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Jim Tomlinson

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Winner of the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award

I was thrilled when Jim Tomlinson announced he’d been awarded the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award for his collection, THINGS KEPT, THINGS LEFT BEHIND. Jim is one of the most generous writers I know — not just with the time and support he offers his colleagues, but he is equally generous and loving with the characters in his stories. It’s my honor to introduce you to him today.

Your story collection won the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Up until then, I assume you’d been sending stories out one by one and getting some ratio of acceptances and rejections, all in relative obscurity. Describe to me how long you’ve been in this game of trying to get your work out there, and what it was like to get the news you’d won.

I began writing fiction in earnest in late 1999. By fall 2003, I’d accumulated three complete, unpublished, and probably unpublishable, novel manuscripts. When my fourth attempt foundered after eighty pages, I took a break from the heartbreak of novels and made a serious try at short fiction.

My first stories were submitted to literary magazines in April 2004. I’d received 31 rejections by the time Wind Magazine took “Paragon Tea” that October. That was followed by several dozen more rejections. Then in August 2005, the planets aligned and I placed three stories within a week. Another was placed in September, then another in October.

An earlier incarnation of the collection, THINGS KEPT, THINGS LEFT BEHIND, had done well in a regional short fiction competition that summer. Since then I’d revised the stories to the point where each seemed to earn and hold its place in the book. I’d reset stories to a single small town, and I’d let characters appear briefly in each other’s stories, which is something they’d been asking to do.

Still, it seemed like an act of incredible hubris, submitting the collection for the Iowa Short Fiction Award. They have no entry fee, though. The only costs were paper, printer toner, and postage. So I took a shot. This was in September.

Mid-afternoon on January 6th, the Director of University of Iowa Press phoned from her car. She told me that George Saunders had chosen TKTLB for the Iowa Award. I was stunned. She went on to explain, quite needlessly, who George Saunders is. They’d be publishing the book in the fall, she told me. Whatever else she said was lost forever between my excitement and her cell phone static.

What was it like, getting the news, once the shock wore off? Both gratifying and humbling, Sue. Intimidating, too. I had a sudden desire to edit the manuscript again, to add just one more story. Maybe I was insecure. Maybe I worried that the collection might not live up to the award, that it might not measure up with winners from past years. Okay, maybe there is no maybe about it.

But aside from all that, a writer gets one first book in a career. I wanted mine as rock solid as I could make it. That was my thinking anyway. Fortunately, the Iowa editor let add the story and make a few other post-contest changes.

Your book spends a good deal of time with the subject of divorce and with characters feeling unable to discuss the disappointments in their lives. I’m remembering specifically the story “Things Left Behind.” In a hotel room where two characters have had an extra-marital affair, we learn that this man ”“ torn as he is about what he’s doing ”“ feels it is only with this other woman and in the journal he keeps that he’s able to find the part of him that is still alive and passionate.

Okay, strictly speaking, he had been unfaithful. But he had never been more faithful to his essential self, to his potential for good. (p. 83)

First, I wonder if you could talk to me about this theme in the book.

And secondly, I’m interested quite a bit in this – most of your characters keep their disappointments and dreams to themselves. Assuming you understand the kind of man who might not share his vulnerabilities, what is it like for you to put such honest and vulnerable stories into the world? Exposed? Free?

I haven’t thought in terms of theme, Sue. Whatever is there comes up in the writing.

I want my stories to be about what it means to be human in this world. Often, as in life, dreams aren’t realized. Characters experience disappointments, and they just try to go on from there. How they cope in hard circumstances is what interests me. Everyone wants a bit of grace in their life. What gets substituted for a dream that has died? How does someone like Dex Chalk or LeAnn McCray or even Lonnie in that story find a way back and up from disappointment? Their silence, it seems to me, comes out of pride, that and maybe a refusal to acknowledge pain or defeat. Even an unsteady pride can salve the hurt temporarily. So it’s understandable to me, this defensive sort of reticence.

