SEVEN: Marie Manilla

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SEVEN: Marie Manilla

Posted on January 12, 2011 at 12:28 PM

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Marie Manilla is a typical hyphenated American: Italian-Irish-West Virginian. She was a barefoot, tomboy growing up as evidenced by the nail-punctured feet and briar-scratched legs. She survived 12 years of Catholic school and is no longer afraid of nuns (mostly). She is still afraid of priests. Her first post-college job was as a graphic artist in Houston where she was introduced to the Latino culture (and the fabulous magical realism of Garcia Marquez). It was in Texas that Marie began writing fiction and her work is often peopled with West Virginians, Texans, and Latinos. Go figure. Magical realism also creeps in from time to time. After earning an MFA from the Iowa Writers? Workshop, Marie returned to her hometown, Huntington, West Virginia, where she teaches on and off at Marshall University and tries to keep her Appalachian students from buckling under all those worn-out, hillbilly stereotypes. When Marie can?t write she paints or hugs her dog?because dog hugging is also an art form.

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Marie's debut?collection of short stories, Still Life With Plums, has just been published by WVU Press.?Her vivid and?award-winning stories have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Prairie Schooner, Mississippi Review, Calzyx Journal, Kestrel, Portland Review, GSU Review, among others.?Marie is also the author of the upcoming novel Shrapnel, a winner of the Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel which was judged by Daniel Wallace, celebrated author of Big Fish.

Glenn Taylor, National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart said this about Marie's work: "It's soul lies in life's little moments, somehow still yet perpetually fleeing.'s word take flight in the mind and dance 'like paper birds in the wind.' Inevitably, the words will root inside the reader, like the memory of a fossil or a Polaroid picture, and once there, they will cease to be still.?Just as the people in these stories, they will keep on humming."

Discover seven revealing and unique things about Marie!?She will be answering your questions over the next two days and invites YOU to share one of your stupidest-thing-I-ever-did stories!! Please stop in and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to learn more about Marie and her craft.

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~Seven Things You Probably Don't Know About Me~

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1.? I was a cook at a drive-in hot dog stand (Frost Top) throughout high school. I still have the burn scars on my arms to prove it, as well as an affinity for the comingled smell of mustard and onions. I also have fond memories of throwing tomatoes up into the exhaust fan so they would spew all out all over the parking lot. So far hot-dog stands have wound up in two of my stories.

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2.? I went to the Indy 500 in 1980 (this was before I was born, of course) with an 18? bendable Wile E. Coyote strapped around my waist. Two cool things happened: Walter Cronkite sat in our row, and a vender was selling baggies of ashes from the recently erupted Mount Saint Helens for $1.00. I regret that I did not buy one . . . though admittedly the ashes could have been from the dude?s fireplace.

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3.? I lost my glasses on the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat Island a few years before it erupted in 1995. I have since wondered where my glasses may have landed after the spew. (What is it with me and volcanoes . . . which feature prominently in The Patron Saint of Ugly, my current novel-in-progress? Hmmm.)

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4.? On the way to dinner one night in London, I accidentally crossed a police barricade where Charles and Diana were getting out of their car to attend the premiere of the movie Lady Jane Gray. A bobby threatened to club me. A few hours later I again accidentally crossed the barricade as the movie was letting out and nearly fell into Phil Collins?s car (apparently he had a song in the film, which I never saw). What is it with me and police barricades?

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5.? When the writing is going well, I am a happy, happy camper. The converse is also true.

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And now for a Cormac McCarthy detour:

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6. ?Here is one of the seven stupidest things I have ever done: One night in college I walked home from a party by myself. A car pulled up, the guy inside offered me a ride, and because he looked decent I got in. The man drove me home, parked out front, and we talked in his car for about an hour--mostly about his cheating girlfriend. Right before I got out he touched my arm and said it was a good thing he picked me up because our chat had deflated his original errand: He was on his way to kill his girlfriend; he even showed me the gun beneath his seat. Stupid, stupid girl.

