The Muse and the Marketplace kicks off on May 1st at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. In anticipation of the conference, we collected micro-interviews written by authors, agents and editors who will be attending the event. This is the sixth in the series.
Micro-Interview with Patricia Park, author of Re Jane
1. What’s the best book you’ve read in the last year?
The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors by Juliet Barker. A 1,000+ page, highly-readable whopper. I’m a huge Charlotte Brontephile, and it was a wonderful narrative of the formation of an early feminist.
2. Do you listen to music as you work, or do you need the sweet sounds of silence to concentrate?
The sweet sounds of white noise.
3. If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare?
If I was given two hours’ notice: broccoli and cheddar frittata, spinach salad with apple cider vinaigrette, and yogurt zataar dip with pita and baby carrots to start. If I was given two months’ notice: exactly the same thing. I’m a one-trick pony in the kitchen.
4. What’s the single best thing a writer can do to build their platform?
If you haven’t already, purchase a domain for your author website (e.g., www.FirstNameLastName.com). When it comes time to publish your work, you’ll want that domain name reserved so you can build a website (super easy to do on Wix.com or other template sites) and it can function as your online CV for people who want to seek you out.
5. Do you prefer reading books or e-books?
I prefer e-books for nonfiction, so I can highlight and take notes on my Kindle. I also prefer beach e-reads so I can mindlessly click without the notes. For fiction I prefer physical books—turning those literal pages gives me a better sense of pacing in the narrative, which I can then apply to my own work.
You can catch Patricia’s craft discussion, “Show or Tell? A Craft Discussion on the Art of Dramatizing—or Summarizing—a Scene” on Friday, May 1, 3:45 PM, and her info session, “How to Apply to Fellowships and Grants” on Saturday, May 2, 9:00 AM, at the Muse. For all the latest Muse news, follow #Muse15.
Patricia Park was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. She received her BA in English Literature from Swarthmore College and her MFA in Fiction from Boston University, where she studied with Ha Jin and Allegra Goodman. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Slice Magazine, and others. She was a Fulbright research scholar to South Korea and a Fellow with the Center for Fiction and American Association of University Women. She has taught writing at Boston University, Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, and CUNY Queens College. She is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator Program. Her first novel is Re Jane, a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking/Penguin, May 2015).
