Here you can find astonishing interviews with Julia Phillips, Kiese Laymon, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, Robert Jones, Jr., Annell Lopez, and Karisma Price.
Photo of Cleyvis Natera
Greetings and welcome to Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s Sitting in Silence, an inspirational newsletter and podcast for writers, readers, and feelers. I hope you’re enjoying these last days of summer as much as I am.
It feels like summer ended a month ago, but I can’t be fooled by the temperature falling or young people going people going back to school. I’m a summer baby, myself. My birthday is this Saturday, September 20. I’ll be doing events in New York this week,* and summer isn’t over until I’ve had my fun.
But first! On Tuesday, September 16, I’ll be moderating Addie Citchens’ event in New Orleans for her phenomenal book, Dominion. Stay tuned for the Interview with Addie. I’m also going to talk to some local high school students, but, sorry, that’s for young learners only.
Still, if you’re looking for motivation to write, then take my upcoming online seminar. I have plenty of tips and suggestions to help you be the author you’d like to be. Registration is now open. This popular seminar is one session only on Monday, October 6 at 6pm EST. It’ll be interactive and light. Trust me. You’ll love it.
Here’s a reminder that with so much pressure on the writing community, I created Sitting in Silence as a space where writers can talk about whatever is on their mind. More generally, SIS is an ever-changing platform designed to inspire and encourage writers, thinkers, and everyone.
If you like what we do here, share it with others. They’ll thank you. We’ve gone 100 17 days without a complaint. I’m kidding. I don’t accept complaints. lol But, seriously. Consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers get access to a terrific treasure trove of exclusive posts and podcast episodes dating back to 2022. Paid subscribers not only keep SIS going, but make you available for the wider community. So if anyone is looking for community service credit, look no further.
Today’s headliner is, my friend, the wonderful and talented Cleyvis Natera. Ever since reading her first book, Neruda on the Park, I knew that we readers had just been introduced to a brilliant new voice. Cleyvis’ latest book is a pulse-pounding, romp featuring a magnificent array of well-developed and endearing characters. A New York Times Editor’s Choice, The Grand Paloma Resort was recently celebrated on the Today Show. I moderated Cleyvis’ New Orleans event and when I tell you that audience was rapt by the reading and the author’s delightful banter. I lost track of the show because I was so caught up in Cleyvis’ storytelling!
So…without further ado, here’s the Big Interview with Cleyvis Natera.
Maurice: What are your earliest memories of reading or writing literature?
Cleyvis: I grew up surrounded by such amazing storytellers. Yet, not even one was a writer nor an academic. In true Caribbean fashion, the most incredible storytellers I experienced growing up were my tias and tios, my abuelita and my mother. It was the neighbors who lived down the road. During family gatherings or when someone dropped by our home back in the Dominican Republic, as people told the most marvelous stories, I witnessed how language could stop time, could bring people together. Those experiences made me aware of the central role of storytellers in my community and my world. My excitement about books happened much later. When I was in 8th grade, a few years after we’d migrated to the United States, I first began to read for pleasure – largely motivated by a terribly mean Spanish teacher who had introduced an extra credit program to help those of us who were lagging in our grades. She offered an extra two credit points toward the final grade for each book read. By the end of that academic year, I’d scored a perfect 100 in that class and ended up with a passion for reading that keeps me company to this day.
Maurice: What was it that made you turn to writing your own literature?
Cleyvis: After I’d spent a few years avidly reading vampire books and smutty romances – with a sprinkling of literary books forced on me by my teachers and local librarians, I got this crazy idea that it would be fun to write my own stories. During my first year of college, I took an intro to fiction class with Steven Millhauser. I found out very quickly that even though I’d been reading non-stop for the past five years, reading a lot didn’t correlate with writing well. My first few stories were trash! But I did enjoy writing so much. I couldn’t remember a time in my entire academic life when I’d taken a course I enjoyed more. Despite my cliché story ideas, my teacher was very encouraging and a few months into the semester we found out he’d won that year’s Pulitzer Prize in fiction. There was something about having close proximity to an author who’d won the country’s most prestigious prize that made me think it was possible to make a living out of pursuing my passion, which up until then had seemed an impossibility. I’m still close to Steven Millhauser (who has since retired from teaching but is still writing and publishing fiction). I was so happy to exchange books with him a couple of years ago when my debut was published. I’ll be seeing him in just a couple of weeks and can’t wait to hand him a signed copy of my new book, The Grand Paloma Resort. It’s amazing to think how that one class where I wrote such lousy stories was the first foundation to this vocation I adore.