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7.? Another stupid thing happened at that same Indy 500 listed in #2. Wile E. and I were ambling around the beer and popcorn vendors outside the speedway (think seedy carnival) when a guy asked if I could show him how to get back to the highway so he could hitchhike home. I pointed in the right direction, but he kept insisting that I physically show him since it was just a couple of blocks. I was about to go with him (I know. Stupid, stupid girl) when one of the guys I?d come to the race with happened to walk by and said in the voice of God: Don?t go. The other man took off, and now I wonder what he really had in store. I am not so stupid any more.

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Still Life With Plums?was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Weatherford Award. Marie's book?may be purchased?at http://wvupressonline.com/manilla_still_life_with_plums_978193

3202600 and many other online venues, including www.amazon.com

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Visit Marie's website at www.mariemanilla.com

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37 Comments

Reply Marie Manilla

03:39 PM on April 08, 2011?

Thanks, Mary. You know I am a gigantic fan of your work, too. I happen to be in Beckley today visiting Jim McCoy's class at Mountain State U. Guess what I'm reading tonight? "Hand. Me. Down." Woohoo!

Reply Marie Manilla

03:39 PM on April 08, 2011?

Thanks, Mary. You know I am a gigantic fan of your work, too. I happen to be in Beckley today visiting Jim McCoy's class at Mountain State U. Guess what I'm reading tonight? "Hand. Me. Down." Woohoo!

Reply Mary S.

11:43 PM on April 07, 2011?

I was fortunate enough to her Marie read "Hand.Me.Down" in Charleston on a snowy winter's night, and it ranks as my most beautiful memory of the year. Marie did a beautiful job reading, and the story made me laugh and almost brought me to tears, even though I had read it at least twice before. It was a truly lovely reading. As to stupid things I've done, I really appreciate the incredible, brave, brazen, innocent insanity of your stupid stories. I've done much the same thing, but I don't want to go into it here. The stories remind me of Joyce Carol Oates's "Where are You Going, where have You Been?" and one a lot like it, "Avalanches." Also, I've been reading about Ted Bundy again recently and thinking about stories like Marie's. I would love to read Marie's new novel and see how those stories find a home in it. Heck, I'd just like to read it for the sheer pleasure of reading her work!

Reply Marie Manilla

06:53 PM on January 27, 2011?

Christina:
It really would be nice to do away with the labels so that we can all just be writers. Period. But then how would bookstores know where to shelve us? =). There are so many valid and diverse stories from our region that need to be told. We all deserve a seat at the literary table. It's almost become a mission of mine to reveal other facets of who we are, to defy the pigeon-holing, or at least to render the West Virginia that I authentically know.

P.S. Accent aside, you ARE a smart intellectual and a damn fine writer. I think your long residency also qualifies you as officially adopted-in.

Reply Christina

06:23 PM on January 27, 2011?

Here I am in Appalachian KY, a non Appalachian. Because I have a British accent, some have assumed I am smart, intellectual.

I have to tell you I was raised by wonderful people who were working class, and we lived in a poor neighborhood in England. I always say I lived in Sydenham, because that was our postal address, but in reality we were in Forest Hill, a lot more scummier. I am not a Forest Hill writer. I write. That's all.

I also want to add that I have met so many incredible sophisticated, way-beyond-me, writers and intellectuls, human beings, who live in Appalachia, many born and raised here, that I am awed by their (your) sheer brilliance, and often wish I could be one too.

Reply Marie Manilla

04:20 PM on January 27, 2011?

Hi, Kathy:
I'm so glad you've come out to play! Isn't is interesting that so many writers also practice another art form. Is there any way I could take a peek at some of your artwork?

Reply Kathy

04:04 PM on January 27, 2011?

Hi -- Felt guilty just listening to the literary conversations, so thought I should come out in the open! I write some poetry -- think it's easier to hide behind! Publication only local. My other artistic work -- landscape & other oddball "quilts." A bit of watercolor and such. Have enjoyed peeking in on the literary confessionals. Hope to read Marie's recent short story collection --- another Italian American and former West Virginian here (Wheeling). Kathy

Reply Marie Manilla

03:54 PM on January 27, 2011?

Carter:
Amen! As a sister Huntingtonian I feel EXACTLY the same way you do.

Reply Carter

02:17 PM on January 27, 2011?