The second part gets into a really fascinating area…what of the writer goes into the characters. I like that you call the stories honest, Sue. They may not always be sweet and uplifting tales, but they are honest. At least that’s the kind I’m striving to write.

While my characters are different from me in many ways, there is nothing in their desires and yearnings that I haven’t felt or couldn’t imagine myself feeling in their circumstances. That keeps them grounded, real to me on the page. I would not and have not done most of what my characters do, but I’m in touch enough with my own urges and yearnings to recognize what’s going on inside. So when it comes to my characters, I can understand and empathize completely. There is not one character in THINGS KEPT, THINGS LEFT BEHIND that I don’t feel compassion and affection for. They may be screwing up time after time. But they’re trying to do something justifiable, something redeeming, trying to do some version of the right thing.

You ask how it feels…exposing or freeing…to write these stories. A little of both, I suppose. A bit like running naked through the graveyard. Now there’s something I have done.

Well, you can’t say you’ve run naked through a graveyard and not follow it up with some details.

Sue, I grew up in a typical Midwest small town, Sycamore, Illinois. The cemetery was at the end of our short street. Parades went by our house on Independence Day and Armistice Day. Soldiers shot rifle salutes at the military graves, and we kids scrambled beneath them, grabbing up the hot brass.

Outside the cemetery gates was this vacant lot where we played pickup baseball games. One summer someone sunk a house foundation there, and we had to move the game to the open area, no graves yet, at the back of the cemetery.

The graveyard became our neighborhood park. We played kick-the-can until after dark, the can on the narrow asphalt road running between graves. We hid among the gravestones and monuments. We played truth or dare there, too. And that was where Steve Savage double-dared me once to make a late night dash from Tewksberry’s grave all the way over to Weidemeir’s monument and back, to do it naked as a jaybird.

The rest is legend, still, in the annals of Sycamore.

Ha! I love that story ”“ and that you knew the graves well enough to run to specific people.

And this raises an interesting tension within your book between the setting and the characters. There is a young man from a coal mining town whose life turns down a path very different from those in his community. There is a daughter expected to care for an ailing parent. And these characters don’t want to become what’s expected of them. In many ways, what I see as a recurring theme in your book is how complicated it is to break away–from community or family expectations, from a failed marriage, from a past you’re not proud of.

Stories are all about conflict. Often the most intense conflict isn’t between characters, though. It’s waged within a single character, matched internal tugs, a well-balanced dilemma. In “Lake Charles,” for example, Ben’s quandary is completely internal. His responsibility to care for his ill-equipped, brother and perhaps remnants of guilt over his injury, battle Ben’s desire for a more exotic and fulfilling life. The quandary absolutely paralyzes him.

Most stories are set in rural Kentucky. Although it’s somewhat true everywhere, it is particularly true in this region that love of the home-place and connection to family are primary values. Many young people have an intense love-hate relationship with their community and region. They dream of moving away as soon as they can. Some stay away, but more return two or three years later to settle in. It’s an interesting ambivalence, how people feel about the region, those who stay and those who leave. The sisters, Cass and LeAnn, in “Things Kept,” live the echoes of that struggle. LeAnn thinks of herself as having escaped Spivey long ago, while Cass is happily settled there. Those choices and how each feels about them colors their attitudes toward each other and their present-day relationship as they try to help their mother with tax problems.

A major arena where human ambivalence plays out daily is marriage. That and it’s flip side, divorce. It’s not just conflict between characters that offers story possibilities. It is the internal landscape that each must navigate…the private negotiations between hope and fear, dreams and commitments, pride and vulnerability. It seems to me that a lasting marriage is often a tattered and a most heroic thing. In the book’s final story, “Stainless,” a grieving couple teeters on the brink of divorce. By the story’s last page, I care deeply about both characters and what will become of them. I hope the reader does, too.

