Interview: Anne Valente

Anne Valente is the author of over twenty published stories; her work has been included in multiple anthologies, and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, as well as for honors from a variety of journals from Story South to Best of the Web.

Her most recently published story, “By Light We Knew Our Names,” tells a harrowing story of an insular Alaskan town, and four women within it who are held emotionally captive by men–fathers, brothers, husbands. These men are either haunting in their absence, or dominating in their presence.

Anne’s writing is pitch-perfect in this story, and elsewhere; it seems that she gives her characters just enough ability to navigate a troubled world, but never frees them entirely. Her work deals in tuned details, finely timed events, and conflicts that shock and excite. How artfully she demonstrates the trouble and resilience of the worlds to which she lends life.

Anne lives and teaches in Ohio. Find her site here, and her work here.

An Excerpt:

The Interview:

PAGES TO PIXELS

Much of your work appears in successful online literary journals. How has the Internet affected literature? Does it encourage undiscovered voices, or inundate readers with a mass of unregulated writing?

ANNE VALENTE

I think the internet certainly encourages undiscovered voices, both in online literary journals and blogs, and also exposes readers to a variety of new writers, whether they’re already established or emerging.

Print journals are wonderful too, and I think it’s important to read a mix of print and online journals to familiarize yourself with the literary landscape, and also to discover new writing.  The variety of journals out there reflects the diversity of ways that people access information and literature.

PAGES TO PIXELS

How do you feel about e-readers? It seems, to me, absurd that we might convert art from one medium to the other and treat it as the same.

ANNE VALENTE

I’m actually not that familiar with e-readers – I’m kind of perpetually teased by my lack of knowledge about new forms of technology.  I can see their benefits, but I haven’t yet felt the need to purchase an e-reader.  I like the weight of a book.

PAGES TO PIXELS

Does theory represent central importance in literature, or does formal and stylistic innovation take a back seat to an effective narrative?

ANNE VALENTE

I think often these two go hand in hand.  Certainly, I don’t know if many writers keep a concept in mind when they set out to write a story, or that their piece should abide by certain stylistic rules or embody a particular theory.  At the same time, theory or style can be kept on the back burner while writing, and can certainly emerge in the editing process.

For me, a story needs to have heart first and foremost.  But that doesn’t exclude the possibility that a story could very deliberately be using a chosen device – a particular point-of view, for example, or a specific narrative structure – to bring into full focus the story’s heart and intent.

PAGES TO PIXELS

 

It seems, looking at your awards, that most of your work become noticed just recently, within the last few years. What do you attribute for this sudden, impressive rise into the literary community?

ANNE VALENTE

I suppose what may seem like a sudden rise is really only a reflection of when I first began to send work out, or when I felt comfortable enough with my writing to begin that process.  I started writing fiction in late 2005 and had never written a short story before that.

Those early stories were pretty bad, but I pushed myself to edit and edit, and to write more and more.  I started actually submitting stories in 2007 and had my first story published in 2008.  It takes that much time and more to learn the landscape of literary journals, to figure out which magazines you admire and what writers you really appreciate.

It’s an ongoing process, alongside continuing to edit and edit, and write more and more.  I guess any writer’s perceived success is a reflection of many hours in the background, spent reading journals, researching, and continually working on projects.

PAGES TO PIXELS

Seemingly, something of the attraction of being a writer resides in mysticism; a certain, uncountable status. So, Writers: the unacknowledged legislators of the world, or regular, curious people?

ANNE VALENTE

I don’t know if I can speak for other writers, but I think I’m just a regular, curious person.  A large part of what draws me to writing is the broadness of it – whatever sparks my interest, I can pursue, and maybe even write about it.  That’s a pretty remarkable green light to be able to work with on a daily basis.

PAGES TO PIXELS

Willow, the setting for “By Light We Knew Our Names,” your story in a recent issue of Hayden’s Ferry Review, provides vivid and striking environment for its characters. How important, generally, is setting to a your work?

ANNE VALENTE

It depends on the work in question, but in this case, setting was incredibly important.  I wanted to convey the isolation of the town, and the harshness of it.  A place where the landscape felt barren and used, while above, the sky bloomed in impossible splendor.  The contrast between these two felt important to me, that these girls must live in this unforgiving place and be taunted by this beauty and possibility above them, just beyond their reach.  Setting is crucial when it furthers your narrative in some way, and in this case, I felt that it was essential to the story.

PAGES TO PIXELS

“By Light…” focuses on women terribly abused, taken advantage of, yet resisting and headstrong. Did you mean to make a greater social statement with this piece, or depict a difficult point of conflict?

ANNE VALENTE

I guess this points in some ways to your earlier question, of narrative versus theory or concept.  In the case of “By Light We Knew Our Names,” the story itself came to me first.  A lifelong dream of mine is to see the northern lights, something I still haven’t done.  By writing about them, I had the chance to experience them from the too-southern reaches of the Midwest.  I also had this group of girls jostling around in my head.

The two came together in a narrative, and the story emerged first and foremost as I was writing it.  But I also wrote the story, I know, as a response to the sort of insidious ways that gender discrimination occurs in this country.  It is something I experience often, and something I can never really talk about because no one wants to hear it, or because it doesn’t seem that bad.

I think this story came from desire to show just how bad it can be.  I wanted to expand it to a terrible degree, to make it impossible to ignore, to show how dangerous the world can feel for women at times, and how our anger sometimes has nowhere to go

PAGES TO PIXELS

What are you working on now?

ANNE VALENTE

I’m working on a novel, and I’ve also completed a collection of short stories.  Alongside novel progress, I’ve also been working on several new stories.  It’s kind of nice to have a few projects moving along at once, and to let them inform each other as they go.

 

Related posts:

1. Interview: Christopher Bursk
2. Interview: Tim Johnston
3. Interview: Benjamin Rybeck
4. Interview: Nathaniel Bellows
5. Interview: Michael Dickman