Laban Carrick Hill Interview with Tiara Marchando

March 2008

  1. In an interview with Judyth Piazza you said that your influences are constantly changing because your passions change. What influence inspired your passion for writing?

    Ironically, I think I was initially drawn to writing because it was so hard. As a kid, I was dyslexic and had a very difficult time reading. I had a private reading tutor and a special tutor in school from first through fifth grade. Essentially the only book I read during my first five years of school was Harold and the Purple Crayon. Each year I would do a book report on it. The story of a boy who was able not just to make the world with his crayon, but navigate it and protect himself from danger, seemed both magical and marvelous. In correlation with that, I grew up in a religious family who was involved with the church. I was fascinated early on with the first verse of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As I struggled with decoding and understanding language on the page, this verse resonated. It seemed as if there was something mystical and unknowable about the written word, which mirrored my personal experience with trying to learn to read. By the time I was ten years old, I began to read with some fluency, but it was not pleasurable. In the fall of my fifth grade year, I had a marvelous teacher who allowed his students to write the class play. I ended up writing the entire play. It was a musical about the landing of the Pilgrims. I had Plymouth Rock singing a parody of “Hello, Dolly!” called “Hello, Pilgrims!” I took songs from Broadway musicals and rewrote the lyrics to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. The success of that experience coupled with my fascination with the seemingly impossibility of language was enough to hook me. I knew from then on that I wanted to be a writer. So if there is one book that lead me to be a writer, it would be Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon.

  2. You have held a number of jobs in the field of communications including being senior copyeditor of Bantam Publishing, marketing and promotions director for Eating Well Books, and commissioner for Fletcher Free Library. How have these positions enriched your career as a writer and aided in the pursuit of publication?

    Writing for a living taught me that writing is a job. All of the talk about inspiration and the muse is all well and good, but you have to get your butt in the seat of your chair and put words to the page or key words onto the screen. It’s by putting one word after the other that you write a poem, a story, a novel, a memoir, an article or whatever. Sometimes, as writers we can get so caught up in inspiration that we forget that writing is a job where you construct something, and it is no different than a cabinetmaker who builds a beautiful armoire. A piece of writing is an object that is constructed. Writing advertising, catalog, and other commercial material taught me that. I learned that sometimes you don’t have time for the muse to inspire you. Sometimes you just need to sit down and put words on the page.
    My relationship to my local library is different from my commercial writing experience. I am an advocate for public libraries because the nature of information and how it is accessed is changing dramatically. At the same time, there is a huge move toward the privatization of information and material in America. This means that in order to access that information you will need to pay for it. The library is the only place in a community where anyone, no matter their economic or social position, can access knowledge without paying a fee. It is essential for our democracy that these institutions remain open and free with as much current and relevant knowledge as possible.

  3. You spent over a decade conducting research for the book Harlem STOMP! and spent six years writing your most recent book, America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60’s. What was your information gathering process like? How did you feel once these books were finally published and available to the public?

    When you take on subjects as large and vast as the Harlem Renaissance or the Sixties, you need to read and process enormous amounts of material. Essentially, I spent months in the library and traveling to libraries that contained special collections related to my research. I made numerous trips to the Schomberg Center in Harlem and to the Beinecke Rare Books Library at Yale, which have some of the finest collections of original documents relating to the Harlem Renaissance. For each chapter, I read about twenty books. Then I had to internalize the information and discover what story I wanted to tell. This took a long time and was not easy. I rewrote one of my chapters of America Dreaming at least eight times. At one point chapter 4 was over 100 pages long. I had to tease out the narrative arcs that were important to how I understood each era. Then I had to go back and make sure that my interpretation and narrative was consistent with the facts. All along I was very conscious of the fact that I must have missed something very important. As I look at these two books today, I have many regrets about what I left out, but ultimately I am proud of the results.

  4. What obstacles did you face in researching these two particular books? Once the information was gathered, how did you determine how you were going to present it to your audience?

