Interview: “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky” Author, Heidi Durrow

Heidi Durrow‘s Bellwether-prize-winning debut novel, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, is the story of Rachel, a girl who loses her Danish mother and African-American father in a tragic accident.  Durrow, a native Portlander, will be in town for two readings in the next few days.  You can catch her this Friday 2/19 at Powell’s on Burnside (7:30 pm), and next Tuesday 2/23 at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (7 pm).

We caught up with Durrow to learn more about the book before she hits a microphone near you.

Q: Hi! Your novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, is based in part on a story you saw in a newspaper. Can you say a little about that story–what struck you about it, and how you approached writing about it?

A: I was heart-sick when I read the news story because it was about a terrible tragedy — a family had perished after falling from the rooftop of the housing project they lived in. Except there was a miracle. The girl, somehow, survived. I became a little obsessed about the incident — the newspapers asked how and why the accident had happened. I wanted to know something a little different. I wanted to know what would the girl’s survival look like? How would she forge a life for herself? I wanted to give her a voice and a future so that her life wouldn’t be defined by the tragedy.

Q: You’re originally from Portland, and that’s where the present-day world of the book is set. Is place important to your writing? Does the West, or the Pacific Northwest, resonate differently for you than other regions of the country?

A: The most important things in a book for me are voice and character. But as a writer, you do have to know where those characters are — so in that way place is important.

I am often focused on place when I am writing even if I’m not writing about a landscape or the description of a room because I am always mindful of the fundamental training I had as an improv actor. The essence of the Spolin theatre games is to remember Who, What, Where — Who are you? What are you doing? And where are you? That way you don’t get self-conscious on stage.

It works for writing too. Who is your character? What is she doing? Where is she? You can keep writing for a long time without having any particular clue as to the story’s ultimate end if you keep these things in mind.

The Pacific Northwest will always be home to me. Whenever I see it mentioned in literature, it gives me a thrill.

Q: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky was awarded the Bellwether Prize, which recognizes “serious literary fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships.” Did you set out to write a book with a social justice dimension? Do you see your background in law and journalism directing your work this way?

A: I did. I wanted to write a book that had meaning — not that I wanted to write a book that had answers on questions of race, and identity and beauty — the book is a story, not a position paper. But I wanted to write a book that maybe asked new questions about those issues or maybe re-framed the old questions. I think maybe my training as a journalist and as a lawyer did factor into my need to write a book with a social justice dimension – both those professions, I think, are largely about asking the right questions.

Q: You co-created an annual free event called the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, which celebrates storytelling of the Mixed racial and cultural experience. How did you come to do this, and what are you looking forward to at the 2010 festival in Los Angeles?

A: I co-founded with my partner, Fanshen Cox, the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival in 2008. It was an off-shoot of our weekly podcast Mixed Chicks Chat about being racially and culturally mixed. We realized that there were so many artists that wanted to be on our little podcast to get attention for their work — they didn’t have other outlets or venues as artists who were writing stories, or making films about the Mixed experience.

Fanshen, who is a filmmaker, and I, as a writer, had faced the same kind of frustration — the gatekeepers didn’t believe that our stories about blended families, relationships and identity were universal enough – there was no market for our tales. So we decided to become the gatekeepers and open a forum for other artists like ourselves.

At first we were going to hold the Festival in our living rooms. The films at Fanshen’s and the readings at mine. Then the Japanese American National Museum stepped in as our sponsor and offered us their wonderful state-of-the-art space. I admit we kind of panicked. Here we were, two women who hadn’t even planned our own weddings (our husbands did) because we weren’t sure we could pull off an event.

But then there we were in 2008 with our first Festival and we packed the house over the course of two days with about 300 people — we offered workshops, readings, film screenings, panels, and live performance. The 2009 Festival was bigger – about 500 attendees over the course of two days and this year we hope to double that. The Festival is scheduled for June 12-13, 2010, and it’s free! We have some great stuff lined-up already – and well, this year, I get a chance to do a reading!

Q: What are you reading right now? What’s on your night table, waiting for you to get to it? What’s an unsung work that more people should know about, and read?

A: I have a ton of books I’m lusting to read:  Mountain of Crumbs, a memoir by Elena Gorokhova; This Time Tomorrow by Michael Jaime-Becerra; and One Amazing Thing Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni — all on my nightstand now.

And people should definitely read: The Evidence of Things Unseen Marian Wiggins (a National Book Award finalist but I don’t think it got the readership it deserved still) – Little by David Treuer (it just slayed me when I read it years ago) –and Leah Hager Cohen’s Heart You Bully You Punk — it’s a slim little book and I just loved it.

And Keri Hulme’s The Bone People which will break your heart in the best way.

You can read an excerpt from The Girl Who Fell From The Sky here.

Thanks, Heidi!