From Fact to Fiction

PW Talks with Martha Southgate

by V.R. Peterson -- Publishers Weekly, 7/18/2005

You started as a journalist. What do you like about writing fiction?

I like making things up and being surprised and being able to follow that surprise. I was never really a hard news person, but I liked writing and that led me to think, "Well, maybe I'd like to write fiction. That's what I like to read."

What makes a story one you must tell?

I wish I could be more articulate about that. Thus far as a writer I've returned to things I started years before. For The Fall of Rome I could show you its first page from a class I took, and Third Girl from the Left [reviewed on p. 182] was a short story I started in graduate school.

Who are you writing for?

I write because I want to know what's going to happen. I get interested in how connections are made in my characters' lives. In terms of the reader, I hope people who like intelligent character-driven fiction will like it whether they're black or white.

Which contemporary writers share your concern for intelligent character-driven fiction?

I'm a huge fan of Michael Chabon's work, especially Kavalier & Clay. That book was sort of a lodestar for me writing Third Girl from the Left, his willingness to throw it all in there, to have historical people meet fake ones.

In your novel you write: "My mother believed in the power of movies to change a life." Do you believe that?

I believe that film is a really powerful medium, and it's been profoundly important in my life. I think they're important in one's imagination, too, but that said, I am rather uncomfortable these days with the degree to which being in front of the camera is held up as some sort of final achievement. From American Idolto Supersize Me—not to single [Morgan Spurlock] out because I like that film—there's this whole sense of celebrity being the end to who I can be.

Which movies do you remember best?

When I'm talking about the movies that meant the most to me, I'm talking about the 1970s: Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Godfather.

What about the blaxploitation movies you write about?

I am passionately interested in film, though I must admit not those films. I did not see them as a child. Certainly I knew about them, like every black person of my age, but my mom didn't let me go see them. When I started Third Girl the story was about Angela and Tamara, and it was totally different. I didn't sit down and say "Gee, I wonder about those blaxploitation actresses." I was really interested in writing about a minor character, about someone who didn't get what she wanted.