Donnelle McGee

A LOCAL NOVELIST ON THE FINER POINTS OF COMPLETE DISAPPEARANCE

Interview by David Perez | Photography by Daniel Garcia

A good story is like an addiction. It separates you from yourself, steeps you in a world different from the one buoyed by your immediate surroundings. But, according to McGee, only one brings you back whole.

Your work does more than experiment with form. It is in conversation with real issues in the real world. Is there something external to the writing that you're working toward? A change you would like to help realize?

Addiction runs amuck in my books. I’ve spent many years in rooms with women and men telling and hearing stories about addiction. Stories of how addiction will erode the self, break the family and can kill you. When I left those rooms I knew there were books in me to be written and shared. Addiction, in whatever form, and when it threatens to erase you, brings you to face the self. So writing "Ghost Man," "Shine," and "Naked (memoir in verse)" was brewing in me for years, and their narratives remind me of the stark realities of being out of control and not confronting your demons. I hope my work continues to open up the discussion about family and personal addictions that are often only spoken about in secret.

A good novel can make you feel like you are temporarily living another person's life. Why do you think this is such a compelling experience?

We are all looking for an escape. The chance to leave our bodies temporarily is exhilarating. Once the novel is done, we return to ourselves more whole if the novel is worthy. Readers want this experience, and as writers, it is important to write narratives that move people. I want to write with an urgency and with a beat that is authentic and lets the reader engage with the characters. I want to share narratives that move people because we all want to spend some time in another realm. And we all want glimpses into what we do not know. A good novel can do this and more.

Ursula K. LeGuin said, "The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words." I know this is a curveball, but does this make sense to you? What are your thoughts?

Beautiful words and question. The novelist gives voice to what many of us are afraid to utter. The novelist saves us and moves forward boldly to put on the page our deepest fears and ambitions. And in the end, the writing keeps us alive and moving onward.

Why is reading new fiction important?

Fiction guides what it means to be human. Stories are created every moment and new fiction takes these narratives and shapes them for us to experience. And in doing so, we live on and continue to figure out what it means to be alive.

What is the best book you have ever read?

"I Know This Much Is True" by Wally Lamb

"Ghost Man"

Excerpt provided by Donnelle McGee

Now alone in the house she and Julius purchased together, their first home, Grace experienced the realness of her situation. She stepped into the office. She loved this room the most. Book after book lined the mahogany bookshelves. On the floor, not yet put on the shelves, were the newest books just bought last week when Joey, Julius, and she spent an afternoon at Journey Bookstore. One of the books caught her eye. It sat on top of the stack, which meant that the book would be the next on Grace’s reading list. Grace picked up the book. The book’s cover struck her. The deep redness of it. The title running vertically on the front of the book read Ordinary Words. The author’s name, Ruth Stone, ran horizontally across the cover breaking into the space between Ordinary and Words. What fascinated Grace most about the cover was the shadowy, almost smoky, image of a face, if it was a face. She wasn’t sure. With the book still in her hand, Grace sat down on the soft Berber carpet. She studied the book’s cover trying to make out the image coming out of the redness. After getting up to get a stack of note cards and a pen from the desk, she returned to the floor. With the book in front of her, she lay on her belly and began to write: ghost man here ghost man come gone ghost man me Ghost Man come and gone

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Donnelle's books are available at: bit.ly/GHOSTMAN