I love an evenhanded story, one where readers can’t comfortably take sides. Stories by Raymond Carver are like that, and Andre Dubus II, Jill McCorkle, Richard Bausch, and Bobbie Ann Mason, to name a few favorite authors. They have a balance that feels true-to-life.

So tell me something about what you’ve left behind. Or maybe what you’ve tried to leave behind though it goes with you or you can’t help but return to it.

Ah! A perfect place for a Faulkner quote. Okay, it’s actually a dialogue line from his novel, REQUIEM FOR A NUN — “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” The past is so weighty in Faulkner’s fiction.

Several of my characters can’t get free of their pasts. Jack in “Marathon Man” lives in a rosy version of his past, much more than he does the present day. Jerry and Cheryl, ex-spouses in “First Husband, First Wife,” can’t seem to get free of their badly flawed relationship, despite other marriages. And memories are the only substantial thing Georgia, the proud mother in the story “Things Kept,” has left… that and an enduring love for her dead husband.

But that’s not what you asked, was it Sue. What have I left behind, or tried to?

My past always feels present, especially when I’m writing fiction. I moved away from my hometown a long time ago. Still, I have a sense of the place and the people, and I carry those with me, even after many years. My former career as an engineer was a successful one with patents to show for it and trade secret processes developed. It’s left behind, more completely than I’d expected, although I can slip back into that way of seeing the world. And my baby daughter, who grew into a girl-child and then a woman. A father relinquishes a piece of heart as that happens, unavoidably. If he’s lucky, a different, equally wonderful relationship, one with the person she becomes, takes root in its place. I’m working at being that fortunate.

What else?

I’ve loved four women in my life…loved in the romantic sense. (Let me just note that, in the general sense, I’ve loved thousands.) But here I’m talking capital “L” kind of love. And I’m thinking that four is a damn good number.

First was my high school sweetheart. She died too young, with too much unresolved between us, one very hard lesson in regret. The next was my college girlfriend, the one who up and dumped me one day for no good reason at all. We’re friends again, years later, in an e-mail kind of way. The ache hasn’t stopped, though, not completely. Not yet.

The third is my first wife, mother of my daughter, intended life-partner. For many years, despite rough patches, I believed we’d make it. We didn’t, though, divorcing a decade ago, finally throwing in our tattered towel. Divorce is a devastating thing, as anyone who’s been through it knows. Fodder for fiction, yes. But not worth the emotional price.

And number four is my beloved wife, the multi-talented and lovingly tolerant Gin Petty. THINGS KEPT, THINGS LEFT BEHIND, you will notice, is dedicated to her. For good reason.

Ah, I see Jim Tomlinson, the man, is not unlike Jim Tomlinson, the author, who has compassion for all of his characters. Even as characters fail and disappoint and inflict pain on each other, you also show their vulnerabilities, their secret dreams, and all the ways they are trying to do better. I think this open but honest heart is what makes this collection so potent.

It’s been a pleasure to talk with you, Jim.

Thank you, Sue. It’s been fun. Can I put my clothes back on now?

Hee. Yep.

*

You can keep up with Jim at his website. And if you’re on MySpace, you can “friend” him right here.

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24 Comments
  • Ellen Meister
    November 8, 2006

    Ha! Nothing like ending with a joke. Great interview and pics! Jim’s book is nearing the top of my reading pile and I can’t wait to dig in.

  • Lori Oliva
    November 8, 2006

    Generous, touching, honest and funny interview. Thanks Jim for sharing your thought-provoking experience and insight. And Susan…thanks again.

  • Robin Slick
    November 8, 2006

    Yet another book on my growing Must Read pile. I basically stopped participating in Zoetrope right around the time your book was published, Jim, so I missed all of this great news and backstory. I am really thrilled for you and I must admit, I’m really intrigued by the premise of your short stories. I’ve read other work you’ve written and been blown away so I know I’m in for a treat.

