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An Interview with Willy Vlautin

November 21, 2016 By Stephen Kellar

Willy Vlautin

Novelist Willy Vlautin is the next guest in our Autumn Readings & Lectures series hosted by the University of Portland’s English Department.  He has published four novels: The Motel Life (2007), Northline (2008), Lean on Pete (2010), and The Free (2014).  

For all the violence and tragedy that fuels the characters and storylines of his works, Willy Vlautin is one hell of a friendly guy. His band, alt-country quartet Richmond Fontaine, just recently back from their final European tour, have been playing the Portland scene for over twenty years. His novels—The Free being the most recently published—recall John Steinbeck and John Updike in their intimate portrait of day-to-day survival and mundane tragedy in the lives of ordinary people.

It’s easy to assume the people who rarely have their stories told don’t have a story to tell. The people who inhabit Vlautin’s stories are burdened by their choices. They’re burdened by their need and, often, their inability to escape. These are people who want to change, who believe change may be the only thing that can save their lives, and yet they do not. This is the magic of Willy Vlautin’s writing. It’s a sleight of hand, to show us we don’t know the people we think we know.


Between your records and novels, you’ve created enough fascinating (and tragic) characters to populate an entire seen-better-times logging town. How do you build these characters, and would you say it’s the characters that inform the stories and songs?
I think of things in stories first. A broad idea of story from start to finish. Inside that initial idea are the themes I’m interested in. From there I’ll get the characters. I’ll run into the first few and then they meet people after that and so on. Usually I write the first draft and then develop the characters more after each edit. Like getting to know someone, it takes a while. It takes time and interest and desire.

Living in the wake of Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize, it seems a lot of people are trying to to redraw the lines between literature and music as distinct modes of storytelling. As an artist working in both mediums, sometimes at the same time, as with Northline, do you see any real divisions? How has being a novelist informed your songwriting and how has songwriting informed you as a novelist?
They are much different crafts that’s for sure. Writing takes much more time in the nuts and bolts sorta way. You have to put down the pages. You have to get a character from Mexico City to Toronto and he’s driving. A lot of days pass, a lot of things happen along the way. Songs are like dreams, they have more mystery. Where the hell did that melody come from? How come when you add harmonies the song suddenly makes you want to cry? Music has magic, I really think it does. They are different mediums but they are both crafts and they both can transport you into a different world.

Earlier this year you just put out your last record with Richmond Fontaine (for the foreseeable future?), what do you see yourself working on in the near future? Will music take a backseat to writing, or do you have other projects in mind?
You’re right, RF just finished its last big tour. Next year I’ll start work on my new band The Delines. I’ll probably do that band and stay at home more and try and work on my novels.


Willy Vlautin will be reading at the UP Bookstore on Monday, November 28th at 7:30 pm.

 

*Photo by Dan Eccles, from the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

Filed Under: On-Campus Events, Readings & Lectures Tagged With: authors, interview, lectures, prose, read, reading, Readings

Professor Spotlight: Elyse Fenton

November 9, 2016 By Elizabeth

Elyse FentonLast November, Elyse Fenton came to University of Portland to read from her wildly acclaimed poetry book Clamor. Her collection caught literary fire after she was not only the first American author to win the University of Wales’ Dylan Thomas Prize, but also the first poet. She’s been interviewed on NPR and BBC. After her reading at the University of Portland Bookstore, she was offered an adjunct position for Fall 2016 teaching the poetry workshop class offered every other year.


Sitting down next to me at the Pilot House, Professor Fenton smiled and explained she was going to go running after our interview, hence her jogging attire. I asked how her Halloween went. “Great,” she replied, “I went as ‘bigly,’ a play on how Donald Trump says ‘big league.’”

Her experience teaching here has been unique, she said. “UP students are the most enthusiastic group of students I’ve taught. They’re willing to try new things and get out of their comfort zones.” As one of these students, I take that as a great compliment.

After living in Massachusetts, Texas, and even Mongolia, Fenton chose Portland to settle down with her family. But just because she’s a transplant doesn’t mean that she isn’t familiar with West Coast antics; she got her B.A. from Reed College and her M.F.A. from the University of Oregon.

