Q&A with Featured Author & Novelist Fiona Maazel

Fiona Maazel, author of “Woke Up Lonely” and “Last Last Chance,” is winner of the Bard Prize for Fiction and a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree. Her work has appeared in BOMB, Bookforum, N+1, The New York Times Book Review, Tin House and many other publications. Fiona teaches at Brooklyn College, New York University, Princeton and Columbia. She lives in Brooklyn.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?
Writers’ block is the worst! I was at the artists’ colony MacDowell, once, with huge writers’ block. For three weeks! So mostly I paced. Cruised the internet. Wrote, deleted, wrote, deleted. Wept. Took walks. Read. Waited. That’s really all you can do—wait yourself out. Eventually, something will come.

What one book do you wish you’d written?
Just one? I can think of several. But these days: “Crime & Punishment.” It’s got incredible pathos and pace and wit. It’s about the big picture, the little picture, and all the pictures in between. I’ve mapped out the novel twice just to see how it works, with the idea of recreating some its magic. But it hasn’t happened yet!

Share one of your rejection stories.
Just one? I can think of several. I’ve been rejected at every turn of my career—by agents and editors alike. There’s no one story. In many ways, rejection is the story of being a writer. There’s always someone who’s not going to like what you’re doing. But that’s fine. Fifty rejections is fine, since all you need is one yes. The trick is learning how to hold out for that yes. How to keep at it. How to believe in your aesthetic and sensibility, even as you are always revising both in an effort to get better.

Where do you go to find your ideas?
I don’t have to go very far. Mostly, I go nowhere. Just look around. Everyone’s got a story. Ten minutes on the subway = twenty stories. That girl with rosacea blotched across half her face? She’s on her way to euthanize her mom’s dog. That guy with the monocle? His girlfriend just announced she wants a sex change. And so on. Stories are like pollen; they land everywhere though not everyone is susceptible to their effect.