    Another fabulous interview, Sue, though I doubt I’ll ever think of Jim again without picturing him naked in a cemetary.

    xo
    Rob

  • Katrina Denza
    November 8, 2006

    This was a touching, intelligent interview. What a lovely man Jim is.

  • Myfanwy Collins
    November 8, 2006

    What a beautiful, beautiful interview. If I hadn’t already read Jim’s book (which I have and loved) this interview would certainly push me over the edge into reading it right away. Regard the storytelling in his responses to your questions! The graveyard! The tenderness about the women he’s loved.

    Fantastic questions, Sue, and Jim, thanks for opening your heart once again.

  • Paula
    November 8, 2006

    Jim,
    Your entire take on Kentucky “it is particularly true in this region that love of the home-place and connection to family are primary values. … They dream of moving away as soon as they can. Some stay away, but more return two or three years later to settle in.” will, well, haunt me — girl born in Hardin County, Ky., and settled in the “city” of Louisville. Of course I know exactly what you mean, but I haven’t heard it put so eloquently in a very long time, if ever.

    Susan,
    When you said, “Well, you can’t say you’ve run naked through a graveyard and not follow it up with some details,” I thought, “Well, I work at a newspaper, but I just might learn something about a perfect interview dynamic at LitPark.”

    You both put me in a very nostalgic and positive mood for the day. That is really not my M.O., but thank you!

  • Michael Northrop
    November 8, 2006

    This is a fantastic interview, and well-timed, since I’ve had a little time to let TKTLB sink in. You know I loved the book, Jim, but what I haven’t had a chance to mention is how much the stories and characters have stuck with me. A number of times over the past few weeks, some little thing has reminded me of one of the vivid scenes in your book. (I am also completely impressed by anyone who can pull off a story in letters, by the way. I feel like there’s a 90 percent failure rate on those, so congratulations on scoring above the 90th percentile!) Anyway, nice interview, fantastic book.

    And Susan, it turns out that we were both at KGB for the Harper Perennial event. (The photos are up now on their site.) I’m sorry I missed you. You must have been cloaked in shadows back there (or maybe John was just mixing the drinks stronger than usual).

  • Jim
    November 8, 2006

    Ellen — I hope you enjoy the stories!

    Thank you, Lori. I also appreciate the kind words from Robin, Kat, and Myf. Thanks so much!

    Paula, I’m still getting to know Kentucky, even afetr eleven years here. Good to hear it resonated with you. And you are right about Sue. She gives great interview.

  • Susan Henderson
    November 8, 2006

    Ellen, Lori, Robin, Kat, Myf, Me – Hmmm. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Don’t mind me, I’m just counting.

    Paula – I’m so glad you highlighted that line about Kentucky folks returning to settle in. Nice to have you here!

    Michael – I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet. I was sitting with Josh Kilmer-Purcell (in the orange sweater) and Carrie Kania, all crammed into a table for two. Thank God no one took my picture because I was at a Halloween party till 5am that morning.

    Jim – Maybe you should warn Gin that I’m counting 6 crushes on you already in the comments section.

  • Carolyn Burns Bass
    November 8, 2006

    Thank you Susan and Jim for this revealing peek into Jim, his world, and the characters–both real and imagined–who people it.

    This statement alone makes me want to read Jim’s book: I love an evenhanded story, one where readers can’t comfortably take sides. Bravo.

  • Gin
    November 8, 2006

    Excellent interview, Susan, but I’ll share that he is even better in person. Trust me.

  • Aurelio
    November 9, 2006

    I don’t really know how to respond to this one except to say that Jim is an inspiring interviewee. Thank you Jim, and you too, Susan, for giving me much to mull over today.

    Jim, I was particularly struck by your bit of discomfort with your own success. Your characters seem to struggle with unrealized dreams – you with a realized one. That charmed me.

  • Roy Kesey
    November 9, 2006

    Really, really great interview. Well done, you two.

  • Charlotte Alexander
    November 9, 2006

    a wonderful interview. Respect given and received and perpetuated. Jim is in his stories, in their honesty and their palpability…in the directness of the truth.

