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Daniel Wallace
is busy at work on a number of projects, following his novel
Big Fish's adaptation to film,
starring Ewan McGregor.
Wallace is the recipient of several humanities grants and awards
including the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award as well as a North Carolina
Arts Fellowship. He is also the author of
The Watermelon King, and
Ray in Reverse. He also recently finished writing and illustrating the
novel, “Oh Great Rosenfeld!” He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and
son.
For Daniel Wallace's Bio
click here!
SLR: Good
afternoon Daniel, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me.
Wallace: My pleasure.
SLR: Let's
start from the beginning for all those who don't know you. Where you
were born and raised?
Wallace: I
was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.
SLR: And
school?
Wallace: I spent
two years at Emory and then two years at University of North Carolina,
but I never graduated. Before getting my degree, I took a job with a trading company in Japan.
It was just what I thought I wanted to do -- I studied business.
SLR: Not
writing? Or literature?
Wallace: No, my
focus was business. I took a couple of writing
courses, but no one ever said I was good or encouraged me to pursue it
and I just really thought I wanted to work in the corporate world.
SLR: So what
happened?
Wallace: Well, as
it turned out, I wasn't happy, and I wasn't succeeding in the
corporate environment, so I came back to the states, got a duplex in
Chapel Hill and started writing.
SLR:
That's seems like quite a jump. What compelled you to write when
you showed no interest in it before?
Wallace: That's a
good question. The best answer I can come up with is that it just
seemed like the thing to do--so I did it. I liked it too,
obviously, I like the process of writing.
SLR: So let's
talk about your writing. You were about 25 years old, right, when
you got the duplex and took to writing?
Wallace: I'm 46
now, yeah, I was 25.
SLR: You say
you are more interested in the process of writing, could you explain what the
process is for you.
Wallace:
Discovering my own stories is what writing is all about for me. I
don't start a story with a plot, or any kind of agenda, if I did, I
think it would ruin the story. I've heard some people liken writing
novels to being a puppeteer--always in control -- its that way for me with
the characters, but not with the story. The story inherits a life
that's in the language itself. I'm always surprised at how my
stories unfold. I honestly don't know where a story is going
sometimes.
SLR: In
your last novel, Watermelon King -- without giving too much away
-- did you
know who Thomas Rider's father was from the beginning? That was a
surprise for me.
Wallace: I had no
idea until it came to the point in the story when Thomas needed to know
and suddenly it was obvious to me who it had to be. And the thing
is, I didn't want it to be him.
SLR: Me either,
I thought I knew who it was, and I was wrong.
Wallace: It
was obvious to me who it had to be but not until the final chapters of
the book.
SLR: Some
of the things I thought Watermelon King touched on were the absurdity of
tradition, the contradictory judgments our society makes about sex, a
small town's desperation to exist, fitting in ... As the author, are these
the sort of themes you came away with after writing it?
Wallace: Yes,
all of those. The book is about all of those things.
SLR: Any
writers you admired growing up?
Any that influenced you.
Wallace:
Kurt Vonnegut. I
can only write like me, though I think there are some similarities with
his writing. But reading books by him and some others made me want to
achieve the same sort of experience for other readers. I wanted to give someone else
the same feeling Vonnegut gave me in
Breakfast of Champions and
Slaughterhouse
Five.
SLR: Any
others?
Wallace:
J.D.
Salinger, Walker Percy, especially
The Moviegoer.
The Moviegoer does
an amazing job of balancing pathos and humor.
SLR: So,
Daniel, what's next for you?
Wallace: I'm
working on a number of things. I'm in the beginning stages of a new
novel, several stories will be coming out in various publications soon,
Oh Great Rosenfeld, and a screenplay.
SLR: You're
busy! Any time for reading just for your own entertainment?
Wallace: Sure, I'm
reading a great book called
Eyeing the Flash: Education of a Carnival
con-Artist.
SLR: I'll have
to check that out. Carnivals make for some great stories. Thanks so much for talking with Southern
Literary Review.
For SLR's profile of Daniel Wallace,
click here!
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