Roxana Robinson, author of LEAVING

‟What does love demand of us, and who must pay the price? Leaving is a searing interrogation of honor and passion." - Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse

Roxana Robinson was on the show in 2005 and 2008, and again earlier this month to talk about her new wondrous novel, Leaving. Roxana is the author of eleven books—seven novels, three collections of short stories, and the biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Four of these were chosen as New York Times Notable Books, two as New York Times Editors’ Choices. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, The Southampton Review, Ep!phany and elsewhere. Her work has been widely anthologized and broadcast on NPR. Her books have been published in England, France, Germany, Holland and Spain. Roxana Robinson has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the MacDowell Colony, and she was named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library. Robinson has served on the Boards of PEN and the Authors Guild, and was the president of the Authors Guild. She has received the Barnes and Noble “Writers for Writers Award,” given by Poets and Writers, and the Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community from the Authors Guild. She teaches in the MFA Program at Hunter College.

What has been the most surprising aspect for you since Leaving was released?

I’ve been interested at the response to the mother-grown-daughter relationship. People have been very engaged by that, and tell me they haven’t seen it written about before. Also I was surprised that one interviewer called Sarah, as an older, single, self-sufficient woman, “aspirational,” in that she was so happy and so complete.

What’s the best writing advice you were ever given?

Maybe it was Richard Bausch who wrote that you must just keep making sentences, because after awhile you will have a corpus that you can work with. Of course there are times when you have nothing to say. But you have to keep making sentences. Later you can cut things out.

What’s the worst?

I once had a writing teacher in college who told us to describe a place, like an antique shop. He said it would make it more interesting if you swapped the adjectives you chose for different objects. I dropped the class.

What have you read lately that you wholeheartedly recommend?

Anything by Tessa Hadley.

How about an older book—five years or more?

I am just re-discovering Annie Ernaux, and reading her book about her father. It is brilliant in that is examines family and class in a way that is plain and heartbreaking. I think it’s called A Man’s Place.

Are you a re-reader?

I often re-read favorite books at night, to put myself to sleep, because I can rely on the text to be beautiful and familiar.

How far will you read a book before you stop or do you finish every book you begin?

I no longer have the tolerance to finish every book, when every book is not great. I did finish War and Peace for a second time, though I think it is vast and shapeless, not nearly as good as Anna Karenina, psychologically and emotionally incoherent. But it is still worth reading. Now I am trying Rebecca West, The Birds Fall Down, and about to give up. It is both ponderous and arch. I often give up on new novels within a chapter. It’s the sentences.

How do you begin a draft?

I write on the computer.

What do you do when you hit a wall?

Sentences.

What are you currently obsessed with?

The way people act. I am always watching, always interested.

What is a question no one asks that you wish they would?

I am surprised that no-one discusses the idea of morality in my work.

Listen to Roxana Robinson and me talk about Leaving on Writers on Writing.
We talked last in 2005, right here, and in 2008 Roxana was with my cohost Marrie Stone, here. More about Roxana Robinson here.