Mar28th

Dorothy Allison/Sherman Alexie
Harold Washington Public Library

by Heidi Broadhead

     "We're seeing America one small college at a time," joked Dorothy Allison, answering a question about how to make a living as a writer. Allison and fellow author Sherman Alexie participated in a panel discussion as part of Columbia College's Story Week: A Festival of Writers. After the interview, audience members asked questions, mostly related to motivation for writing and writing process.
    Talking about truth in fiction, Allison said, "Family stories alter over time. Even newspaper stories gloss over the truth." She described a family story in which each member of her family was making up a different version; her point was that every version is true.
    When asked what writing means to them, Allison and Alexie responded similarly, but each had a different take. Writing for Allison is not about publishing or fame or money, but about making sense of that which does not make sense and about getting it right, referring to the moment when the author knows the story is done or settled. "That's our job," she said, "and when you get it right, it's better than sex."
     Alexie added that he also considers it his job to "distrust every institution out there." He talked about the pressure to be a role model, but did say that he looks forward to the day when a young successful writer, asked about his or her influences, mentions Sherman Alexie.
    Both writers talked about the unglamorous life of a writer-the late nights, the multiple drafts, the waning social life. "You have to be ruthless [to be a writer]," said Allison, "especially with yourself." Alexie added that he doesn't see friends and family much. "You have to let go of trying to be a good person," he said. "You don't join little writing groups, you don't talk about it, you just write." Alexie writes for about twelve to fourteen hours a day, usually in the middle of the night, and he also reads voraciously (he said that he subscribes to 60 journals and reads a book a day.)
    After the panel discussion and questions, Allison read from a yet-to-be published story about three daughters dealing with their mother's death from cancer. After the reading, she talked briefly about her process for writing the story. Addressing a question asked earlier in the evening about what it takes to be a writer, she held up the copy of the manuscript she had just read, shook it, and said, "Five years. Fourteen revisions. This is what it takes to get it right."
    Dorothy Allison is the author of several books of essays and fiction, including Bastard Out of Carolina, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Cavedweller. Sherman Alexie, a Spokane Indian, has authored poetry, short fiction, and novels, as well as the screenplay for Smoke Signals, based on his short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.