Our guest on the blog today is Maxine Alterio. Born in Southern New Zealand, she enjoyed telling stories as a child, blissfully unaware that she would one day pursue a writer's life. After completing a Master of Arts at Otago University, she found herself draw to the creative arts and experienced International success with her short stories. In 2007, her fiction book Ribbons of Grace was published followed in 2012 by Lives We Leave Behind. Dividing her time between academic teaching, mentoring and writing, she continues to take on new writing projects and speaks at book clubs, organisations and institutions about her process.
What or who first inspired you to write?
As a child, I preferred words to toys. I
was greedy for books, and joined three libraries so I’d never run out of
reading material. Although I wrote fictive fragments as a child and into
adulthood, only when I attended a Creative Writing Summer School at the
University of Otago in 1996 and met like-minded individuals did I begin to take
my writing seriously. Encouraged by the tutor, I completed and sent a story to National
Radio. Following its acceptance, I submitted stories to literary journals and
magazines, contributed to anthologies, and entered national and international
competitions, with some success. I’ve had published a short fiction collection and
two novels, with a third underway, and I’ve co-authored an academic book on learning
through reflective storytelling. For twenty years, I’ve belonged to the same
writing group. We meet fortnightly and critique each other’s work, celebrate
successes and nourish the writer in all of us.
What was the inspiration for your first
historical novel?
Ribbons of Grace had its genesis when I was
eleven and holidaying with my family in the small goldfields settlement of Arrowtown.
At a New Year’s Eve celebration, I overheard two men discussing an historical incident.
“When they laid out that Chinese miner they discovered he was a she.” The comment
intrigued me, although I couldn’t fathom what it meant. Forty years on I was
ready to write what I thought might have happened.
Is there a particular theme you are
exploring in this book?
The themes in Ribbons of Grace include
concealment, racism, alienation, love, loss and friendship. I’ve returned to such
themes in subsequent novels, which suggests that my fascination with them isn’t
yet resolved.
Which period of history particularly
inspires or interests you? Why?
I’m more curious about other cultures and
human endeavour than about a particular period. There is a compulsion within me
to explore how characters from different cultural or social groups make sense of
traumatic experiences, where their resilience comes from and what aids their
psychological recovery. For these reasons I tend to set my novels during or in
the shadow of war, although I’m also drawn to settings with an explosive mix of
inhabitants.
What resources do you use to research your novels?
Before I start writing, I spend up to a
year reading fiction and non-fiction related to the time and place that I want
to reimagine in my novel. Sometimes I take notes but I prefer to gain an
overall sense of the social, political, economic and historical contexts. For Ribbons
of Grace I read about the opium wars in China, economic conditions in Orkney
and gold mining in New Zealand.
I also travelled to Orkney, crossing the
Pentland Firth in a fishing boat. During my stay I talked to locals and took
long, solitary walks in the countryside. On my return to southern New Zealand, I
wrote part of the novel in a stone cottage in Arrowtown built by two Orcadian
brothers. To walk in the shoes of my characters, I frequented the local
cemetery and restored Chinese settlement, and climbed the nearby hills, picking
out sites for significant scenes.
For my second novel, Lives We Leave Behind,
I studied the memoirs of First World War nurses who served in Egypt and France,
and read the diaries and letters of soldiers, nurses, orderlies and surgeons. I
also dipped into the body of work known as the ‘literature of crisis.’ I always
pin a map of the region(s) I’m writing about above my desk, alongside photos
and other meaningful memorabilia. If they’re available, I read old newspapers
and listen to oral histories. I also ‘dream’ my way into the era and landscape
of a new work.
Which authors have influenced you?
In no particular order, Shirley Hazzard,
Anna Marie Ortese, Kazuo Ishiguro, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Hilary Mantel, George
Mackay Brown, Elena Ferrante, Diana Athill, Sebastian Barry, Tim Winton, Alice
Munro, Helen Dunmore, David Malouf, Jhumpa Lahiri, Maggie O’Farrell, William
Boyd, Anthony Doerr, and recently Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Which methods/ strategies do you employ to
write?
