The Next Literary Superstar: An Interview with Patricia Engel
by Jaquira Díaz
Born to Colombian parents and raised in New Jersey, Patricia Engel earned her undergraduate degree at New York University and her MFA at Florida International University in Miami. When her debut short story collection, Vida (Gove/Atlantic), was released last October, it took the literary world by storm. When we conducted this interview last fall, Vida had just been named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. However, in the weeks since the interview was finalized, in addition to being named one of NPR’s Best Book Debuts of 2010, a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year, and one of Latina’s Best Books of 2010, Vida was selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book of 2010. Michiko Kakutani referred to Engel’s use of voice as “immediate, unsentimental, and disarmingly direct,” and her writing has been compared to the likes of Jeffrey Eugenides and Junot Díaz. The short stories in Vida are set in New York, Miami, Colombia, and New Jersey, and are comprised of characters who deal with complicated relationships, coming of age, and the duality of the immigrant experience.
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Jaquira Díaz: I grew up in Miami, and I’m fascinated by your ability to capture its complexity and strangeness in stories like “Desaliento,” “Cielito Lindo,” and “Vida.” Why Miami? How has living there influenced you or your writing?
Patricia Engel: Miami is a city on the verge; a main artery of the Americas with so much integrated cultural life, so much manic energy, so much beauty as a city by the sea with the sweet ocean air, a tempestuous breeze, that pulsing heart full of secrets and shadows. I adore its complexity and that as a creative landscape it’s still in its early stages of discovery. There is so much yet to be written about Miami and I’m only revealing a very small part of it.
JD: Vida is set in New Jersey, New York City, Miami, and Colombia. How important is setting in your writing process? How does a story
begin for you? Do you start a story with a particular place in mind, or is setting determined by another factor?
PE: I think of setting in relation to the character rather than as a separate entity. I’m interested in how people and place dance together and
the human interior is reflected by exterior. Sabina’s New Jersey is different from even her own brother’s New Jersey. Her Miami is different
from my Miami and your Miami, and her Colombia is extremely specific to her, but in that specificity there is an intimacy I hope a reader can connect to.
JD: Other female authors who write about Latinos, and whose work is set in South Florida—I’m thinking of Jennine Capó Crucet and Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés—are often labeled as “Latina writers.” How do you feel about being labeled or referred to as a Latina writer?
PE: The “Latina” label wasn’t yet popular when I was growing up. We were Hispanics or Spanish, at best, but of course we didn’t think of ourselves as Hispanic or Spanish—because we weren’t from Hispaniola or Spain—but as Colombian, or even more commonly, as Paisa (from the region of Antioquia) so you get an idea of how disconnected we were from what we were called. I think the need to designate literature the way they do for food in the supermarket aisles is sort of a recent trend and one that I try not to give too much importance.
JD: Do you have any advice for beginning writers?
PE: Marry your writing. Be prepared to make sacrifices in order to get work done. Confront the gaps in your education, and continue to educate yourself. Read a lot, especially outside of your comfort zone, and seek out international literature.
JD: Vida is a collection of short stories with a protagonist in common: Sabina. Can you talk about the origins of Sabina? How did she come
to be?
PE: I wrote one or two stories and it was like meeting a new friend I wanted to know further. I found a vulnerability and an integrity about
her; she is honest even in her dishonesty, so I stayed with her over a few decades as she told me who she wanted to be.
JD: Who would you consider your greatest literary influences?
PE: Albert Camus, so much so that growing up, I named our family cat after him. I also loved Anaïs Nin, Maryse Condé, and Marguerite
Duras, though I am equally influenced by music and visual art because I grew up around a lot of painters and musicians.
JD: Vida was just named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, and you’ve been compared to writers like Junot Díaz,
even referred to as “the next literary superstar.” Is this how you always envisioned your writing career? How does this change the literary
game for you?
PE: I never envisioned a literary career because I had no idea there was such a thing. Like a lot of immigrant kids, I had to figure out college
on my own, had no mentors, and no idea one could major in creative writing or there was such a thing as an MFA until years after I’d gradu-
ated. I always wrote for myself and never shared my work. Writing was a private act for me. It still is. The fact that my writing now reaches
an audience beyond me is beautiful, but my stories are still my confidants, born of love, whether they are published or not.
JD: What are your favorite Florida spots?
PE: I love the beach. I love driving down to the Keys, the Everglades and any place where I can catch the sunset over water or an electrical
storm. I love the small streets of downtown Miami, Coconut Grove, the corridors of Calle Ocho, Biscayne Boulevard, the Design District, and Little Haiti.
