INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR. MARILYN JUNE COFFEY
Hi Marilyn, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Please tell our readers about your writing career.
A. I was born, raised, and educated in Nebraska; then I spent 30 years in New York City. Now I'm back in Nebraska again, in Omaha which has an active, exciting cultural life. My novel, Marcella, made literary history as the first novel written in English that used female masturbation as part of its main theme. It was published in hardcover in the U.S., in paperback in England, excerpted in Australia, Denmark, and Ms., reviewed in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, mentioned in People and Newsweek. A chapter from my Great Plains Patchwork: A Memoir was first published by Atlantic Monthly as a cover story. Macmillan, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Harper & Row, and McGraw Hill reprinted other chapters. My poem, "Pricksong," received a national Pushcart Prize. I have a beautiful website, designed by Denise Cassino. It can be entered at www.marilyncoffey.net.
Q. How long have you been writing? What made you put that first story down on paper?
A. I've been writing since 1948 when I began a daily journal. I wanted to record life as I experienced it, which seemed quite different from life as my parents, teachers, and Sunday school teachers described it. These early journals now reside in the Marilyn Coffey Collection in the University of Nebraska Archives in Lincoln, NE.
Q. Do you write in a particular genre? If so, what genre is it?
A. I write poetry and prose, but mostly prose these days, especially memoir.
Q. Have you been published?
A. Yes, about a dozen short stories (including "The Bathrobe Imbroglio" just published on-line by Hamilton Stone Review, (http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr11fiction.html#thebathroom) plus my novel, Marcella; about 145 poems plus a book-length poem, A Cretan Cycle: Fragments Unearthed from Knossos; and several hundred nonfiction pieces plus Great Plains Patchwork.
Q. What was the first story? Where was it published?
A. As a freshman at Kearney State Teachers College in Nebraska, I entered a contest sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta, the campus literary organization. I found out about the contest so late, I had to pull an all-nighter to write my first short story, "A Portrait of Matt." It won first place. The president of Sigma Tau Delta, an odd man that I'd been dating, took me aside to tell me, "We didn't choose your story because it was so good. We chose it because the others were so awful." So, I not only wrote my first short story and snagged my first publication but also experienced my first critic who, incidentally, I never dated again.
Q. How long did it take to write and publish?
A. Eight years to that first publication but eleven additional years before I began to publish regularly what I considered "my work."
Q. What was the process?
A. I spent those first eight years in isolation, basically teaching myself to write by writing. Then, at the University of Nebraska I studied, for three years, both creative writing and journalism. There I wrote regularly for the Daily Nebraskan, the school newspaper. After graduation, I worked as a journalist on a variety of publications: daily newspapers in Nebraska, then trade newspapers and magazines in New York. Except for "A Portrait of Matt," none of these publications meant much to me beyond a paycheck. Then in New York in 1967, I began to write, perform, and publish my poetry. This was a breakthrough for me.
Q. Who’s your favorite author and why?
A. I'd be hard pressed to chose a favorite author among the dozens of fine female contemporary novelists I so enjoy reading.
Q. How did you deal with rejection letters, if you received any?
A. I received hundreds. I wept a little, then went about my business.
Q. What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?
A. Clarity and word choice. A bit of humor doesn't hurt.
Q. How do you develop your plots/characters, ideas/concepts ? Do you use any set formula?
A. I work intuitively, especially when drafting. After that, I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. I consult "how to" books; writer friends read my early drafts and give me (usually) helpful feedback. I try to "re-view" my work each time I revise it. Often I change font and line spacing before I reread a draft. The change helps me see my writing anew.
Q. What do you do to unwind and relax?
A. Read novels. Listen to music. Talk to friends. Walk. Shop. Eat.
Q. What do you like to read?
A. I read many realistic contemporary novels by women plus biographies, especially those about writers. Memoir appeals to me, particularly when the writer is a common person with an unusual tale to tell. I guess you could say I like "slice of life" stories. I like to write them, too.
Q. What does your family feel about your writing? Are they supportive?
A. Not really. They live in another kind of world.
Q. What inspires you? Who inspires you?
A. Let me tell you about a few writers whose work has meant a lot to me. First, Mari Sandoz. When I read her biography of her father, Old Jules, it shocked me into the realization that you don't have to be "nice" when you write. Her father was a bit of a scoundrel, and she told her readers about him without pulling punches. The next writers to inspire me were D. H. Lawrence with his Lady Chatterley's Lover and Henry Miller with Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Both authors use explicit sex scenes, including previously banned four-letter words. Their works shocked me and, like Old Jules, enlarged my sense of what was possible in the novel. I believe these writers enabled me to write the way I write, with no holds barred.
Q. Are you working on any projects right now?
A. I'm marketing Mail-Order Kid: An Orphan Train Story, a memoir, which is a bit unusual in that it contains a biography (sort of like a cherry in a chocolate bonbon). I'm rewriting a short memoir, "How I Acquired Dorothy Parker's Writing Case." And I'm revising a history book, "Thieves, Rascals & Sore Losers," about a bitter, long remembered fight that happened in the county where I grew up. The pioneers fought in the 1870s and 1880s about where to locate the county courthouse. Everyone wanted it in his town. Some still do.
Q. How do you handle Writer’s Block?
A. Sleep on the problem. It usually looks better the next day.
Q. What is most frustrating about writing?
A. The way writers need to market their books, which uses up time that might be spent writing new books.
Q. Most rewarding?
A. Seeing myself in print, especially in a library.
Q. Do you have any kind of writing schedule?
A. I'm a night owl, so I write during the afternoons and/or evenings. I usually write every weekday, aiming for at least three to four good hours of composition.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given as a writer?
A. That cliché, "write about what you know." It was given to me over lunch by Theodore Solotaroff, then editor of American Review, a national literary magazine that had accepted my poetry. Later he became a senior editor at Random House. "Write about Nebraska," he told me. I cringed. I'd come to New York intending to leave Nebraska behind. But because the advice came from the highly regarded Solotaroff, I followed it. The result? My Great Plains Patchwork.
Q. What’s the worst?
A. My worst advice came from me. I convinced myself that I could write poetry without being inspired, so I accepted an assignment that involved interviewing women and writing poems about them. The poems were flat; they read more like newspaper items than literature. I should have known better; feeling always fired my poems.
Q. If I were sitting down to write my very first story, what would your advice be?
A. Write it without hesitation. Let it pour out of you. Later, revise and polish.
Q. What is your best advice for getting published?
A. Keep at it. Don't let those rejections stop you.
Q. What has been the single most important part of your success?
A. The joy it left in my heart.
