LitMinds Blog and Interviews

Robin Romm is an author of several short stories including the published collections: The Tilt and forthcoming The Mother Garden.  She's an active part of the local San Francisco bay area "emerging writer" scene, and has taught creative writing for The Writing Salon, San Francisco State University and California College of the Arts. 

LitMinds asked Robin to tell us about her writing and reading life including details on her new book.

1) You have a collection of stories, The Mother Garden, debuting this year.  Can you share some of the details behind this book's publishing? 
I began writing short stories as a child.  I have a little clothbound journal from when I was no older than ten, and in it I wrote a short story about a young girl who believes she is best friends with another girl, but the girl actually has a different best friend.  (Oh, the tragedy and universal truth of this!) I came across this recently and thought, well, I have always been intrigued by the intricacies and delicacies of human relationships. The stories in my new collection, The Mother Garden, use a mix of magical realism and realism to get at the mystery of love and loss.  In one, a daughter plants a garden of mothers to replace her own.  In another, a girl finds her father in the desert after living without him for twenty-six years. The stories aim to capture the things in life that are impossible to understand—like why we betray each other.  And why we die.  

The collection will be out in July; Scribner is publishing it.  I’m very excited.  

2) How would you describe your voice as a writer?  What has been your process for writing these stories and getting them published?

The stories in The Mother Garden were written between 2002 and 2006.  Some of them took years to form.  I edit relentlessly.  If I didn’t have a deadline from the publisher, I would still be moving phrases around.  I don’t know how to describe my voice as a writer.  Writing for me is about story, music, and detail.  I believe you have to learn to see in a particular way to write.  Flannery O’Connor calls this “the habit of art,” and I very much agree with almost everything she says about writing fiction.  Everyone should read her book Mystery and Manners, if only to learn a thing or two about raising peahens.

With regards to publication, I published a lot in literary journals and got exposure that way.  Once I started publishing in very good journals, the book found a home.

3) You are also a teacher at California College of the Arts and The Writing Salon.  How does teaching writing and providing advice to others influence your writing?
I don’t think teaching influences my writing.  It is a separate occupation, and one I love dearly.  I love exposing students to reading they’ve never encountered.  It is a particular thrill when a student, after reading Vladimir Nabokov or Antonya Nelson, Joy Williams or Andre Dubus, goes out and buys every book by that author.  That, to me, is a real victory.  I am at the point now where students of mine are in MFA programs and getting published.  It’s amazing to see that.  It makes the future of literature feel vibrant.

4) On your LitMinds profile, you shared "Benjamin and Tulip," "In the Night Kitchen," and "Anastasia Ask your Analyst" as your childhood book selections.  Can you share some of the memories you associate with these books?
Well, in Benjamin and Tulip, Tulip is a bully who pounces on poor, dear bespectacled Benjamin every time his mother sends him out. Why do I love this story?  I guess I loved the badness of Tulip.  I have a thing for girls subtly betraying gender roles, and little Tulip does that very well.  In the Night Kitchen makes me think of my parents reading to me.  They read to me every night until I memorized books and “read” back to them.  Another favorite of my father’s was Simon Boom.  I think he just liked saying “Simon Boom.”  And the Anastasia books—those have to be the best young adult novels in the world.  I reread them recently and they were as good I remembered.  Anastasia is honest and odd.  She’s a good kid with a naughty streak.  She has a bust of Freud in her room.  Her father keeps his manuscripts in the refrigerator crisper in case the house burns down.  She’s very observant.  She names her little brother after a dirty song.  What’s not to love?

5) What is the last book you read that had a significant effect on you?
I recently read The Fixer by Bernard Malamud and have not been moved so deeply in a very long time.  It's more than a story about the persecution of the Jews, it's a parable about human suffering and belief.  I cannot recommend it strongly enough.  I went out and bought five copies and keep giving it to unsuspecting people.

6) As an author with an upcoming book, what are your observations of the current environment in the book and publishing industry?
Oh, gosh.  I just read the brilliant essay by Cynthia Ozick in Harper’s.  She says it all so much better than I ever could.  I recommend everyone pick up the current (April 2007) Harper’s and give that essay thorough consideration.

7) What do you like about the LitMinds community?
I can’t say enough about the importance of grassroots organizing around reading.  I think trying to bring readers together is a great idea.  Thank you for what you do.

You can check out Robin's LitMinds profile here.