An Interview with Gurney Norman

An Interview with Gurney Norman Gurney Norman was born and raised in Hazard, Kentucky. After high school, he attended UK to study journalism. In 1960, after a year of graduate school, he won a Stegner Fellowship and studied at Stanford University. After leaving Stanford, he spent two years in the Army. Then, in 1963, he moved back to Hazard and worked as the editor of The Hazard Herald until 1965. At that time he moved back to California where he stayed until 1980. It was in California, during those fifteen years, that he wrote his two published books, Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks. RH: Feel free to expand on any subject, whether covered or not covered in the interview questions. Here they are: The first chapter of Divine Right's Trip is told through the point of view of Urge, the VW bus, which is quite unusual for a novel. What made you decide to begin this novel from the perspective of Urge? GN: I didn’t create Urge through any rational process. It just came to me as I was thinking about the characters in the story, and I suddenly saw that the VW bus was a central character. So, for pure fun, I decided to give him a name and let him speak, let him establish certain images and details and a voice to energetically launch the narrative. Urge’s speech was a lot of fun to write. RH: I have read that you were drawn to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960's because it seemed similar to the Appalachia’s because it was people centered and nature oriented. Looking back, do you still think the two were similar, or has your opinion changed? GN: I first went to California because I had been awarded a fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University. This was in 1960, a cool half-century ago. I was struck by how beautiful the Bay Area is, the light, the landscape and moist atmosphere. I lived in the Bay Area seventeen of the next twenty years, really surrendered myself to the adventure of California. I felt entirely at home. But I did not forget Kentucky, my first home. In fact, I thought about and talked about Kentucky all the time. The great thing about the Bay Area as I experienced it was the sense of freedom that seems to be in the very air you breathed. My sense of home did not have to be confined to a single place. I was lucky in that my community was made up of artists, writers, dancers, musicians, tinkerers, and psychologists, political and artistic radicals. In that sense, for me, it was people centered, generous, welcoming people. I gradually developed a strong feeling of family similar to my original family in the Appalachian region. RH: When did you decide that writing was the career that you wanted to pursue? Did the oral tradition associated with the south have an effect on your decision? GN: I knew at age fifteen that I wanted to write, I felt it in my bones. It was a bit uncanny. My father had recently died when I wrote my first short story in 1953. My childhood was pretty chaotic. I think I felt that writing was a way to express these very complicated emotions I carried within me. It took a while for me to realize that the language of the people I had grown up among in the mountains was special. I lived in an environment of what some would call a regional vernacular language. That unique oral tradition was part of my heritage, maybe the most important part, and yes, it has had strong effect on my writing and in my life in general. RH: Growing up, did you have specific role models, family, or friends that inspired you as a writer? GN: Yes. I have been blessed to have had many people who have encouraged and supported and inspired me in my life and my writing. My sister, Gwynne Norman Griffith of Berea, Kentucky, was the first to encourage me in my writing, from childhood right on down to the present day. The list of teachers and friends and other writers who have encouraged me are legion. RH: The field of writing is extremely competitive. What advice do you have to offer aspiring authors? GN: Every beginning writer is on his or her own. You are lucky if you find a circle of friends who are writers or artists of some kind, people who read books and are curious about the world. My next advice would be to develop a skill or talent other than writing that can help you find and keep a day job. Finally, I would advise aspiring writers to write more than you talk about writing. About competition: I have had writer friends since I was in college, and we have always been supportive of each other’s efforts. We have not been in competition, we have been in cooperation. About publishing: if you can’t find anyone to publish your work, start your own printing press. The new communications technology offers writers undreamed of when I was young. A blog is like one’s own printing press. The downside of blogging and Facebooking is that those media seem to encourage sloppy writing. RH: Which one of your works was the most difficult for you to write? Why? GN: My most difficult book to write is the present one. It is hard because there is no plot, as in a linear narrative. My material won’t fit into any known form, so the real difficulty is to create the form the material requires. RH: I find it interesting that you co-authored a book called Confronting Appalachian Stereotypes-- do you feel that the stereotype of Appalachian people has changed since your book was published? Do you feel that famous Appalachian personalities like Popcorn Sutton have helped or hurt the public image of Appalachian people? GN: I think there has been a slight shift in consciousness regarding the Appalachian stereotype problem, particularly in the Appalachian region itself. The past forty years have seen a gradual awakening or new consciousness among Appalachian people that has allowed them to see their lives and realities more clearly. Books, films, music, media, journalism, and teachers in the schools have done much to bring about this positive change. Confronting Appalachian Stereotypes, now called Backtalk is one contribution to the ongoing effort by Appalachian people to fight the stereotype and other destructive forces bearing down on them. My editorial colleagues, Danny Miller and Sharon Hatfield, and I wanted to create a source book for teachers and students. We wanted to add scholarly writing to the burgeoning field of Appalachian literature, to create a tool for understanding and combating not just the Appalachian stereotype, but stereotyping itself. .

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