Interview with Cheryl Snell [cherylsnell] on Whohub

28037 interviews created

What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote?

I remember reading all the Louisa May Alcott books I could find as a child, and I can’t remember a time when I did not scribble. My father liked to write poems for our birthdays, and as soon as I noticed the pattern, I followed suit. I’d write poems for family occasions and little pieces to amuse my father. My love of words can be traced to him, I think. At the table, he would recite Chaucer, Coleridge and Robert Burns, complete with brogue. He had a great library, and I had the full run of it.

What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it?

I like to read and write literary fiction and lyric narrative poetry. I keep two blogs, http://shivasarms.blogspot.com for my novel, and http://snellsisters.blogspot.com for my poetry and my sister’s art. The link list will lead you to my recent publications.

What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write?

I begin every day by playing Bach at the piano. There's something about his nuances of harmony that transcend the ego and ground me at the same time. And then I read until my head is full of language. Music and writing have so many elements in common-- line and dynamics and rhythm---that it’s difficult to assign value. I’m immersed in all of it, and the process of mastering a piece of music is not unlike getting a piece of writing right. When at last I set whatever it is aside-- for days, weeks, or months-- the work continues underground. I’m always amazed at the way a switch of focus can untangle a particular difficulty.

What type of reading inspires you to write?

Novels by poets, lately. How’s that for killing two birds with one stone? My husband, a mathematical engineer, communicates a reverence for how things work that is very inspiring, and my last two poetry collections have used science I learned from him. He’s also a great raconteur. His stories about growing up in India have filled my novel, Shiva’s Arms.

What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story?

Conflict, transformation, language

What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?

It depends on the effect I’m after in a particular work.

What well known writers do you admire most?

Alice Munro for her wisdom, Tolstoy for how he interweaves the social fabric of a time and place with personal drama. The poets Levertov, Merwin, Rich, Emily Dickinson, and Tomaz Salamun. The essayists and storytellers: Kundera, Stegner, Maxine Hong Kingston, Louise Erdrich, Italo Calvino, Arundhati Roy. I respond to anything that ignites the imagination with respect to ideas.

Deep down inside, who do you write for?

For myself mostly, but I do like to entertain my husband as well

Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force?

The endless beginnings found in revision, and finding out what I really think might serve as a kind of therapy. False starts and paper cuts
keep me grounded.

Does reader feed-back help you?

Once, a waitress quoted one of my poems to me while she was taking my order. Another woman asked me if all my readers weep at my novel’s ending. I find those reactions meaningful and very reassuring.

Do you participate in competitions? Have you received any awards?

My new poetry collection, PRISONER’S DILEMMA, won the 2008 Lopside Press chapbook competition.

Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust?

Not until the work is well underway.

Do you believe you have already found "your voice" or is that something one is always searching for?

I have my own voice, certainly, but I’m not afraid of altering it.

What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.?

I’m pretty rhythmical in my work habits. I always say that if inspiration wants to find me, I’ll be at my desk from 9am to noon. Well, O’Connor might have said it first.

What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate?

I love modern art. Looking at it loosens my ability to make connections between disparate things. Did I just define a poem?

Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process?

I write on those big yellow legal pads before turning on the computer. I’ll work for a long time on several poems, for instance, revising and shaping them until I’m empty of ideas. Then I’ll switch to prose, and write until my concentration frays. Fiction demands a particular type of attention. There’s a sense of urgency to get the story told. My poems feed my fiction, gives the language color and character.

I don’t get blocked, partly because I’m willing to “kill my darlings”. At times, I’ll revise a work until there are only a few of the original words left in it. Ned Rorem, the composer and writer, revises everything, too. If he’s reading a book by Henry James, for instance, he “puts blue pencil in the margin…may circle a "perhaps": There are too many perhapses in this book. I'm a walking blue pencil.”

I really like the computer for revision, the ease with which phrases can be moved around, sparking new ideas. A sense of play is important. It leads to fresh connections, new ways of looking at the world. These endless possibilities can lead to other problems, of course. Ralph Ellison couldn’t finish his second novel, and it grew to thousands of pages.

What sites do you frequent on-line to share experiences or information?

http://alsopreview.com, for poetry work-shopping
http://redroom.com, for information and a wide range of opinions.
Facebook, just for fun.

What has been your experience with publishers?

Mostly positive. For instance, Jennifer Bosveld from Pudding House responded to my emailed manuscript within an hour, with a “Simply splendid!” and two months later a book with a gold flecked red cover arrived at my door.

What are you working on now?

I’m drafting my third novel, and awaiting the publication of my first. My fifth poetry collection, Prisoner’s Dilemma, came out last week. That was fun to do, because I worked with my sister, Janet Snell. She did a set of drawings of rather eccentric heads for the project-- emotional, spontaneous, self-sufficient statements with an expressive life of their own. Her pictures do not tell the story of my poems, yet extend their meaning.

What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone?

Revise them, then push them out the door.

Send me a question, comment
or ask my opinion about something: