Dana Spiotta
Dana Spiotta
Dana Spiottais an American author. Her novel Stone Arabiawas a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her novel Eat the Documentwas a National Book Award finalist and won the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her novel Lightning Fieldwas a New York Times Notable Book of the year. She was a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
character writing voice
When I write characters, I need to hear their voice. As soon as I get them speaking, and I feel how they use language, I understand who they are and what they want.
smart teaching brain
My teaching exists in a different part of my brain. However, I am lucky enough to teach very smart graduate students.
morning writing thinking
I think most writers have to have a practice of writing. For me it is very early in the morning. I try to make it a separate world from the rest of my life.
mistake realization realizing
I find poignancy in the moments when a person realizes that she has made mistakes. I am not as interested in the mistakes themselves as I am with the consequences and how the person responds to her realization.
daughter character self
I am one Dana when I am talking to my daughter, another when I am talking to the IRS, and another still when I do an interview. These characters are just extreme versions of ordinary human self-switching.
thinking people identity
I am, it seems, interested in people with multiple identities. I think we all have multiple identities.
people trying prejudice
Even if we try to see people in our lives accurately, it is distorted by our own wants and prejudices and experiences.
trying way documentaries
Even a documentary portrait of a person that tries to be very accurate is shaped by the filmmaker in so many ways.
real inspiration names
I take the outline from a real person as inspiration, but the in-line is totally made up. Which is why I usually invent imaginary names.
book thinking people
The novel is about, for me, sustained and organized looking. I do think that people have a hunger for a sustained engagement, that concentration that the book can offer.
school trying acting
Yes, I did try acting when I was in high school and I was terrible at it. So I definitely have had the experience of being bad at artistic endeavor.
reason listening-to-music many-friends
That was one of the reasons I became a writer - I never really had that many friends. I would read a lot, and listen to music. And that was my life.
real character ideas
I like to mix the real and the imaginary. Sometimes it is characters inspired by real people I know or know of. Sometimes it is a named person from the common cultural dreamscape. And it is tricky, because they have a lot of associated ideas that come with them, and a lot of actual facts.
wall streets feels
All roads lead to Wall Street, but we feel the effects of Wall Street on every street corner. Certainly in Syracuse, N.Y., where I live.