Interview With Author - Suzanne Dunaway
Name: Suzanne Dunaway
Website: http://www.suzannedunaway.com/
Questions:
Q: Where are you originally from?
A: Texas, but these days I don’t let many people know that. Mostly, I left at 21, went to Berkeley, then Italy, and now France and Italy are where I divide my time.
Q: Can you tell us your latest book news?
A: My latest book is Rome, At Home, The Spirit of la cucina romana in Your Own Kitchen (Broadway Books)
Q: How old were you when you first started writing?
A: I was the editor of a 9th grade gossip and society column in a tiny newspaper in Houston, Texas. Suzy Says was the title.
Q: When did you first realize you had the potential to be a writer?
A: When my first book was published and it was up for The James Beard Award in 2002.
Q: What was your inspiration to write your first novel?
A: I am not a novelist—yet—but my inspiration is living.
Q: Is there anyone or anything that inspired you to write?
A: Very much so. A teacher named Robert Moore at St. John’s School in Houston. He read my poetry and prose and pushed me all the time to keep at it. Then a poet/prof at Sweet Briar College, Elizabeth Eaton, showed me how to write without what she called “wooley muffleâ€. She had a big red stamp with that on it and stamped any creative writing that was not clear and to the point. I loved her.
Q: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?
A: Well, living in Italy has certainly inspired Rome, At Home. And the company that started in my kitchen, Buona Forchetta, in Los Angeles, pushed my thinking into writing No Need To Knead, Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes (Hyperion).
Q: Do you have a specific writing style?
A: Yes. No wooley muffle. Write from the heart.
Q: What genre are you most comfortable writing?
A: Personal essays and stories. And I am comfortable and confidant writing nything on cooking and food and I have cooked since five and taught cooking for years.
Q: How do you come up with the title(s) for your book(s)?
A: I like something that will grab the reader immediately, in the book store. Also I love puns and word play.
Q: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
A: Not a novelist, but in my cookbooks, the message is, “Keep it simple and don’t try to be creative all the time, especially if you are a novice. Straightforward cooking is always better that frou-frou if you start with beautiful, basic ingredients.â€
Q: How much of the novel is realistic?
A: Everything in my books is actual and lived.
Q: Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life?
A: All of them.
Q: What books have most influenced your life?
A: Well, all kinds of poetry, especially the poetry of Dylan Thomas; Moby Dick, the great Russian writers, so many classics I cannot list them here, and now, in this century, I love Ian McEwan, Ha Jin, and many new, young fiction writers who catch my fancy every now and again.
Q: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
A: William Boyd (Any Human Heart) and you’re going to laugh: Janet Evanovitch and Fay Weldon, just to remind me to keep my humor at all times.
Q: What are you reading now?
A: I am reading Saturday and the new Ha Jin, War Trash, plus Never Let Me Go. Some biographies are fascinating for their style, but in general, I like to read stories that are made up out of writer’s imaginations.
Q: What new author has grasped your interest?
A: Well, he’s not new, really, but I adore Ha Jin.
Q: Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?
A: Write, write, write every day, and then take a break now and then to cook something lovely for yourself and friends. Sit down with a glass of wine and share delight in each other, at all costs. Don’t ever waste time thinking you are wasting time. Just do something you did not do yesterday, or think something new, or gaze at something beautiful when you think you are not living up to your standards. Then write about it.
Author of Rome, At Home, The Spirit of la cucina romana in Your Own Kitchen (Broadway Books) and No Need To Knead, Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes (Hyperion)