We’re shining with pride as Lit Fest 2017 Emerging Fiction Fellow Evanthia Bromiley prepares to publish her debut novel, Crown, with Grove Atlantic Press in June. Her publishers recommend this suspenseful and lyrical novel which tracks three days leading up to the eviction of a pregnant single mother and her nine-year-old twins from a trailer park in the American Southwest. The novel has received an abundance of praise from celebrated authors, described as “concise and musical” by Christine Schutt and “an astonishing debut” by Laura van den Berg. We simply cannot wait to read it.
So we connected with Evanthia to highlight her journey with Lighthouse and as a writer. Read her responses here:
Q: Tell me a bit about your experience at Lit Fest. What was the most memorable moment or something impactful that you learned?
A: I hope my memory serves me correctly, but Rebecca Makkai’s Lit Fest workshop introduced to me this idea of intrigue and suspense. Suspense, as she defined it at the time, is something that is going to happen in the future of the novel, while intrigue is what has already happened in the past. I think this is interesting to think about, because a novel really needs a fine balance, a taut line of energy in both respects. It takes a lot of intuition to understand how much backstory is just enough to create a richness, a sense that these characters have a history that exists outside the frame of the book. But not too much. You don’t want to weigh the novel down. This was something I needed to understand at the time. I also read Percival Everett for the first time in that workshop, which was a gift.
Lit Fest is unique in that it’s a one of a kind opportunity to work with some of the best writers out there. And it’s such a wonderful atmosphere. I mean, you meet people of all ages, from all walks of life, this wonderful community of writers who want to talk about the things that matter the most to you, and matter for literature. It’s so refreshing. It feels exciting and joyful and also unpretentious. Pretension has no place in art. We would just sit around a table in that old house on Race Street [previous Lighthouse location] and talk about great books. I didn’t know I could be part of such a passionate community of writers, and to feel so immediately that I belonged.
Q: What was your inspiration for Crown? Did the vision change throughout the writing and editing process?
A: Crown began for me with an image. I saw this little girl on the edge of a grassfire. I saw the things of the field fleeing, and the ash on her face. I wrote to find out who she was. And then when she was difficult and reticent, I wrote to find out who loved her and how. Jude and the park rose up around her and grew into something intimate and multi-faceted that showed the lives around me in the Southwest…there is something incandescent about being a child in a world over which one has no control but has these vast, imaginary kingdoms in which to reside. There is a certain ferocity in my own experience as a mother that I wanted to explore, and love after all is a fierce thing. I knew the book was honest because I’ve worked with children a long time, and in a way a child is a wild thing—a mystery. There is this immense ceiling that the world places on an American child and there is her slamming against it. As I wrote, the language started to tell me things about will. About joy and harshness—it’s an animal thing, really. Childhood. Motherhood, too. Things of the body. I think that incandescence became the book, became the language. It took me a long time to get the structure, because I felt real pressure to get the energy and the sound of the prose right.
Q: Do you have a word of advice for writers, whether they’re just getting started or publishing their work?
A: For me it has been to read. Read everything. Read works in translation—there’s so much tantalizing, groundbreaking stuff out there and so many exciting things being done with the novel. For me it has also been helpful to find and build a community of writers. If you live in a rural area, having people you trust to talk with about the work helps with the solitude, and makes you feel a little less odd.
Evanthia’s writing is captivating, and we can’t wait to read more of it in June in her debut novel. If you’re looking for a book to add to your reading list, consider this beautiful page-turner and preorder Crown here.
Want to hear more from Evanthia? On Sunday, April 13th from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM MDT, she’ll be teaching a remote class about how to write a polished yet mysterious ending to a story. Register for As We Come To An End: Poetic Closure in the Story here.
Evanthia also will be returning to Lit Fest this summer at our business panels. Don’t miss out on the chance to connect with her!