Fenton is not only a writer, mother, and professor, but also a high school career counselor. All these identities make for one great resource for students pursuing a writing career but don’t know where to start. I picked her brain for advice and she said what every other teacher has been saying since I can remember: read and write. “Writing is a spectrum, not a vacuum. Be influenced!” She also said that writing only ever gets done when you schedule it. “Prioritize your writing life. Call yourself a writer. Believe in your work enough to put it out there.” Fenton says she balances seasons of writing with periods of PR work, an important aspect if you want to be published. “I accept that I won’t get as much writing done in the summer and use that time to edit and publish.”

 Fenton’s second book of poetry, Sweet Insurgent, is scheduled to come out early next year, so keep your eyes peeled. And after gaining significant recognition in the poetry world, Fenton is now moving on to a new project: her first novel. Fenton said that switching genres can give an author perspective about their past, present, and future work. It also allows her to access different languages and ways of writing. Because she received help with Clamor from critics and peers, she categorizes this first work as a “typical” writing process. She decided to go about her second literary work differently, working on her new novel alone. But she doesn’t forget the help she’s received, saying, “I still keep those voices in my head.”

Professor Fenton is invaluable to the University of Portland community, and we’re extremely lucky that she shares her insights and experience. Her current poetry workshop class, ENG 306, is dynamic, fun, and creative. Her laid-back persona encourages a comfortable environment for deep conversations and writing workshops, a difficult task that seems natural to her.

Check out Fenton’s website for more information about her and her work.

Filed Under: Faculty Tagged With: clamor, classes, elyse fenton, faculty, interview, poetry, prose, read

Lunch Table Preview: Swidzinski and Buck-Perry

October 25, 2016 By Morgan Mann

Swidzinski & Buck-Perry

This Thursday, October 27 is our next English Lunch Table!  Be quick to RSVP and score a free lunch and riveting conversation with Professor Swidzinski and Professor Buck-Perry.

I sat down with Swidzinski and Buck-Perry to get a preview of possible discussion for Thursday: Who are they really? What are they reading? What’s up with the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy? What’s the best Bowl at The Commons?


What do students need to know about you, especially if they’ve never had a class with you?
Swidzinski
: “I’m the resident poetry person… I don’t have a favorite… but on this day at this hour it’s probably Adrienne Rich, because I was rereading some Adrienne Rich poetry.”
Buck-Perry: “I guess I’m the resident generalist [for teaching ENG 112], that’s why I teach nearly everything. I know a little about a lot.”
(Editor’s Note:  You should also know, Swidzinski always has a killer shirt-sweater combo, and Buck-Perry was proclaimed “a life saver” by a grateful Bio professor who said he owes his career to her.)

What are you looking forward to sharing with students at this lunch: any good books or cool topics?
B-P
: “I see this lunch more as getting to know students, not them getting to know us… I just finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.”
S: “I heard that was really good!”
B-P: “Such a book of suffering.”
S: “Right now I’m reading… James Shapiro’s A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599.”
(Here we diverged on a brief tangent about the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy.)
B-P: “I want to hear about how their experience is going. I’m curious about their year.”
S: “What I like is getting a sense of where students are coming from and what they want to do and are looking forward to, not just while they’re in class.”
B-P: And what kind of questions they have. Like how we and our experience might help them.”

What’s your favorite thing to eat at The Commons?
B-P
: “I like the Global. And Bowls… I’m a sucker for [the mac salad] opposite the chicken.”
(We discuss the best qualities of various Bowls. In depth.)
S: “I normally just get… I’m usually hungry. Also the department is paying for it, so… I don’t just get a sandwich, I get a plate or a bowl of something… I’ll get the lobster.”


This Lunch Table is on Thursday October 27th, 12pm. 
The first 4 students to RSVP by email to Swidzinski/Buck-Perry/Brassard will be treated to lunch by the English Department.

Filed Under: Faculty, On-Campus Events Tagged With: faculty, interview, lunch table, read

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