“All of us are individuals seeking the right place in a pluralistic, complex society, and all of us have the quirks, neuroses, joys, and traumas that make us unique.”
– Greg Fields
Greg, you’ve written across a range of topics, from deeply personal narratives to social themes. What inspired you to begin exploring these subjects through your novels?
I think we live our best lives when we’re sensitive to what’s around us, when we seek a harmony with those with whom we live, the strangers we pass on the street, and, most importantly, with ourselves. That harmony – that sense of being who and what we are best meant to be – is precious, and it is exceedingly rare. My mentor, Pat Conroy, wrote “From the beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire. I would work without a net and without the noise of the crowd to disturb me. The view from on high is dizzying, and instructive.”
When I write, I try very hard to be in tune with the circumstances that fascinate me enough to try to put them into words. All of us are individuals seeking the right place in a pluralistic, complex society, and all of us have the quirks, neuroses, joys, and traumas that make us unique. There’s such richness in the human spirit, and how that spirit strives, achieves, fails, mourns, and ultimately perseveres against the obstacles its inevitably encounters. And in the process of regarding this incredibly bright and rich fabric, I learn a bit more about myself, my own mistakes, and how the random, almost accidental events of our lives shape who we are.
Your latest book, The Bright Freight of Memory, comes on the heels of your award-winning novel Through the Waters and the Wild. Could you share a bit about what readers might find unique in this new work?
I’ve always focused my writing on what I think are the most essential questions that face us as individuals with hearts, minds and souls – Where shall I go now? What shall I do? In my previous works the characters who I put forward faced these questions from relatively comfortable and privileged places. They had aspirations that turned into careers, they had warm homes, they had people around them who cared for them, and they never worried about whether they would live to face a new morning.
But these are questions that we all need to address, the questions that keep us alive. What of those who are born in the sad and forgotten places? How do they face the challenges that define us?
For the first time I created characters that I did not really know, whose circumstances I had only observed but had never lived myself. In the process of creating them, I came to realize our common fears, the things that haunt us regardless of position or place. We all want to belong somewhere, and we all want to have a sense of purpose. Donal Mannion and Matthew Cooney were born poorly, but they carried within them the same drive that impels all of us. I think The Bright Freight of Memory explores these central themes in a new way, and from a new perspective. At least I hope it does.
Receiving your BREW awards, in addition to several notable book award nominations, is a milestone. How does the recognition resonate with you personally, and what impact do you think it has on your work?
I returned from my last trip to Ireland to learn that The Bright Freight of Memory has won The Chrysalis BREW Project’s award for Literary Fiction, and shortly thereafter was named Book of the Year. At the same time, I learned that it had been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, along with a National Book Award, neither of which I have any chance of winning, or even being shortlisted. I’ll cherish those nominations as long as I draw breath.
All this is unforeseen, unanticipated, and probably undeserved. But through it all I’ve developed even more of a passion for the power of good writing, the way language can soar like birds in flight and, in the soaring, bring readers to new places, new thoughts, and new realizations.
I struggle mightily with Imposter Syndrome. Every day I face my own doubts about the quality of what I do, and most days I feel like I come up short. Gustave Flaubert wrote, “I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.”
So an award brings a measure of confirmation that the effort had some resonance, and, with it, I gain a bit more confidence that the work is worth pursuing. Awards validate the struggle to create something distinctive.
Still, the greatest validation of what we do comes from our readers, who find some measure of value in what we write, and perhaps a mirror into their own lives.
You’ve spoken at various conferences, from literary festivals to forums on global development. How do these experiences influence the narratives you choose to write about?
Whenever I have the chance to speak at a festival or conference, I’m embracing a topic or an issue that means something to me. There’s a passion about the subject, whether it’s the courage to write fiction, the translation of experience into prose or, in my former life, marginalized children who barely survive. There’s no point in standing before others and offering up well-traveled thoughts or cliches. At the heart of anything worth sharing is the passion behind it.
That translates to my writing. I really won’t pursue anything unless what I pursue stokes a fire and speaks to my deepest part. When I present to any group, I try to bring my best, most honest, most impassioned self, simply because what I’m presenting has meaning. I approach my writing the same way.
Invisible Children, which you co-authored, addresses critical issues facing young people globally. How has that work shaped your perspective or influenced your fiction writing?
For years I was Managing Director of the Global Fund for Children, and that work showed me things I wished I had never seen. It led to my collaboration with GFC’s brilliant founder, Maya Ajmera, to shine a light on the conditions of marginalized children around the world. That type of thing never leaves you.
I incorporated some of the experiences I had at GFC through the main character of my second novel. I felt it important that that character come to understand viscerally some of the things that my own experiences had shown me. There are lessons in compassion, and understanding, and commitment in all that, and those lessons remained deep within my own heart. In some ways they permeate all my work, even as undercurrents to the major themes. There’s no way I could have ignored them in my prose.
In your role as an editor, you help shape other writers’ work. How does this editorial experience contribute to your own writing process and style?
I learn from every writer with whom I work. I’m a better writer because I edit, and a better editor because I write.
Editing forces me to read closely other genres, and there’s something to be learned from each of them. Each writer has their own style. I’ve learned from them new ways of bringing nuance to what I write, new ways of structuring a narrative, new ways of conveying ideas without overexplaining.