That is an interesting issue. At the one Hindman workshop I attended, I felt distinctly un-Appalachian because I didn't grow up in a rural setting, hadn't had my land ruined by mountain-top removal, or had relatives who farmed or worked in the mines. Yet, I was born and raised in Huntington - a city wholly within the boundaries of the region.

In my new non-fiction work in progress, I refer to that and admit that until I was in my mid-thirties I didn't even know I was an Appalachian. Nevertheless, I feel the same protection offered by these mountains as those who live on them, felt the draw to come back home when I lived in Georgia, and know the people of the hills well from my work with a regional craft cooperative. So who has the chops to write "Appalachian fiction" is a debate that could last a while.

Reply Marie Manilla

01:07 PM on January 27, 2011?

This is an important discussion, Laura. I would like to add a few more questions to the list: Is Appalachian fiction only work that is peopled by "stereotypical" Appalachians? Do the settings have to be in rural and rugged environments where the characters eek out hard-scrabble lives?

This is an issue I explore in Shrapnel. The main character (Bing, from Houston) moves to WV expecting every single person to be a kind of mythical hillbilly he has been making fun of for years even though he knows his daughter and son-in-law are both professors at Marshall. When Bing arrives, he is confronted with so much Southside/Ritter Park middle-classness and even affluence (Huntington readers know where I mean), that it boggles his mind and makes him feel like the poor relation--a predicament he never could have imagined--being on a rung lower than West Virginians!

laura7 says...
Even though you were born and raised and have lived in West Virginia almost all of your life, you posed a number of important questions in your response to my initial question:

"Just what qualifies as Appalachian literature? I began to wonder if my work just wasn't Appalachian enough, whatever that means. And of course that made me ask, then what is an Appalachian writer? Is it someone who just happens to be born here (like me)? Or does the work have to be set in and peopled by Appalachians? I think for many folks, it's strictly the latter."

I wonder if others would care to weigh in?

Reply Philip St. Clair

12:35 PM on January 27, 2011?

Thanks! Loved the idea of a "pre-workshop workshop"!

Reply Philip St. Clair

12:34 PM on January 27, 2011?

Marie Manilla says...
Morning, Philip:
About Iowa . . . well, the legendary competitiveness among students was definitely true. Also true was the critical nature of the workshops, sometimes to the point of obliteration, but not always. It depended on the workshop leader. Loose groups of us would share our manuscripts (anti-workshop workshops) prior to submitting them to the real workshop to make them as bulletproof as possible. Whether I agreed with their teaching styles or not, I got to work with some fabulous writers: Frank Conroy, Marilyn Robinson, Deborah Eisenberg, James Alan McPherson, Margot Livesey, Denis Johnson. With a little distance and maturity under my belt, what I can now say is that the experience made me a much, much better writer, and isn't that the point of MFA programs? I was also fortunate enough to be able to teach international literature while I was there which helped me develop my teaching chops. All in all, though the experience was no piece of cake, it is a very nice piece of sheepskin to have.

Reply laura7

12:23 PM on January 27, 2011?

Even though you were born and raised and have lived in West Virginia almost all of your life, you posed a number of important questions in your response to my initial question:

"Just what qualifies as Appalachian literature? I began to wonder if my work just wasn't Appalachian enough, whatever that means. And of course that made me ask, then what is an Appalachian writer? Is it someone who just happens to be born here (like me)? Or does the work have to be set in and peopled by Appalachians? I think for many folks, it's strictly the latter."

I wonder if others would care to weigh in?

Reply Marie Manilla

11:56 AM on January 27, 2011?

Morning, Philip:
About Iowa . . . well, the legendary competitiveness among students was definitely true. Also true was the critical nature of the workshops, sometimes to the point of obliteration, but not always. It depended on the workshop leader. Loose groups of us would share our manuscripts (anti-workshop workshops) prior to submitting them to the real workshop to make them as bulletproof as possible. Whether I agreed with their teaching styles or not, I got to work with some fabulous writers: Frank Conroy, Marilyn Robinson, Deborah Eisenberg, James Alan McPherson, Margot Livesey, Denis Johnson. With a little distance and maturity under my belt, what I can now say is that the experience made me a much, much better writer, and isn't that the point of MFA programs? I was also fortunate enough to be able to teach international literature while I was there which helped me develop my teaching chops. All in all, though the experience was no piece of cake, it is a very nice piece of sheepskin to have.

