Writing Wisdom

Fifteen Minutes: What was it like finding out you’d won the Pulitzer Prize for your novel “Tinkers”?

Paul Harding: No one called me. I found out on the website and within 30 seconds of finding out the Associated Press was on the phone. It was astonishing. It’s strange—I have not yet experienced my own reaction to this.

FM: What did you do to get the book out there?

PH: I spent the year flat broke going from reading to reading. Whenever anyone would come up to me after a reading and say, “I’m going to have my book club read the book,” I’d say, “I’ll come.” It was very grassroots, and it was a lovely way to spend a year, talking to nice people who like your book.

FM: Where did the idea for the novel come from?

PH: The story germinated out of old, semi-legendary family stories told me by my maternal grandfather about his childhood in northern Maine, which was impoverished. His father abandoned his family when my grandfather was 12 because he had epilepsy and his wife was going to have him admitted to an asylum. That was a formative family legend, but I could never get my grandfather to elaborate on it—I don’t know if it was painful or just generational to only talk about. Just being interested in my family made [these legends] irresistible to me. Just describing the facts as I knew them took up about half a page, so I had to fill in and imagine. It just unfolded from there. But I had no interest whatsoever in writing an autobiographical novel. I’m not that interested in myself.

FM: How did teaching “The Art of Short Fiction” help your own writing?

PH: When I came to teach Expos and the Extension School, I worked on finishing the book in between teaching and raising a couple of sons. In order to teach Expos, I had to think about the architecture of argument. I thought about the technical aspects of making arguments in order to do creative writing. I had thought these two things were exclusive realms, but it turns out they’re not. I was constantly teaching published stories to the students and having conversations not only with them, but also with myself about writing. I really really really learned a lot about writing.