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VanessaGebbie.com
Vanessa
Gebbie
is
Welsh. She is the author of Words
from a Glass Bubble (Salt), a
collection from her award winning fiction including prizes including
Bridport and The Daily Telegraph. In 2010 she was Writer in Residence
at Stockholm University. Her first novel, The Coward's Tale, will be
published by Bloomsbury in November 2011.
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Interview
with Vanessa Gebbie (2011)
The
Short Review:
How long did it take you to write all the stories in your collection?
Vanessa Gebbie: These
stories were written between 2004 and 2009, sporadically, in between
doing loads of other things, like writing the stories that made up my
first collection (Words from a Glass Bubble), and dipping into what
would become my first novel (The Coward’s Tale, out this November
with Bloomsbury)
TSR:
Did you
have a collection in mind when you were writing them?
VG:
No, I didn’t. I had no idea these would end up in a book. I just wrote
stories, and some of those stories were explorations of the same
themes. I was very interested in how conflict of various kinds affects
those who are caught up, whether soldiers in wartime, or bystanders, or
families. And also interested in survival – the strength of the human
spirit. The strategies we find to cope. Looking back, my main
inspiration was life with my late father – an ordinary and very gentle
man, he was decorated in WWII, and I think looking back, the experience
of war coloured his every day. He coped, he was lucky. Others don’t.
TSR:
How did
you choose which stories to include and in what order?
VG:
The
subject-matter of the stories had to fit the overarching theme of the
collection. I’d been exploring the effects of conflict for ages,
looking at recent wars, and those from history, right back to
religious conflicts back in the 16th
century. I was always interested in creating central characters who
were damaged somehow, often in subtle ways – people at odds with
the realities of life post-war. There were plenty of stories to
choose from – in the end, I used some that had been published well,
in good places, stories that had won decent prizes, and stories I
just loved enough not to leave them out!
TSR:
What
does the word "story"
mean to you?
VG:
It
means the possibility of escaping into another world for a short
time. A chance to experience life vicariously – and a chance to
glimpse what the world means to someone else. It can mean wonderful,
beautiful language, too, something transporting in another sense. But
"story" is always like a magic carpet to me. Something that
whisks me off somewhere...
TSR:
Do you have a reader in mind when you write stories?
VG:
No,
not really – it’s when I revise them that I am aware that I need
to create something that works for the reader. Mainly, when I am
creating, I write for myself. I mean I write the stories I want to
read – as I write them, I don’t know what will happen – so in a
way I am telling the story to myself as I make it.
TSR: Is
there
anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your collection,
anything at all?
VG:
Yes
– did the book make them think a little differently?
TSR: How does
it feel knowing that people are buying your book?
VG:
Lovely.
I am always hugely pleased!
TSR:
What are you working on now?
VG:
I’m interested in learning how to create a stage play effectively. I’d
like to see if any of my stories would make good plays, so I went on an
Arvon Foundation play-writing course recently. I’m tinkering with bits
and bobs which will make up part of the next novel. And looking forward
to launching the first. I’m writing poetry. I’m planning what to do
during workshops in a few lovely places, notably a retreat for women
writers at Tilton House in Sussex, and Bridport’s Open Book Festival
later in the year. Bridport have just told me that Storm Warning is
their Big Read title for 2011, by the way – I am really delighted, and
shivering in my boots at the thought of all those searching
questions...
TSR:
What are
the three most recent short story collections you've read?
VG: 1.
Mr
Fox by Helen Oyeyemi. I heard her speak and read at
ShortStoryVille in Bristol, and bought the book as a result – it
really is amazing.
2. The
Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde – I’m still reading, or rather
re-reading this one. I love the old fairy stories, and these are
just so good.
3. Little
Herr Friedemann
by Thomas Mann – again, still reading. I am enjoying the sense
that in writing short stories, I am part of something that began a
long time ago. Great short stories are not a modern phenomenon.
Interview
with Vanessa Gebbie (2009)
The
Short Review:
How long did it take you to write all the stories in your collection?
Vanessa Gebbie: The
stories represent a section through a body of work that was begun in
late 2003 when I started writing fiction, through to early 2007.
TSR: Did you
have a collection in mind when you were writing them?
VG: Not at all. Each
story was written separately. I constantly submitted to different
competitions, journals and anthologies. The idea of a collection only
surfaced after I'd been lucky enough to have a few stories hit at some
respected competitions, and I wondered if there was any chance of
pulling a collection together. But I had no idea how, or who, or when!
TSR: How did
you choose which stories to include and in what order?
VG: The competition
successes were an obvious choice. They'd already been selected from
many entries - in some cases from a field of several thousand - by
final judges such as Zadie Smith, Michael Collins and Tracy Chevalier.
So it was reasonable to assume that these were strong material, worth
including. I then looked for work that complemented those, thematically
and tonally.
TSR: What does the word "story"
mean to you?
VG: Something that
takes you out of yourself for the duration of the read. Something that
leaves you thinking or wondering. Asks the question, 'What if?'
I found this quote the other day by the late Bryan Robertson OBE,
curator of the Whitechapel Gallery. It sums up what I look for in a
story, however long it is, flash, short, novella or novel...
"What I look
for is…a transcendent ability to soar above life and not be subjugated
by it."
Isn't that perfect?
TSR: Do you
have a "reader" in mind when you write stories?
VG: Not
when I write, not really. It's like making an arrow before before
fitting it to the bow, before taking aim. I want it to hit the spot. I
like to think the amorphous "reader" who might appreciate what I do is
someone who does not skim for plot. Takes their time. Likes to find a
little magic in the ink. That's how I read. So really, I am writing for
myself. After having written for a while now, I understand completely
what that means!
TSR: Is there
anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your
collection,
anything at all?
VG: Oh God yes! I'd
like to know if my Alaskan lakeside in The Kettle on the Boat
is anything like a real Alaskan lakeside. And I'd like to talk to a
synaesthete, to find out if the imagined synaesthesia in Tasting Pebbles is
anything like the reality. And lots more. I've got a crazily active
imagination, and it would be fun to know how 'real its conjurings are.
TSR: How does it feel knowing that people are buying your book?
VG:It is very
affirming. A lovely feeling. But (typically me) tinged with doubt: 'Did
I do it as well as I could?'
TSR: What are
you working on now?
VG:I am working on a
thirteen part project, loosely based on the twelve apostles, hoping to
make it into a coherent entity. It has already won three prizes, which
makes the rest a scary proposition to write. Expectations are horribly
high. The first portion won two things, at Bridport and at The Daily
Telegraph. The second won at a journal in the USA earlier this year.
With a strong nod to Dylan Thomas, it is set in South Wales, where I
grew up. I write when I can hear the voices of my grandmothers and her
neighbours in my head.
TSR: What are
the three most recent short story collections you've read?
VG: A friend lent me a collection by Shusaku Endo, entitled Stained Glass Elegies.
Such cool, intelligent writing. Explorations of what it is to be part
of the Japanese war generation, struggling both with loss of national
pride and with spirituality. Wonderful stuff.
I have the Faber Books of New Irish Short Stories (2004/5
and 2006/7 edited by David Marcus) by my bed. There are such stunning
writers in Ireland. I dip and pick, as from a sweet shop.
I'm currently reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, and am in awe.
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