to a certain point. And so many people want to be writers but only read David Sedaris or whatever's hip, which is probably good as far as getting a book deal goes but bad as far as a sustaining, interesting life and body of work goes—for that you need to be reading everything. For me I was just obsessed with reading the next and the next thing—I’m not sure everyone is about that. But you have to study—how did the author do that opening? That transition? I want that effect—why is that boring character suddenly not? A class can’t teach you all that—you have to put on your Sherlock hat on on your own.

OV: Can you describe the difference between writing short fiction and novels?

EM: For me, I really pretty much only write novels—I have to be out of the city, driving around, completely entering into another dimension, another world. To get the “place” of a piece of fiction it takes so much for me, consumes me, I can’t imagine doing that for just 10 pages, 20 pages. I’m in it for the big crazy hit of myth and wildness a novel gives you. There are of course stories that enter that wildness, but I can't write them, it takes me so long to get in and get out. I have written one story in my life that wasn't actually part of a novel in the end--it's about a hair extension someone finds on the pavement. It all comes back to the hair.

OV: What are your five favorite novels of all time?

EM: Paradise, Toni Morrison. Immortality, Milan Kundera. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner. Tracks, Louise Erdrich (but really all of her books), one of Alan Moore's but I’m not sure which book yet, I can't decide.

OV: What are your five favorite short stories?

EM: "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," Flannery O"Connor. "Meneseteung" Alice Munro. "The Dead" James Joyce. "Saint Marie," Louise Erdrich. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" Joyce Carol Oates.

OV: What is the most important book (fiction or non) that you’ve read in the past year?

EM: Eat, Pray, Love. I have witnessed firsthand the shocking reluctance of the literary establishment to let in the spiritual, the sensual, the sexual, and Elizabeth Gilbert is this genius at opening the door very politely and then writing the hell out of whatever she’s onto. I love her writing, the integrity and the humor to her. This book so intelligently, exquisitely brings this content of women’s lives into the realm of respectable adults, takes it out of the self help aisle. Simliarly to how Malcolm Gladwell translates obvious functions of intuition to atheistic white people who traditionally cling to a trust in the rational alone, Elizabeth Gilbert brings in the so-new-as-to-be-unspoken truths of womens lives—these little investigations we’re all making just to remain functional on planet Bush 35 years after the feminist revolution—and makes a lovely introduction of this material to the rational world of literary readers.This book is important because it brings what has been happening on the edges into the mainstream--she is very very good at this and I am so grateful because I suck at it but I think it's probably the most important thing books can do right now. I’m in love with her a little bit. Plus she actually enjoys meditiating, which has me alternately in awe of and jealous of. Plus I want to go to Bali and Italy and stop being so freaking overworked all the time.

OV: If you could have dinner with any fiction writer, living or dead, who would it be and what is one question you would ask him or her?

EM: I would ask Toni Morrison: what do you think we should do now? (In my little fantasy, she talks for 3 hours. I remember everything).

OV: What are you working on now?

EM:The Random House anthology This Is Not Chick Lit is finishing up for an August 2006 release. Beyond that, I’m working on essays, and a book of nonfiction about sex and spirituality. Plus something super top secret I can't talk about (even though I really want to)

OV: What is the worst thing a professor, agent, editor or reviewer has ever said about your fiction?

EM: The best-worst was Kirkus called Girly a bunch of “trashy travails” which is so Ab Fab that I only wish I could live up to it. It's fun to say as you're going through your day--thinking of your wait in line for a coffee or your cab ride as a Trashy Travail. Like--oooooh! so trashy! I felt like I had to Botox-up, pack four bottles of Stoli in a carry-on and go visit Patsy in Morrocco immediately. It came the same week that Library Journal called Girly post-feminist experimental fiction and basically too hard to understand for the average reader. These two combined makes it sound way more Kathy Acker than it is, but neither really bothered me. I write so much through the lens of myth and from a base of Helene Cixous’s idea of ecriture feminine that whatever complaints don't bug me—I’m thinking about it through another lens anyway. You stick around long enough and the real malice doesn’t come from critics—which is the scary part.If these kinds of critical jabs are bothering a writer, it's probably a sign to ratchet it up and take bigger risks, really terrify yourself by putting yourself on the line somehow, cause then you'll be so used to people telling you you're doing something wrong that something as minor as a bad review won't even register.

Comments

[Angela]

Gina,

Thanks for posting this interview and Tod's. I hope to follow in both of these fine writer's footsteps. Bookslut is/has been a wonderful way for me to get to know authors, their work and to continue working toward my goal of publishing my own work.

And by the way, I"ll be in touch latter part of next week so we can set up our interview. I can't wait to discuss your book!

[Goldie]

Hey. Late to bed and late to wake will keep you long on money and short on mistakes.
I am from Switzerland and learning to speak English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Flea beetles can overwinter on weed hosts surrounding the field, flea beetles are common pests of seedling tomatoes in most areas.Photographic study by dave walker of these insects."

Thanks for the help 8-), Angie.