Maurice: I was honored to moderate the New Orleans event for your vibrant, page turner The Grand Paloma Resort. The book is so full of incredible characters who I want to either hug or tell off depending on the page. How did you develop the story and characters? Am I right that you had many more pages in the earlier drafts?
Cleyvis: It was such a great event! You are the best moderator, Maurice. I’m so grateful for your generosity. Although I’d been thinking of a set of characters who worked at a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic for many years, it wasn’t until the Novel Corona Virus Pandemic in 2020 that I first began to write what would eventually become The Grand Paloma Resort. Our mutual literary agent, PJ Mark, and I had finished revising Neruda on the Park, but everything was at a standstill in the publishing industry due to the pandemic. I had no choice but to wait. During those uncertain times, a writer friend reached out to ask me if I had any short fiction. She was guest editing The Kenyon Review and wanted to solicit my work. Although I had nothing ready to go, I thought it would be a great opportunity to work on a new short story and tap into the well of inspiration the current conditions had created. Just like those characters I’d envision, I too wanted to escape my life and my circumstances. I submitted the story and it was selected for publication later that year. I continued to write interconnected stories for the next three years. When we decided to sell the book, I made the decision to pivot away from a collection of short stories to a novel. Because it would feature multiple characters over the course of seven days as a series of escalating crisis occur, I first wrote out what all my central characters were doing over the course of all seven days. I then went back and selected the most tense and urgent scenes to weave them into a narrative that I thought would be compelling. I ended up cuttings hundreds of pages out of the initial draft.
Maurice: Do you ever need inspiration to write, and if so, who or what do you turn to?
Cleyvis: Blame it on my two decades of working in corporate America but I’m not a writer who believes in the muse or inspiration. I usually schedule my time for writing based on project deadlines or writing contracts. I stick to my schedule and get the writing done. I can’t lie! When I am in a more inspired mindset, the writing is better. There’s no doubt about it. But I also know that the end result will be the same if I stick to my process. I will revise and revise until the writing meets my own high bar for excellent fiction.
Maurice: How have you changed from your early writing to The Grand Paloma Resort?
Cleyvis: I am a more joyful writer! The journey to publish my first novel lasted fifteen years. I despaired for many of those years thinking it was never going to happen for me. But as many of us suspect, things really did get easier on the other side of publication. I was able to sell my second novel as a proposal, which means that I didn’t have a full manuscript when I signed the contract for publication. I understood right from the start that the process would be so different. I embarked on the second journey from a place where I wanted to write a great second book but I also wanted to have a lot of fun along the way. Based on the reaction to date, it seems readers have caught that infectious feeling.
Maurice: I won’t enumerate everything that’s been going on politically in the nation and around the world. Suffice it to say, something feels different and more chaotic than usual. How do you respond to the disorder of the world?
Cleyvis: It has been a chaotic and heartbreaking time. Members of my immigrant community are being persecuted and deported. So many people across this nation are living in fear. Globally, we’re witnessing famines, genocides, and political unrest that is leading to what feels like a catastrophic level of violence. It is a horrific time. As a writer, I often think that part of our job is to bear witness and to do the best we can to engage with the current moment. I do so by engaging with my students and helping them to see things clearly. I also know that so much of what is happening now is, sadly, not new. I think that staying close to my family, supporting my writing community, and ensuring that my children feel safe and loved, are the main priorities of my time.
Maurice: What project are you excited about working on next?
Cleyvis: I recently sold my third book! Now that my book tour is winding down, I’m very excited to get back to my schedule and write in earnest. The third book happens to be a sequel to The Grand Paloma Resort, only it will feature a different set of employees in a new hotel. I’ve written quite a bit of the story over the last few months so now I’m going to dig into doing research into medical tourism (a big theme of this new book) and have scheduled a trip to Curaçao (the setting of this new book). I’ve never been to this island in the Caribbean. It’s going to be time consuming and very arduous to travel to this beautiful Caribbean Island. But I’m committed to visiting as many times as necessary to ensure I write with authenticity and do it justice. I know, I know. It sounds like awfully difficult work. But let’s just say I’m glad I’m the one who gets to do it!
Maurice: Thanks for taking the time to participate, Cleyvis. I wish you continued success with your latest!
Dear Reader, thanks for reading this month’s interview. More to come. Do me a favor and take this week’s poll. I’m trying to see something.
*some events are public and some are private
I had the privilege of hearing her during my Kenyon workshop this summer during faculty readings and her work is so amazing!!
I love her mind. ♥️🙏🏾