Valerie Miner
Valerie Miner is the award-winning author of thirteen books. Her novels include After Eden (University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), Range of Light (Zoland Books, 1998), A Walking Fire (State University of New York Press, 1994), Winter’s Edge (Methuen Publishing, 1984, etc.), Blood Sisters (Women’s Press, 1981, etc.), All Good Women (Methuen/Crossing Press, etc.), Movement: A Novel in Stories (Methuen Publishing, 1985, etc.), and Murder in the English Department (St. Martin’s Press, 1983, etc.). Her short fiction collections include Abundant Light (Michigan State University Press, 2004), The Night Singers (Five Leaves Press, 2004) and Trespassing (Michigan State University Press, 2003); and her collection of essays, Rumors From the Cauldron: Selected Essays, Reviews and Reportage was published by University of Michigan Press in 1991.  In 2002, The Low Road: A Scottish Family Memoir (Michigan State University Press) was a Finalist for the PEN USA Creative Nonfiction Award, and in 2005, BBC radio produced it as a five-part drama. Miner’s work has appeared frequently on the BBC and in The Georgia Review, Salmagundi, New Letters, Ploughshares, The Village Voice, Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, Ms., The Women’s Review of Books, The Nation, and other journals. She has won fellowships and awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The NEA, the Jerome Foundation, The Heinz Foundation, The Australia Council Literary Arts Board and numerous others. Now a professor and artist in residence at Stanford University, she has also taught at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Minnesota, where she won the College of Continuing Education’s Distinguished Teaching Award. You can learn more about Miner’s work at www.valerieminer.com.

How and why did you become a writer?
I don't know whether I am first a writer or a traveler, but I became interested in exploring and storytelling early in my childhood. In the kitchen, I listened to my mother's memories of her native Edinburgh, window-shopping along Princes Street, errands to the corner shop to buy chipped fruit and The News of the World. Out in our back garden, I sat on the lawn while my seaman father tied up his beefsteak tomatoes, drank iced tea, and described the brilliant fabrics he had seen in Argentina and the tasty seaweed he had eaten in Japan.

During the many months he was on the ocean, I awaited his return, eager for more stories and especially eager for the new doll he would bring dressed in a local fashion. Those dolls from Korea and Japan and Holland and Jamaica and the Dominican Republic now sit together on my bookcase. Just as I always knew each one had a distinct personality, I knew this personality was related to her place of origin.

As an adult I lived abroad for ten years in England, Australia, India, Canada and other countries and traveled widely in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. Now I faced ethical and moral and spiritual questions about the differences between visiting and trespassing, describing and appropriating.

Such traveling made coming "home" that much more fascinating because I now knew other places (settings) to which I compared familiar food and voices and climate. Home became something smaller and larger and far more complicated than the place I left. And I was never able to think about home again without seeing it on a map - in context. Home wasn't the center of the world anymore, but it was finally in the world.

In which literary forms do you most often work?
Fiction (novels and stories), memoir, narrative essays (creative non-fiction).

 Who are some of your favorite writers?
I think more about favorite books than favorite authors.  I’ve been inspired and instructed and moved by such works as: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, Jazz by Toni Morrison, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan, The Ordinary Seaman by Francisco Goldman, Paradise Lost by John Milton, King Lear by William Shakespeare, Secrets by Nurridin Farah, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, Miss Peabody’s Inheritance by Elizabeth Jolley, The Crystal Frontier by Carlos Fuentes, The Philosopher’s Pupil by Iris Murdoch, The Common Reader (essays) by Virginia Woolf, and Last Watch of the Night by Paul Monette. 

How would you define a successful work of literature?
Writing that continues to resonate. I like Eugenio Montale’s essay about “The Second Life of Art,” in which he suggests that the real test of art is not the immediate catharsis, but rather the way the story or poem or painting stays with us and/or comes back to us in six months, a year, a decade. I’m interested in work that reaches a broad audience through precise attention to particular sensualdetails and musical language. 

What are the most rewarding parts of the writing process for you?  What are the most difficult?
The answer varies with the project. First drafts are often both thrilling and terrifying.  I do often find myself more engaged by revision. I love to play with the music of language, to listen to the way one word breathes against another. 

I’m interested in how one literary genre informs another. My long experience in journalism has shaped many of the social questions raised in my fiction. My work as a novelist showed me how to employ the devices of storytelling in memoir. I write a lot of book reviews because this keeps me reading and the books I review often stimulate me to take risks in short stories and novels and non-fiction. 

The most rewarding aspect of generating new writing and of revising is the surprising discoveries one makes. This continual process of discovery is what keeps me writing.    

In which parts of the world have you lived?
I have lived in Britain, India, Australia, Canada and the United States.  I have traveled widely—as a teacher and writer—in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. 

Which literary forms do you prefer to work on with clients? 
I am especially interested in working with writers of short stories. I am also happy to work with people working on novels, memoirs, and collections of essays.  

How much and what kinds of background or experience would you expect your clients to have?
I enjoy working with story writersand novelistsand nonfiction writersemploying a range of styles. I am especially interested in the rhythms of language, the shape of stories and in strategies about narrative alternatives.  

I want to work with serious writers.  I recommend that unpublished writers take a few classes at writers’ conferences or colleges or community centers before considering working with me as a mentor. I don’t expect my clients to be published, but I do expect them to be serious and experienced. I also hope my clients will be interested in and curious about reading contemporary literature.    

Do you have some ground rules that you would expect clients to follow?
I would expect that both the clients and I would keep to deadline and whatever word/time limits we have agreed upon.  I ask clients to be prompt and professional. I believe that work that has been through several thorough revisions is the best work to submit in this context. 

I am particularly interested in working with clients who are looking for an ongoing mentorship of at least six hours. I can be more and more helpful the longer I work with someone. 

What advice would you offer prospective clients as they consider choosing a mentor?
It’s important to learn about mentors’ writing and teaching. So, I’d suggest reading at least one of a mentor’s books before applying to work with her/him. You can often find out about a person’s teaching by visiting the writer’s web site. I suggest that clients look for mentors who share some of their values about literature and learning. It’s also important to find someone who will challenge, nurture, and provoke you.