I am just thrilled to welcome Elizabeth O. Dulemba here today! Her wonderful new book, A Bird on Water Street, came out on May 7:
When the birds return to Water Street, will anyone be
left to hear them sing? A miner's strike allows green and growing things to
return to the Red Hills, but that same strike may force residents to seek new
homes and livelihoods elsewhere. Follow the story of Jack Hicks as he struggles
to hold onto everything he loves most.
It is a Southern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA) OKRA
Pick, the 2014 National Book Festival Featured Title for Georgia, and a GOLD
Mom's Choice Award Winner!
Tam: Hi Elizabeth! To jump right in, it is so clear that you did tremendous
research, Elizabeth, about landscape for A
Bird on Water Street. From the dry,
dusty opening to the small signs of green – the weeds and tadpoles and
garden…your sensory details are amazing.
For instance, it was easy to smell the dirt and feel it in my own lungs
as I read. How did you gather and then articulate the details of this
landscape?
Elizabeth: Oh Tamara, I’m so glad you
think so! What a wonderful compliment. I did do a ton of research for A Bird on Water Street, and we visited
some of the areas that hadn’t yet been revegetated. But I think it also might
have been a combination of this area being part of my awareness for most of my
adult life combined with being an outdoorsy person and an artist - I’m a
naturally observant person when my head isn’t in the clouds.
Tam: What is your
personal relationship to the Red Hills?
(You live there right?!!)
Elizabeth: I used to drive by the miners
on strike on my way to go camping, back in the early 90s. At the time, I didn’t
understand what the strike was all about, but I could see the bare vista. We
called it the “rape of the land.” Then in 2001 my husband and I got married and
combined our lives by jumping a bit off grid to a log cabin nearby. By then,
the area had mostly been revegetated. It took trekking down windy dirt roads to
see the remains of what it had looked like back in the copper mining days.
But what really got me tied
into the area was when we first moved there and were trying to make friends.
We were invited to a town meeting between the (closed) company and the copper
miners. The company wanted to open a scenic railway going north from town
around an interesting and rare railway switch. They wanted to pay for it by
reopening the mine and sending out one shipment of sulfuric acid (a byproduct
of copper mining) a week. Miners stood up one by one, bent and thick and
strong, wearing denim and plaid flannel. They listed all the loved ones they’d
lost to cancers, all thought to be caused by the mines. They made thinly veiled
threats that if the company moved forward with their plans, they would sabotage
the tracks. That was the moment the muse took hold of me and demanded I write
the story.
Tam: Oh wow. I can see why—
Elizabeth: We’ve since moved away, down
to Atlanta, but we still visit the area and the friends we made there are
friends for life. So we still feel very connected.
Tam: For me,
landscape is almost always a character. What do you think of that idea?
Elizabeth: Oh yes! The landscape is most
definitely a character in A Bird on Water
Street! Just as Jack touches a tree and relates it to a holy experience
(imagine having no trees in your life), I think the land has a voice as well.
Tam: Do you think most people feel that?
Elizabeth: Children seem especially
plugged into it. I used to be. It fades as we grow, I think (or it did for me,
at any rate), but I keep trying to get it back. I think that’s why people do so
much damage to the environment—they’re not listening or they simply can’t hear.
If they could, I think they’d behave in a much more
responsible way.
Tam: That
is so eloquent and deeply true.
So
to continue along that train of thought, what do you think about the idea that
landscape holds stories? The way a piece of land is, for instance, itself
shaped over time and what that means for the people (characters) walking and
breathing within it. Life happens over and over again on the same piece of land.
Do those life stories get told? Or are they felt?
Elizabeth: I think you’re absolutely
right. Some people would call the stories ghosts, or maybe left over energy, I
don’t know. I’m truly not a new-ager, but I do think there’s something to all
this. I’ve been to places on this planet that feel so familiar to me,
like I’d been there before (Normandy, France and the Maasai Mara in Africa come
to mind). And I’ve been to places that feel completely alien to me (the US
Rocky Mountains). Whether that’s because of something already there, or
something in me, I don’t know. But it feels too palpable to be disregarded.