    With both Harlem Stomp! and America Dreaming, I was writing to an audience who knew little about these periods. My job was essentially to explain to readers why these eras are worth knowing about. The question I constantly asked myself as I wrote was: Why should I care? So what? I think that is a question that all readers ask themselves today because there are so many different media competing for their attention. The way I framed these books was in terms of American identity. In order to know one’s self as an American, one needs to know how American identity is defined. These two eras are critical points in American history, which were not wars, where American identity was expanded and redefined. This was the story I was trying to tell.

  5.  Harlem STOMP! was a National Book Award Finalist and embraces some unconventional ideas about the African-American contribution to American society by attributing advances in music, industry, and literature to black artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Did you have any doubts or fears while writing this book about the reaction it would elicit when published?

    I am reminded of Ralph Ellison’s wonderful essay “What America Would Be Like Without Blacks.” In this essay he wrote,” whatever else the true American is, he is also somehow black.” I don’t think it is at all controversial to suggest that true American culture is deeply influenced and informed by African-American culture. In my mind it was a no-brainer. The most obvious evidence is American music. We would have no jazz or rock without African Americans. Both of the native forms of music emerged about African American culture. What is remarkable about the Harlem Renaissance is that it was the transition point when the influence of black culture shifted from being unacknowledged and unconscious to being acknowledged, conscious, and most importantly celebrated. That shift in cultural awareness was as huge as any earthquake, and it led the way for the advances of the Civil Rights Movement thirty years later.

  6. America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60’s, explores a spectrum of cultural events of the 1960’s including the Civil Rights Movement, feminism, and Chicano Power, and closes with the idea that ‘All people—young, old, and in between - could make a difference.’  This statement is one of individual empowerment. Do you feel that the book also makes a statement about the power of unity?

    I think America Dreaming is very much a story about community. In many ways the story of America is a story of a search for utopia, for the perfect community. The Sixties is a chapter in that story. The mass rallies, the rise of communes, the consciousness raising was all done together. The goal of the Sixties was to affirm the individual through inclusion in a community. At its core, the values of the Sixties were those of empathy, acceptance, and inclusion, rather than separation and exclusion.

  7. You have written more than 25 books in different genres of literature and have researched and explored the various cultures that are included in the definition of the term ‘American’, so it is clear that diversity is one of your major concerns as a writer. Do you feel that there is a lack of diversity or multicultural perspective in literature today?

    Yes and no. If you look at the publishing industry, its editors, agents, and publishers, you will see a pretty monochromatic lot. There are very few people of color in decision-making positions in publishing. That is changing with talented editors and publishers of color like Jennifer Hunt and Alvina Ling at Little, Brown and Andrea Pinckney at Scholastic. At the same time, there is a real market for certain issues of diversity. This is particularly the case in children’s and young-adult literature where there has been a conscious effort to break out of traditional boundaries of what kind of literature is appropriate for children and teens. But it goes beyond just children’s literature. If you scan the lists of emerging writers in all genres, you will see more and more writers of color getting published and recognized for their talent in comparison to the past. Nevertheless, more could be done to make up for the decades and decades of a lack of participation. There is so much that needs to be explored and written about that has not yet been put into print. I am optimistic though, because as I see it, the color of America is turning brown. By 2050, the white majority will be a minority in the United States. This means that the shift toward more and more diversity is inevitable. I am excited to see how that unfolds in all areas of life in this country.

  8. Do you feel that writers are obligated to provide those perspectives in their writing, even if the viewpoints are not their own?

    I feel that writers are obligated to be true to the subject matter about which they are writing. They need to be true to the characters in their story. In order to do this, a writer needs to represent a world that is authentic. To me, that means a world that is always complex, surprising, and diverse.

  9. Pine Manor College was ranked number-one in diversity from 2004-2007 and remains one of the most diverse campuses in the country. An informal survey has thus far proven the same true of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program; what are your thoughts on being a part of a program that is making such strides in academic diversity?

    I cannot imagine teaching at another MFA program. It is exactly this cultural diversity that makes Pine Manor unique and valuable. It is also these traits that keep me excited and committed to Pine Manor.