Philip St. Clair says...
What was your impression of the Iowa Workshop?

Reply Philip St. Clair

11:42 AM on January 27, 2011?

What was your impression of the Iowa Workshop?

Reply Marie Manilla

09:12 AM on January 27, 2011?

Hi, Leslie!
I've really been enjoying your drawings on Facebook! I want to steal Carter's response below--that thing about busying the hands when the words won't come to help uncork the dam (like that forgotten name surfacing while washing dishes) is so true! (Brilliant, Carter.)

On a very literal level, because I enjoy drawing and painting, the visual arts often find themselves in my work. I fashioned an entire novel on one of my favorite paintings ("Blue Woman" by Marnelle North. It's on my website under "Art of the Month"). Throughout the novel, one of the characters is painting that very work which becomes a metaphor for her. In the story "Amnesty" a war-damaged man finds his voice and a way to express his grief through painting. There is power in both creating and experiencing art--whether it be visual or the written word.

Leslie says...
Hi Marie -- how do other art forms (such as music & painting or drawing) influence your work?

Reply Leslie

08:50 AM on January 27, 2011?

Hi Marie -- how do other art forms (such as music & painting or drawing) influence your work?

Reply Marie Manilla

09:37 PM on January 26, 2011?

Hi Eddy: I bet it was the heat that made you barf! Ahhh, careers. I wish I could say I was a hat-check girl or a roller derby bruiser, but my job choices were pretty standard. Before I became a writer I worked as a graphic artist, first in the oil industry (I know, but I soon wized up and moved on) and then at a newspaper. Now I mostly I teach at the university level. I do carefully consider what kinds of careers my characters would be drawn to. The main character in Shrapnel was a welder (whose eyesight has been ruined by welder's burn). Various characters in the collection are a telephone lineman; dog groomer; blocked-up writer (bingo!); aging child star; grifter; mathematician/cleaning lady; a disabled fireman/predator, journalist, grease monkey. Just choosing the right job for your characters can fill in so much backstory without you ever having to say another word.

Reply Eddy

08:13 PM on January 26, 2011?

I could relate to the drive-in career because I worked at a root beer drive-in in Tampa, FL, for one day (then threw up and went home). What other jobs have you had? Are any remnants from them in your short story collection (SLWP) or in your novel SHRAPNEL?

Reply Marie Manilla

07:19 PM on January 26, 2011?

That's a really good question, Laura. I began writing fiction while I lived in Texas and I didn't consider myself anything other than a writer (no subheadings such as woman writer, southern writer, Appalachian writer, etc.). I just chose issues and characters who grabbed me on an emotional level whether it be a Guatemalan widow, a Texas ambulance driver, or women desperate to flee (or return to) Appalachia. After I got my MFA I returned to West Virginia and started sending out stories to literary magazines across the country from New York to California, Minnesota to Texas. Lucky for me my work resonated with them, particularly journals in the Pacific Northwest, for some reason (three journals in Oregon have published my stories. Go figure.) Though my work was also finding homes in the Deep South (Shrapnel will be published by an Alabama press) initially my prose was not resonating as well with folks inside West Virginia. I never had any luck with literature fellowships, for example. Stories they declined found homes in The Chicago Tribune and Prairie Schooner, so I knew it wasn't the writing. That's when I began to wonder if my work just wasn't Appalachian enough, whatever that means. And of course that made me ask, then what is an Appalachian writer? Is it someone who just happens to be born here (like me)? Or does the work have to be set in and peopled by Appalachians? I think for many folks, it's strictly the latter. It wasn't until fall 2009 that I finally got a story into a West Virginia journal. Kestrel published one of my favorite stories, "Hand. Me. Down." I think that opened a cosmic door because soon after that WVU Press accepted the Still Life collection. Since it's been published, it has been wonderfully received by the West Virginia literary community and I am so grateful. In a weird way, and even after all this time, I feel as if I have finally been welcomed home.