Tam: In A Bird on Water Street, in
particular, what does this idea mean when the land has, for the most part, been
stripped and dug dry?
Elizabeth: Even when the land is
damaged so severely, I think there’s an energy, a feeling to that as well. It’s
probably simple biology - we probably feel life, even microscopic life, around
us. Maybe we hear it on a sub-sonic level. And some part of us
probably senses its lack as well. It feels eerie, creepy, wrong somehow.
Tam: Yes!
Elizabeth: Although there were folks
who loved those Red Hills. Imagine no snakes, no poison ivy, no allergies, no
mosquitos. I found it so interesting that some people actually resented the
return of nature.
Tam: That is interesting!
But Jack is not one of those people, right? He is just so desperate and excited about the
possibility of nature returning. What
does landscape mean to him?
Elizabeth: Jack is a lot like me in his
regard for nature. He feels it thrumming through him, he feels connected to it.
For him, trees truly are holy, as is the diversity of life within nature.
Tam: Can you talk
more about that? What landscape means to you?
Elizabeth: It’s why I garden (although
my current yard is not so great for it and I have less and less time the more I
write). I love to run my hands through rich earth and plant things—create life.
I’ve often referred to myself as a kamikaze gardener or “She-ra of the Forest.”
At the cabin I used to dig up Hemlock trees out of the woods and drag them to
wherever I wanted them to be. (I’m not so good at respecting man-made property
lines - it’s all Mother Earth to me.) The scene where Jack’s mom teaches him to
jump on a spade was how I’ve always done it. There’s a lot of grunting and
sweat. And sometimes a tree would really take and turn into a stunning
showpiece. I loved it.
Tam: Finally, I am
curious about your take on the relationship between landscape and home. Jack's deep quest for a sense of home was so
palpable, and the process of him coming to terms with his own definition of
that, and his MAKING of that (his research and his garden, are two examples of
that), were so moving. Do you think
landscape helps create home? Do you
believe our inner landscape and our outer (environmental) one must be in synch?
Elizabeth: Again, I am so flattered A Bird on Water Street touched you in
this way! I do think our landscape can help create or define home. Pardon the
pun, but it grounds us. I have iris bulbs that have followed me
to three houses now.
Tam: I know just what you mean! I have irises and a few other plants from my
mother's gardens; from my childhood home, and they are essential to my sense of
place too.
Elizabeth: Yes! Every time I put mine in
the ground, it connects me to where I’ve been and to where I am now. I treasure
them. Establishing them establishes me and brings all those good memories
forward to my present. I can’t imagine not having a garden in which to continue
those threads in my life.
Such wonderful questions
Tamara! Thank you for making me think about all this!
Tam: Oh Elizabeth! Thank you so much for coming over here to share your
thoughts and your wonderful A Bird on
Water Street.
Win a Free Book!
Elizabeth has generously
offered to give away a copy of A Bird on
Water Street to one lucky person who leaves a comment below. Leave a comment! Get yourself a chance to win this book! I read it, and you don't want to miss it! The deadline is May 13 at midnight EST. The
winner will be drawn at random and announced here at Kissing The Earth
on May 14th.
Elizabeth will be visiting Kirby Larson's blog next, on May 9. Don't miss her!
Elizabeth will be visiting Kirby Larson's blog next, on May 9. Don't miss her!
So much to love here!
ReplyDeleteAbout the landscape, of course, but also the idea that stories are ghosts or energy - and this line is definitely one I an relate to: "...a naturally observant person when my head isn’t in the clouds." ha!
I look forward to reading A BIRD ON WATER STREET!
Thanks for a great interview.
Wow--fabulous interview--I love the idea of landscape as a character...looking forward to reading A BIRD ON WATER STREET--Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteJen Kam
(incognito until my blog launches. =) )
Big congrats E! Can't wait to read it. (But will have too anyway.)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read A Bird On Water Street. Thank you for a chance to win it.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much guys!!! And Sarah - it's a scary thing to relate to that one! Don't we know it! Big fuzzy hugs to all, e
ReplyDeleteVery interesting interview! I already wanted to read this book but now more so. Thanks so much for this generous giveaway!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dana! :) e
ReplyDelete