JD: If you weren’t a writer, what else would you be?
PE: I really wanted to be a marine biologist who wrote books on the side but I had no talent for science. So now I’m a writer who studies
marine biology on the side. My only real ambition was to do something meaningful and useful.
JD: What are you working on now?
PE: A novel set in Paris.
This interview originally appeared in Volume 5.
__________
Jaquira Díaz: I grew up in Miami, and I’m fascinated by your ability to capture its complexity and strangeness in stories like “Desaliento,” “Cielito Lindo,” and “Vida.” Why Miami? How has living there influenced you or your writing?
Patricia Engel: Miami is a city on the verge; a main artery of the Americas with so much integrated cultural life, so much manic energy, so much beauty as a city by the sea with the sweet ocean air, a tempestuous breeze, that pulsing heart full of secrets and shadows. I adore its complexity and that as a creative landscape it’s still in its early stages of discovery. There is so much yet to be written about Miami and I’m only revealing a very small part of it.
JD: Vida is set in New Jersey, New York City, Miami, and Colombia. How important is setting in your writing process? How does a story
begin for you? Do you start a story with a particular place in mind, or is setting determined by another factor?
PE: I think of setting in relation to the character rather than as a separate entity. I’m interested in how people and place dance together and
the human interior is reflected by exterior. Sabina’s New Jersey is different from even her own brother’s New Jersey. Her Miami is different
from my Miami and your Miami, and her Colombia is extremely specific to her, but in that specificity there is an intimacy I hope a reader can connect to.
JD: Other female authors who write about Latinos, and whose work is set in South Florida—I’m thinking of Jennine Capó Crucet and Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés—are often labeled as “Latina writers.” How do you feel about being labeled or referred to as a Latina writer?
PE: The “Latina” label wasn’t yet popular when I was growing up. We were Hispanics or Spanish, at best, but of course we didn’t think of ourselves as Hispanic or Spanish—because we weren’t from Hispaniola or Spain—but as Colombian, or even more commonly, as Paisa (from the region of Antioquia) so you get an idea of how disconnected we were from what we were called. I think the need to designate literature the way they do for food in the supermarket aisles is sort of a recent trend and one that I try not to give too much importance.
JD: Do you have any advice for beginning writers?
PE: Marry your writing. Be prepared to make sacrifices in order to get work done. Confront the gaps in your education, and continue to educate yourself. Read a lot, especially outside of your comfort zone, and seek out international literature.
JD: Vida is a collection of short stories with a protagonist in common: Sabina. Can you talk about the origins of Sabina? How did she come
to be?
PE: I wrote one or two stories and it was like meeting a new friend I wanted to know further. I found a vulnerability and an integrity about
her; she is honest even in her dishonesty, so I stayed with her over a few decades as she told me who she wanted to be.
JD: Who would you consider your greatest literary influences?
PE: Albert Camus, so much so that growing up, I named our family cat after him. I also loved Anaïs Nin, Maryse Condé, and Marguerite
Duras, though I am equally influenced by music and visual art because I grew up around a lot of painters and musicians.
JD: Vida was just named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, and you’ve been compared to writers like Junot Díaz,
even referred to as “the next literary superstar.” Is this how you always envisioned your writing career? How does this change the literary
game for you?
PE: I never envisioned a literary career because I had no idea there was such a thing. Like a lot of immigrant kids, I had to figure out college
on my own, had no mentors, and no idea one could major in creative writing or there was such a thing as an MFA until years after I’d gradu-
ated. I always wrote for myself and never shared my work. Writing was a private act for me. It still is. The fact that my writing now reaches
an audience beyond me is beautiful, but my stories are still my confidants, born of love, whether they are published or not.
JD: What are your favorite Florida spots?
PE: I love the beach. I love driving down to the Keys, the Everglades and any place where I can catch the sunset over water or an electrical
storm. I love the small streets of downtown Miami, Coconut Grove, the corridors of Calle Ocho, Biscayne Boulevard, the Design District, and Little Haiti.
JD: If you weren’t a writer, what else would you be?
PE: I really wanted to be a marine biologist who wrote books on the side but I had no talent for science. So now I’m a writer who studies
marine biology on the side. My only real ambition was to do something meaningful and useful.
JD: What are you working on now?
PE: A novel set in Paris.
This interview originally appeared in Volume 5.
