Jennafer D'Alvia
ORP: Do you know more than one language? How does this influence your art and/or writing?
Jennafer D'Alvia: I find learning languages fascinating. I've studied French, Italian and Arabic. Some of these languages show up in my thoughts when I'm writing and Arabic plays a major role in the novel I'm working on now.
ORP: What does vulnerability mean to you as an artist and/or writer?
JD: For me it's essential that there's an emotional vulnerability in the characters in both the fiction that I love to read and also in my own work. It's always interesting to see the different ways that writers bring out emotional resonance in their work.
ORP: What would you say is your most interesting writing and/or artistic quirk? Do you have any habits that you believe help or hinder your creativity?
JD: For my novel, I do something that may be a quirky thing. I made a chart that I use to keep track of the chapters and characters. I'm very often erasing and rewriting the chart as I add new sections or move things around. This visual map is an important part of my process, and I now have a high quality eraser that doesn't smudge which helps a lot!
ORP: What books have you read many times?
JD: I love Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics and I've read those stories many times. I also love Lorrie Moore and Richard Wright.
ORP: What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing or creating? What advice would you give to another writer or artist?
JD: I was recently given wonderful advice which was that sometimes a writer may not understand why she's put a particular scene into a story, but instead of cutting the scene, it's the writer's job to try to figure out why it's there, and with patience, the reason for the scene may become clear.