Most of the writers are publishing for the first time. They have questions about the processes, the deadlines, the deliverables. They’re excited and just a little bit afraid. They’re in a place that almost all writers pass through on their way to other things, so I try to offer them more than just editorial help. It can be an unsteady journey, and I try to help them through it.
Many of your stories deal with themes of generational trauma and cultural heritage. What draws you to these themes, and what do you hope readers take away from them?
I believe each generation faces the same questions, the same struggles and uncertainties that we face today. We are here simply because our forebears persevered against their challenges and obstacles. We can learn from that, and in the learning realize something about our own resiliency.
My second novel, Through the Waters and the Wild, dealt with this very directly. Modern-day Conor drew on the words and wisdom of his grandfather Liam, who fled Ireland during its violent period in the 1920s, trying to find a measure of courage to confront his own discontent. In The Bright Freight of Memory, both main characters struggle to grow up without fathers.
“Would there be a Donal Mannion born in Washington if Caesar had not crossed into Gaul, if Charles Martel had fathered a daughter rather than a son, if Strongbow had not seized Dublin in 1170?…..,Does a farmer’s flirtation with a country lass in County Clare in 1825 lead to a newborn’s cry in 1964?”
We are, all of us, a culmination of accidents and chance.
You’ve had pieces published in widely recognized periodicals. Do you approach nonfiction differently than fiction, or do you find overlap between the two?
I approach nonfiction much differently than I do fiction. Nonfiction requires precision, accuracy and a logical, focused development of what you want to say. There’s no room for assumption, and the goal is to lead the reader to the conclusions you’ve carefully crafted.
The discipline needed to write fiction is quite different. I think the best writing leaves much unsaid and compels the reader to form their own interpretations. I hope those interpretations mirror what I intended, but there’s no guarantee, and, really, that’s not the purpose. Too much ego in that. The best outcome is when the reader takes what you’ve written and wraps it into their own experiences.
I think nonfiction writing shines a light. Great fiction holds up a mirror.
Sustainability and diversity are key aspects of today’s discussions in literature and development. How do you see these themes fitting into your writing or public speaking engagements?
The world is in a very precarious place these days. I think at every turn we need to affirm the collective values that build community – inclusion, respect, kindness, and the commitment that each individual carries a dignity that should never be compromised.
Maybe we’ve always been in this place. There’ve been wars and depressions and outpourings of hatred based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and almost any other difference the mind can contrive. It cheapens all of us, no matter which side of an issue we hold. But today that sense of community seems more fractured, and prone to violence. We’ve become more tribal.
So writers, I think, have a responsibility to represent our commonality, the things that bind us as human beings and transcend any label. That’s been the point of my own writing, and something I think I share with the great writers who even more forcefully throw themselves against the madness. I think of James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Upton Sinclair, and the countless others who used their narratives to reflect the best of what we might and should become.
My themes are less political and more personal. Still, I think the coming together of community begins with the realization of self. Once we feel comfortable with who we are as individuals, we can much more easily become part of something larger, something nourishing and real.
Looking forward, are there other areas or themes you’re excited to explore in your future projects? What can readers expect next from Greg Fields?
Each Saturday I Zoom into a writers group at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin. We banter for a bit, usually where they make fun of the token Yank, and then we write to a prompt provided by the leader. After an hour or so, we can read what we write for critique and comment.
I created the two main characters in The Bright Freight of Memory in part through these prompts. Each week I would place one of them in response to whatever prompt was given, and in so doing, I fleshed them out. I put them in different situations, in different places and reacting to the circumstances of these prompts. After a time I was able to build them into fully-formed characters, then devised a narrative that reflected who they were and what they were about.
The sessions continue, and each Saturday I find myself doing the same thing with a new set of characters. These weekly creative jolts provide the spikes that I can build around. They give my writing a focus, and I take it from there. I expect all this will coalesce into another novel, which seems to be gravitating toward a theme that addresses how we as individuals respond to the social evils we see around us.
I can’t begin to express both my wonder and my gratitude for where I am now. I never intended to write for publication. I was writing to explain my own life to myself, and offered that writing to those closest to me.
Writers are a strange lot – neurotic, vulnerable, but ultimately courageous in putting forth the most unvarnished, honest versions of themselves. I’ve come to love being around writers and being around readers. And, in the end, I hope I’m even a little bit worthy of being in their company.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Writers are a strange lot – neurotic, vulnerable, but ultimately courageous in putting forth the most unvarnished, honest versions of themselves.”
– Greg Fields
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We’d love to hear your thoughts on The Bright Freight of Memory and Greg Fields’ journey as an author. Share your comments below and let us know:
- What resonated most with you in Greg’s perspective on writing?
- How do you relate to the themes of identity and trauma explored in the novel?
- What other books or authors have influenced your own creative journey?
We look forward to your insights!
Alignment with the UN SDGs
This interview with Greg Fields aligns with the UN SDGs in the following ways:
- SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being: Discussing trauma and its impact on mental health.
- SDG 4: Quality Education: Addressing the power of storytelling and education through literature.
- SDG 5: Gender Equality: Exploring themes of societal roles and belonging.
- SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities: Highlighting marginalized voices and the struggles of those on society’s periphery.
- SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions: Examining societal systems and personal resilience within them.
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