{"id":260600,"date":"2024-01-24T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/?p=260600"},"modified":"2024-01-09T12:21:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T17:21:39","slug":"venita-blackburn-thinks-you-should-turn-your-troubles-into-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/venita-blackburn-thinks-you-should-turn-your-troubles-into-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Venita Blackburn Thinks You Should Turn Your Troubles Into Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I heard Venita Blackburn had a novel coming out, my desire to read it was palpable, a hunger. Her work is distinctive\u2014it\u2019s sharp, smart, and imaginative, often pushing voice and form\u2014and her debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California<\/a>, <\/em>is no exception.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The novel follows Coral, a lonely author of a dystopian novel who discovers her brother\u2019s body after he dies by suicide. Aside from the EMTs who clear Jay\u2019s body, Coral is the only person who knows of his death. She takes his unlocked cell phone and begins responding to his texts as if she is Jay, as if he\u2019s still alive. None of these correspondences carry as much weight as the ones to his daughter, Coral\u2019s niece. Told in first-person plural and set over the course of a grief-stricken week as Coral attends a comic convention and attempts to date, the novel has an eerie, otherworldly quality from the very first sentence: \u201cWe are responsible for telling this story, mostly because Coral cannot.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Coral slips from reality, her dystopian novel, \u201cWildfire,\u201d swirls to life, amid her attempts to keep Jay alive to those who don\u2019t yet know he\u2019s dead. Dead in Long Beach, California <\/em>examines trauma, desire, grief, hunger, loss, and our society at large in an inventive, form-shifting novel that truly no one but the singular Venita Blackburn could\u2019ve written. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the pleasure of talking to Venita Blackburn about voice, hunger, humor, and more.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rachel Le\u00f3n: The premise of this novel is compelling, and like all your work, the voice is distinct and strong. This particular voice has an enigmatic quality. I don\u2019t want to discuss who exactly is narrating because not knowing right away makes for an alluring reading experience, but I\u2019m curious which came first\u2014the premise or the voice? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venita Blackburn:<\/strong> Definitely the voice came first. I usually don\u2019t write anything without having the sound of the narrator established. The most interesting parts of stories for me aren\u2019t necessarily plot oriented. I\u2019m most moved by characters and relationships. No character is real enough to me to put in motion until they sound real. They have to have a speech pattern, a rhythm that matches their personality and psychoses perhaps. It\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RL: You\u2019re such a master of voice that I suppose that first question was too obvious. It\u2019s one of the things I love about your work. Plus you often play with form, which you do here with \u201cWildfire.<\/em>\u201d <\/em>But I\u2019d argue it\u2019s used differently than most novels within novels\u2026 At what point did \u201cWildfire\u201d come in?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n