    Miss Charlie

  • Lance Reynald
    November 9, 2006

    sorry I’m so late.
    been nursing the good old election hangover.

    great interview to you both.

    just taking it all in and loving this place.

    xo-LR

  • Mary Akers
    November 9, 2006

    Wonderful interview. Thanks Susan, for showing us a little more to adore about Jim and his talent, and thanks, Jim, for giving it freely.

  • Pia
    November 9, 2006

    Beautiful interview, you two. Not to look away from Jim’s cemetery-nakedness, but I love the urgent detail of “grabbing up the hot brass.” He answers questions as compellingly and open-heartedly as he writes.

  • Jim
    November 9, 2006

    Michael, it’s good to hear the stories and characters lingered on. I live with them for weeks at a time myself during the writing. They’re there at the breakfast table.

    Susan– are you counting man-crushes, too?

    Carolyn — yes, when I’m reading, too, it’s the even-handed stories I love! They keep me unbalanced in a good way.

    Aurelio — You’re right, I don’t embrace it all, this apparent success, the award. I really worry about what I’d write from too settled a place.

    Roy and Lance — Thanks, guys!

    Miss Charlie — Kisses and hugs, dear heart.

    Mary and Pia — two marvelous short story writers, thanks so much to both for your kind words!

  • Greg Downs
    November 9, 2006

    Wonderful interview, Jim and Susan. Jim’s a great writer and a great guy, too. I loved the tales about Sycamore, Illinois in the interview, and of course you know I’m with you on the richness of Kentucky front. Kentucky’s been doing pretty well in literary fiction lately; now if we can just get the Cats back into gear…

    Congrats, Jim.

  • Jordan
    November 9, 2006

    There was nothing in this interview that changed my suspicions about Jim being one hell of a stand up guy, with a big heart and a whip of a pen. Thanks for having him, Sue!

    J

  • Sarah Roundell
    November 9, 2006

    What’s left to be said here? I agree with everyone that this was a very beautiful interview, that certainly does make you eager to read Jim’s book.

    I think this part more than anything makes me want to read the book: ~~~Ah, I see Jim Tomlinson, the man, is not unlike Jim Tomlinson, the author, who has compassion for all of his characters. Even as characters fail and disappoint and inflict pain on each other, you also show their vulnerabilities, their secret dreams, and all the ways they are trying to do better. I think this open but honest heart is what makes this collection so potent.~~~

  • Susan Henderson
    November 10, 2006

    Carolyn – Thank you. It was my pleasure to do the peeking.

    Gin – So glad you’re hear, and what a wonderful thing to say!

    Aurelio – Inspired me, too. In fact, I need to get down to work in minutes.

    Kesey – Thank you. I’m afraid Chloe’s still my favorite, though. Vote for Chloe!

    Charlotte – I agree. The stories are direct, but not in a jarring or aggressive way that’s usually the style of direct writing. Thanks for being here.

    Lance – It’s a great hangover, eh?

    Mary – I wonder if Jim is all pink in the ears yet?

    Pia – I thought that, too. I plugged your Ron Carlson interview in the Weekly Wrap because it’s the best I’ve read in a long time.

    Jim – I wasn’t sure if it was okay to out Kesey, but yes – at least one man crush here. Maybe four.

    Greg – I think your Cats lost to NY last night. Otherwise, you’re right. Maybe there needs to be a booth of Kentucky writers and Kentucky-based books at AWP this year.

    Jordan – I hope all this praise gets Jim going on his next book.

    Sarah – Also, it’s short! I should have included.

  • Pamela Erens
    December 6, 2006

    I’m coming in late here, but this is such a nice interview, and it was fun, Jim, to hear a little about your path as a writer and the genesis of TKTLB. Not to mention the Illinoisian local color (speaking as a Chicago girl… a different kind of Illinois, but still). Thanks, Susan and Jim.

Susan Henderson