Interview with Sherrie Flick

Sherrie Flick Interview

- Sherrie Flick was this year’s visiting writer for the fall 2021 semester. Editor in chief, Stefan Cozza interviewed her about her book Thank Your lucky Stars, and her creative process.

1. For many, fash fction is an intimidating genre to tackle. You have many in “Thank your Lucky Stars,” but there are also non-fash pieces of short fction. What is the process going into writing a piece like “Open and Shut,” versus “Home,” and “Trees.” I am personally fascinated with how much can be said with as few words as possible. I love your narrative heavy pieces, but in a way, your short pieces evoke this mood and tone that I cannot shake. How do you diferentiate whether a particular spot in the collection is better suited for a story with a clearer trajectory like “Lenny the Suit Man” versus a “7:23 p.m?”

“Open and Shut took years to draft, and it goes all the way back to 1997. It was consistently worked on, complicated, and layered with diferent characters. These stories drafted through exercises, constraints to write in small spaces be evocative with space and image. A lot of these micro pieces are crafted like a still life and they usually require less revision.

2. This is very much in a similar vein to my previous question, but I fnd it relevant and intriguing, nonetheless. You have a few composite fashes in this collection, my personal favorite being “Garden Inside.” What makes a narrative suitable for this experimental form? How do you choose which specifc scenes to depict that will add to the overall tone and trajectory?

Each section is its own contained story. You get a story putting them together, but each piece has the power to stand alone. They were originally written as part of a collaborative exhibition with the photographer Sue Abramson and displayed as text panels on the gallery walls. They were written with a slightly diferent purpose than fash fction. My end goal is not always to connect the pieces. For “Garden Inside,” I was heavily motivated by Abramson’s visual art and was challenged to put words to photographs. Also, there was a revelation that came with learning about chapter breaks while writing my novel and the possibilities they offer. One minute you’re in one place and you turn the page, and the next you’re somewhere completely diferent. Transitional phrases are not as necessary in composite fashes. I treat the section breaks as punctuation.

3. This is a question more concerned with content; In my eyes, you did a tremendous job of balancing the human world and the natural world. It makes me think of the term Anthropocene and how humans infuence, positively and negatively, the natural world around them? Much of your longer stories are narrative driven and centered around human relationships. Did you intentionally set out to refect the complicated and convoluted ways of human and juxtapose that reality with the grounded perspective of the natural world?

This could just be me but I saw a sharp contrast with how you represented human relationships and more pastural, nature relationships.

The book has waves, and it has resting places. Some of the stories are very dense and complicated, and they involve merging time. They are non-linear and they are asking a lot from the reader, so the shorter pieces act as brief intermissions. The longer stories in

Thank Your Lucky Stars never seemed to work as a stand-alone collection. The dense narratives got too overwhelming to keep reading through. Every piece, whether long or short, is in conversation with one another, but that conversation comes in peaks and valleys. The smaller pieces are more atmospheric and are primarily concerned with adding thematic backgrounds. They act as an essence of the longer pieces.

4. What were you thinking about when you chose your titles?

A lot of time is designated to titling. This collection had a lot of diferent titles, including “Open and Shut” and then “I thank my lucky stars.” “Thank your lucky stars” came from a writer friend, Chuck Kinder, who Sherrie refers to as a master titler. The title is a bit ironic, because a lot of the characters are not thanking their lucky stars. Sherrie emphasizes always having an extra set of eyes when it comes to titles. I highlight ideas, objects, and concepts, and make a list and then base a title of of something on the list. Titles naturally morph as stories age. One of Sherrie’s biggest suggestions as an editor for SmokeLong Quarterly is asking writers to re-title their stories. It is the frst thing that’s going to draw a reader in, so it’s important to spend extra time fguring it out.

5. How do you view your secondary characters? Minor characters help in refecting the world, we don’t live in a void. We do have random people come into our lives at any given time. The secondary character’s main purpose is to help shed light onto the main character. Similar to how objects in the story relate back and say something about the main character. Demonstrate the psychological drive of the main character. It’s boring if one character is talking to themselves the whole story. Add interaction to create wonder and insight. Try naming every character unless the story is more abstract and aiming to be evocative. Sherrie says to avoid reoccurring names, even adding that she fnds herself drawn to certain names more than others.

6. What is the publishing process like?

Prepare for rejection and always have multiple, diferent

pieces out to diferent editors. If an editor is interested in seeing more of your work, make sure you have some readily available. Remember that a rejection with encouragement means something; most rejections don’t come with any comments or critiques. A big part of the publishing process is to keep trying, and part of it is fnding your ”group,” your “people.” Sometimes, you’ll end up becoming friends with people that have accepted or read your work. Make sure to always include a nice, succinct cover letter for presentation. Additionally, one strategy is to begin with submitting to publications that ofer the most compensation and work your way down. One thing to keep in mind is how professional your work appears: make sure there are no typos and everything is formatted correctly.

7. What are your favorite parts of the writing process?

I love the revision process. I draft quickly and then spend sometimes years in revision, which is where I’m most comfortable. Once I’ve fnished a story, I separate work by business and creative. When I’m sending work out, it’s business oriented. If you do become successful, it does become a business and it’s helpful to separate the two.

8. How does personal experience come into play in this collection and your overall writing?

None of these stories are about complete things that happened to me. I pick and choose things and details from other people and manipulate them into stories. Strange and random things inspire stories. My brain takes situations and messes them up and switches them around. I write setting two diferent ways: direct observation and research and memory. Memory is fawed so it is more atmospheric and emotional. Both ways evoke diferent feelings that feel dynamic when put together. Observation is literally taking notes, building the physical environment with a kind of accuracy that comes from research.