  10. You have already published a young adult novel, Casa Azul, based on the life of painter Frieda Kahlo, and your most recent publications, Harlem STOMP! and America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s, were both picture books. Do you gather inspiration to write from other art forms, such as painting?

    My wife, Elise, is a painter. She designed both Harlem Stomp! and America Dreaming. When we got together to create these books, one of the keys to telling these cultural histories was visual iconography. It is almost impossible to separate out the visual style of an era with the era itself. The goal of these two books was to tell the three-dimensional story through an interplay of visuals and text. Placing long swaths of text page after page in a book could never capture the sense of dynamism of these eras. They were both so visual that to ignore that was to do a disservice.
    All kinds of art, but in particular the visual arts, resonate for me. I am very interested in the tension of stasis and flux that exists in a painting. The way that visual arts struggle to represent the world that is constantly changing in time interests me immensely. I am always looking at those moments of tension that become a matrix of understanding in the visual arts.

  11. You have two series for young adults, the Xtreme Novel Mystery Series and the Choose Your Own Nightmare Series. What was your own reading life like when you were young? Are these genres, mystery and horror, types that interested you?

    As I wrote in my first answer, I was not a reader as a kid. I didn’t discover reading until my teens when I began reading adult books. Why I gravitated to writing children’s books, I have no idea. It just came naturally to me. Sometimes, I think that I was emotionally stunted at the age of twelve. Other times, I think that my books are an attempt to revise and rewrite my childhood, which was not particularly easy. I keep returning to narratives of childhood because I am trying to repair my own narrative. On the other hand, I am always attracted to a sense of play, and children’s books at their core must have a sense of play. They must delight in some way that adult books cannot.

  12. Having written for adults and middle-grade readers, do you feel that ideas in your writing have been limited by its intended audience? Is writing for adults different from writing for young adults? Why or why not?

    I think the subject matter determines the audience more than anything else. I am not at all conscious of changing the way I write when writing for a particular age group. My feeling is that if the subject is compelling enough readers will rise to the occasion. I also think that kids in particular have an extremely sensitive radar for detecting a patronizing tone. In my mind, it is the story or the book that takes over at some point and determines how it is written. I simply remain faithful to what the book needs in order to be complete. It’s up to the editor who purchases the book to determine in what market to sell it.

  13. You also told Judyth Piazza that author Joy Castro, who also teaches in the Solstice MFA program, has influenced your writing. How so? How has being a part of a program which houses so many accomplished writers and aspiring writers changed your perspective on writing?

    I met Joy Castro at Pine Manor. From our initial conversations, I was struck by her sensitivity, her generosity, and her vast knowledge about writing. Like me, she writes in a number of genres, which makes sense to me. As a human, I have a variety of thoughts and feelings that do not fit neatly into one form or another. As I read her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, I admired this in Joy’s work. As well, she writes with a certain courage and honesty that I am always striving for. Since my first residency at Pine Manor, Joy and I have kept up a dialog about the writing life that has been immensely rich. As a writer, I need a community that is safe enough to allow me to take risks, but critical enough so that my work will be challenged. Joy and the other members of the Pine Manor faculty provide this kind of community for me.

  14. What is your definition of a perfect professor? How closely do you mirror that image?

    In my mind the perfect professor provides a space where a writer can take risks without fear of humiliation, but at the same time challenges his or her students not to be satisfied. In addition, a good professor helps a student discover his or her own process so that when the student finishes the semester he or she has a clearer sense of how to approach the next revision.

  15. What expectations do you have of your students? What is your philosophy on teaching?

    I love ambitious students. I want students to desire to write the next Pulitzer-Prize winning book. I love students who take risks and fall on their face. From my own experience, students who risk everything and fail learn much more than students who never take risks, but stay within their comfort zone. The whole point of studying for an MFA in Writing is to become a better writer, not to be a writing teacher. In order to write well, you need to fail and fail often. It is only through your failures that you learn what is truly good writing.

  16. Is there anything about you that you think people should know that can’t be found in a biography?

    I believe that everyone can learn to write well.


return to top