Interviews: March 2008 Archives

Kristen-Paige Madonia, the winner of our inaugural Marianne Russo Scholarship, and a speaker during this year's New Voices Seminar, has been selected by The Studios of Key West as their very first visiting literary artist. She'll be staying in TSKW's "Mango Tree House" for one month beginning in October, just in time for Fantasy Fest and, if she's lucky, the tail end of the season for the mammoth mango trees on TSKW's compound. I had a chance to talk with Kristen-Paige about her plans yesterday:

Arlo: What will you be working on during your residency at The Studios of Key West?

Kristen-Paige Madonia: I plan to work on my second novel. It's about a sixteen-year old embarking on a cross-country trip from West Virginia to San Francisco. This trip is prompted by the discovery that she is pregnant, and by her on-going ambition to locate her paternal father, whom she has never met. My intention with this project is to give voice to a character exploring the transition between childhood and adulthood.

A: Didn't you move from Virginia to the west coast? What role does your own life play in this novel?

KPM: Well, yes, I've made that cross-country trip too many times to count, but this novel isn't only about the physical trip from one side of the US to the other, it's also about the psychological journey of my character. It seems it is becoming more typical for people to move more frequently, whether it be an attempt at self-reinvention or a general anxiousness in society, so I'm trying to explore themes of rootlessness and restlessness in addition to the ever-changing definition of the "modern American family."