HI Rivers! Wonderful to “chat” with you again! It’s been just over five years since our Locus Magazine interview. What, for you, have been a few highlights since then? Career, personal, whatever you’d like to share.
I love this question because it gives me a chance to reflect on all my many blessings. I believe both An Unkindness of Ghosts and The Deep were out during our last chat, but since then I’ve published two more books: Sorrowland and most recently Model Home, which came out in the US last October and is a haunted house story set in a wealthy Dallas, Texas suburb — so, you know, the horror isn’t just the house, but being in a Dallas, Texas suburb ha. Additionally, Paris Review published my short story This Is Everything There Will Ever Be, whose audio version is read by Lena Waithe, which still amazes me. On a more personal front, I feel more myself than ever, and every year, I continue to learn and grow and exist.
An Unkindness of Ghosts came out in 2017, which was your debut novel. Model Home was just published by MCD and Merky. Has your writing changed in any important ways since that first book?
I’m most certain that it has, but I’m not sure I’m easily able to identify the ways that is has. I’ve always been more drawn to language, character, and moments in fiction than story. In fact, I often see plot and narrative as a kind of hindrance. But I still use it and rely on it, of course. Lately, though, I’ve been moved to abandon it all together, or to make it more and more skeletal so I can focus on the parts of writing that interest me most. This is most apparent in my shorter work, probably, but I’m hoping to be able to bring it into my book projects as well. This is not to say “no plot” — just, I never want to feel like my books have to conform to a standard of how a story must go.
I’m always delighted to see your work come out. What has your publishing journey been like overall?
Ups and downs but honestly, mostly ups. An Unkindness of Ghosts came out with a mid-sized independent press, Akashic Books, whom I admire so deeply and did everything to make the book take off. I think Amal’s review of the novel in NPR really shifted the direction of my career, too, really putting the book on the map, and eventually paving the way for the publication of The Deep. In fact, I think my editor for The Deep specifically received my name from Amal! So, the beauty of word of mouth and the proper alignment of the stars! Things took a little pause after The Deep. Sorrowland was difficult to write and a slight shift from my previous works. I remained with that same press, MCD, and editor, for Model Home.
After having several acclaimed books out, what, for you, is significant or useful about the way the fantastic (or: fantastic/speculative elements) can be utilized in narrative? What has it enabled you to do in your own work?
This is such a great question but one I’m terrible at answering! I have such a head-and-the-clouds type of brain that fantasy is so infused into how I view the world anyway that I don’t necessarily think of it as that separate from “real life.” Further, often what draws me most to the speculative is aesthetic and vibe — not necessarily it’s usefulness. But what’s beautiful about fiction is that I can make everything up. Why not take that as far as it can go? Human beings are so drawn to metaphor and symbols, why not use the fantastic to really tackle really important what-if questions?
What are some of your favorite things about central characters Emmanuele, Eve, and Ezri?
Mostly, I enjoy their sibling dynamic. The three of them together and how they interact has such vibrancy! They each feel so specific to me, but when they come together, they also become something distinct. Ezri is weird, disembodied, and strange, almost anti-character/anti-persona. They struggle with having a subjectivity at all. But their siblings each have such a strong voice that it grounds them.
One of the Locus reviews for Model Home talks about the book’s “compelling narrative voice” as well as “the richness of characterization of the siblings”. In terms of craft and writing approach, what do you see as key to delivering great characterization and voice?
Detail and dialogue forreal. Put your characters in a scene and let them move and speak and be. I love TV and film, and I tend to apply my love of it to my writing. I need to visualise the characters, see them moving through space, interacting, hear them speaking. It’s not unusual for me to have a specific character from a favourite piece of media who’s an inspiration or a seed for who my character will be.
Another review describes Model Home as “a novel about a haunted house in which said house sits in the background while haunted people take center stage” and talks about several different themes. What, for you, is the heart of the story?
Oh, I love that quote. I think that’s right. For me, the heart of Model Home is that there’s no such thing as exorcism. Hauntings are a part of life. Everything remains, forever. And we still move and live despite it, or because of it! The past, present, and future are forever fused.
When you think about Model Home, the central story, and the journey to getting this book out in the world, what are you most proud of; or, what are you happiest with in terms of the writing, story, or other aspects of the book?
I really let myself be strange and weird in Model Home. If I wanted to write something, I wrote it, even if I couldn’t necessarily justify it narratively. This book was so, so difficult for me to write, but also so incredibly fun. I think it’s my most “me” book. Part of that is because it’s so contemporary and the least informed by the speculative, so it’s deeply drawing on life as we know it now.
Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about Model Home, you, or your work?
A lot of reviews of my work focus a lot on race, trauma, and identity, and I guess I’m not beating the allegations; but I also just want to say that these are just normal everyday life things for so many people, and so really, Model Home, and all of my books, are about what it’s like to be and suffer and love and survive and laugh for as long as we’re in this mortal coil.
Rivers Solomon writes about life in the margins, where they are much at home. In addition to appearing on the Stonewall Honor List and winning a Firecracker Award, Solomon’s debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, was a finalist for Lambda, Hurston/Wright, Otherwise (formerly Tiptree), and Locus Awards. Solomon’s second book, The Deep, based on the Hugo-nominated song by the Daveed Diggs–fronted hip-hop group clipping, was the winner of the 2020 Lambda Award and was short-listed for the Nebula, Locus, Hugo, Ignyte, Brooklyn Library Literary, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. Their work appears in Black Warrior Review, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Guernica, Best American Short Stories, Tor.com, Best American Horror and Dark Fantasy, and elsewhere. A refugee of the transatlantic slave trade, Solomon was born on Turtle Island but currently resides on an isle in an archipelago off the western coast of the Eurasian continent.
