Q&A with author Gerry Wilson
Pontotoc native and longtime Jacksonian Gerry Wilson came by her love of storytelling naturally, growing up with a grandmother who delighted in sharing stories of her own.
After more than 20 years in the classroom teaching English and creative writing — and whetting her own appetite for writing — Wilson has happily retired to a life of crafting short stories and long fiction.
Wilson’s short stories have been published in numerous journals, earning her a Prime Number Magazine Award for Short Fiction in 2014 for “Mating,” the first story in her new book “Crosscurrents.” She was also a 2015’s recipient of a Mississippi Arts Commission Library Arts Fellowship.
“Crosscurrents,” published by Press 53, is a collection of 11 stories that examine the lives of women who confront and deal with difficult challenges.
Please tell me more about yourself.
I graduated from Ole Miss with a BA, majoring in English and psychology. I was on campus when James Meredith arrived in September 1962, but I missed the riots because my dad got wind of what might happen, drove to Oxford, and took me home. The tear gas lingered in the classrooms long after classes resumed. I’m not proud of the fact that my girlfriends and I made a practice of riding in and out of the campus entrances guarded by cute soldiers, but we did.
I married right out of college, and my first job was with the old Bell South Company in Jackson as an “engineer,” writing specs for telephone equipment installations — not the ideal job for an English major! After the birth of my first child, I was a stay-at-home mom for a long while.
I worked as a preschool teacher at Jackson Academy for seven years, and for 20-plus years, I taught English and creative writing to high school students and sponsored a prize-winning student literary magazine at Jackson Academy. I earned a master’s in English from Mississippi College in 1992.
During my teaching career, I led writing workshops for students and teachers as well as adult workshops in fiction, poetry and nonfiction as part of Millsaps College’s Community Enrichment Program. I retired from teaching in 2005 to make time for what I really wanted to do: write. It’s not part of my career history — or maybe it is — but I’m the mother of four and grandmother of seven, plus stepgrandmom to my husband’s three grandsons.
When did you discover your interest in language and writing?
Oh, I was very young! I drew pictures and wrote “words” with crayons in my books when I was little. I’m amazed that my parents allowed me to do that. I wrote my first story when I was 8, a mystery story my dad shared with a friend of his who was a mystery buff. When he pronounced it good, I was thrilled. During the summers, growing up, I practically lived in our community library.
Later on, except for an abysmal diary I kept during my teens, I wrote only what was required for school and college, nothing creative. I think the desire was there, but while my children were young and after I became a single, working parent, I couldn’t seem to find the time to write. I admire writers who get up at 4 in the morning to work for a couple of hours before everybody else is awake, but I was never one of them. When I wrote my first short story at a creative workshop for teachers at Bard College (New York) back in the '90s, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. I was hooked.
Is this your first book?
Yes. The opening story, “Mating,” won the Press 53 Short Story Competition in 2014. I’ve published numerous other short stories in journals and magazines. I often write memoir pieces for my blog. I’ve completed two novels. I started out many years ago thinking I was a poet, and I published a few poems early on, but I prefer writing fiction. The influence of poetry is always there, though, in the language and rhythms of the prose.
What inspires you as a writer?
That’s a hard question! Other writers’ works inspire me — or depress me because they’re so good. Inspiration can come from anywhere — an image, a memory, an experience, someone I observe. I may see somebody in the grocery store and start imagining that person’s life. Places are so suggestive of story!
“Mating” was inspired by the wild animal park near Collins that closed down a few years ago. Every time I passed it, I’d think about stopping. I never did, but the idea of setting a story in such a place nagged at me. Because I never went inside, I had to imagine what it was like, the people who might live there, and what their problems might be. I relied on newspaper articles and photos for basic details, but the characters are imagined, including the black leopard, Garcia. I loved writing that cat!
In “Signs,” my grandmother’s memory of her father’s death is central, although much fictionalized. My grandmother was a terrific storyteller, but her stories changed over the years. I learned from her about the unreliability of memory and how, over time, it becomes fiction. Inspiration is fun when it happens, but the writing isn’t all fun, nor does it come easily. It’s hard work.
Each of the stories seems to be very different from the other. How did this book come about?
There are 11 stories in “Crosscurrents.” When I started thinking about putting a collection together a couple of years ago, I looked for a common thread. Linked story collections are popular, but the stories in “Crosscurrents” aren’t linked by recurring characters or by place, which are common ways of linking stories. These stories are linked thematically: They’re all about women’s lives and the difficulties they face and survive in one way or another.
I winnowed the stories down, based on some advice Press 53 editor Kevin Watson gave me: that less is more, that he’d rather see 120 pages of strong work than 175 pages that represent everything the writer has written. I took that advice, cut some stories, added a couple of new ones, and revised many times over.
Some are traditional narratives; some play around with time and point of view, which is fun for me and also reflects my love of Alice Munro’s stories.
What is it that attracts you to writing short stories?
I like the challenge of writing short: A good story can’t have any excess, and yet the writer has to give the reader a complete experience. Every word counts.
You were awarded a Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowship. How did you make use of the time and funds?
Receiving the fellowship affirmed me as a writer, but it also meant I had to live up to certain expectations. It encouraged me to send more stories out, to get beyond the rejections and believe that I had something of worth to share. I used the MAC fellowship funds to submit my work more widely — many journals now charge submission fees — and to travel to writing workshops, which can be incredibly expensive.
Who are some Mississippi writers whose work you most admire?
Eudora Welty. William Faulkner. Ellen Douglas. Elizabeth Spencer. Richard Ford. Lewis “Buddy” Nordan. I have to step outside Mississippi and name two short story writers who have influenced me: Flannery O’Connor and Alice Munro. I love following the younger generation of Mississippi writers — Katy Simpson Smith, Mary Miller, Tiffany Tyson — goodness, there are too many to name.
What are you working on now?
I hope my readers can expect a published novel. My novel set in rural north Mississippi around the time of World War I has attracted some interest. There’ll be more short stories. Right now, I’m working on a third novel that’s giving me fits. So we shall see!