I need great swathes of solitude to produce
a first full story draft, either at home or in a secluded spot where the
landscape has a dreamlike quality. Once I have a draft, I can work anywhere,
day or night. I write directly onto a laptop. Usually in the evening I print out
and read what I produced the previous day, and make notes to ease me back into
a chapter the following morning. I don’t aim for a daily word count. As long as
I’m making progress, I’m content.
Is there anything unusual or even quirky
that you would like to share about your writing?
While working on Ribbons of Grace, I kept
beside me a photograph of an unknown, effeminate Chinese man taken in the
1870s. His presence contributed to the creation of my main character Ming Yuet.
Whenever I struck a snag during the writing of this book I talked to him and
invariably a solution would appear.
With Lives We Leave Behind, I collected
stones of different shapes and colours from beaches near the hometowns of the
two main fictional nurse-characters. Each of the eight stones came to represent
a significant character in the book. I kept them on my desk throughout the
writing process. Midway through a harrowing scene I would sometimes pick one up
and wait for inspiration. For me, a physical object can act as a conduit
to imagination.
How long does it take you to write a book?
Usually five years because until 2013 I
worked full-time as an academic and wrote fiction in the evenings, weekends and
holidays. Now that I’ve re-wired my working life to part-time academic mentor
and full-time writer, I hope to pick up the pace.
Tell us about your next book or work-in-progress.
In 2013, I won the Seresin Landfall Otago
University Press Writer’s Residency, which came with six weeks in an isolated
bay in the Marlborough Sounds. I arrived planning to work on a second short story
collection. The peace and beauty of the place derailed me. On the third
morning, I woke with an outline for a new novel set post-Second World War in
London and Naples, through to the late 1950s and mid 90s, and a cast of
characters demanding attention. I left the residency with three draft chapters
and notes for others. Back home, I sought out the writings of female authors
with close connections to Italy. In May/June this year, I’ll travel to Naples
to visit key locations depicted in this forthcoming book, Wait for Me, and to
soak up the atmosphere of the place and its people.
What advice would you give an aspiring
author?
Read everything you can get your hands on
and read widely and deeply. Listen to podcasts about writers and writing.
Attend festivals and conferences. Join a writing group. Learn to take and give
constructive feedback. Above all, write, write, write.
Thanks for joining us, Maxine and for sharing your journey.
Set in Orkney, China and New Zealand,
between 1870 and 1895, Ribbons of Grace has three narrators: Ming Yuet, a
female Chinese sojourner masquerading as a male gold miner; Conran, an Orcadian
stonemason; and Ida, an English settler. The novel traces the relationship
between Ming Yuet and Conran, judged by some settlers to transgress sexual and
cultural boundaries. An act of violence devastates those directly and
indirectly involved. The narrators reflect on their roles leading up to this
event and its aftermath, their stories moving between past and present,
homeland and adopted country, between the living and the dead.
HNSA 2017 Conference
The HNSA 2017 Conference in Melbourne is
being held on 8-10 September 2017. Maxine Alterio will be appearing in the
following panel in Session Five on Saturday 9 September at 12.15-1.15 pm.
Immigrant Stories and Diaspora: How Pioneers Adapt and
Survive in their New Land
Immigrants have helped build our
multicultural nations over many generations. Hanifa Deen explores how Maxine
Alterio, Arnold Zable, Vicky Adin and Kim Kelly breathe
life into tales of prejudice, hardship, homesickness and adaptation.
HURRY! THE EARLY BIRD WEEKEND TICKET ALLOCATION
IS NEARLY EXHAUSTED.
This celebration of the historical fiction
genre will showcase over 60 speakers discussing our theme, inspiration, writing
craft, research, publishing pathways and personal histories. Among the many
acclaimed historical novelists participating are Kerry Greenwood,
Kate Forsyth, Deborah Challinor, Lucy Treloar, Sophie Masson, Sulari Gentill,
Robert Gott and Arnold Zable. The
HNSA’s speakers’ list is available on the HNSA website.
Let’s make a noise about historical
fiction!
