Interview: Anna Scaife talks about Hush

Anna Scaife is a graduate of the Masters in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka University. Her short fiction has appeared in ReadingRoom, Landfall, takahē, Turbine, Flash Frontier and At the Bay | Te Kokuru. Anna talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about Hush.

Hush is a collection of short stories. I wrote most of them while I was doing a masters in creative writing at The Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington. I was on a deadline with an intense fear of failure hovering. It was one of the best years of my life.

The stories are not linked by their characters, but there’s an unintentional theme of the unsaid, or the things people keep to themselves and how that overflows into what they do. I’m interested in the odd ways people behave – we are so weird and that’s funny to me.

What inspired you to write this book?

My first true effort to write was at Hagley School for Writers in Christchurch. I joined a Saturday class which required us to hand in a portfolio of work at the end of the year. Our tutor, author Chloe Lane, curated a sort of masterclass in the short story for us to read each week. We read the boys: Raymond Carver, Chekhov, George Saunders, etc. And then there were the women! Alice Munro, Joy Williams, Grace Paley, Flannery O’Connor, and Amy Hempel.

I had never encountered these stories before, and I was obsessed. It was the careful use of language that did it for me. I began to see patterns in them and it felt like discovering clues. After that I went looking for as many short stories as I could lay my hands on.

So as far as inspiration goes, I wasn’t writing a book so much as just trying to write the best story I was capable of – over and over again.

What research was involved?

Hush is observational mostly. Often a story would come from something tiny, like a snippet of conversation on the bus, or a line from a friend. I’d like to say I keep a notebook, but I am too disorganised for that. Consequently, much of it just disappears from my head. But when a snippet sticks and I find myself wondering about it, I know I’ve found a can worth kicking. Then the process is just to think around it. What did they mean? What backstory could sit behind that thing they said? And often with Hush it was, what did they really mean? – because we hide things and that is the most interesting bit for me.

Other than that, often it’s my husband or a writing buddy who will read and say – you realise seabirds aren’t out at night, or I’m not sure a lawnmower blade would be sharp enough to cut someone’s finger off, and I go away and find out what I need to know. It’s annoying when science ruins something I want to say though.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

Ha! The truth is I can’t stick to a routine for more than a few days. I have good intentions, but if something draws my interest when I’m supposed to be writing, I do struggle not to follow my nose. Having said that, my youngest was still quite little when I was writing Hush, so the best time to write was at night. So if there was any kind of routine, it was to get Sam to bed, tidy up (a little) and then sit on the couch with my laptop and write for as long as I could stay awake.

I am naturally a night owl, and I do love that time. The quiet is different in those wee hours. The promise that I’m unlikely to be interrupted is exactly what I need. It almost feels infinite, like as long as I’m awake I can just keep going. I developed this foolproof system while passing high school by the skin of my teeth.

If a soundtrack were made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.

Fun! A soundtrack … [hours pass]

The first story in the book, A Cigarette at Taurua Stream, is about two teenagers the day before one of them moves away to go to university. There’s yearning, I think. I’d choose If I Swagger by Greg Johnston for that story. The song was released in 1995 not long after I left school so it has the sweet/salty combo of nostalgia for me. Or maybe Only You by Yazoo. Man, this is hard.

Another one is Six Months in a Leaky Boat by Split Enz. It’s kind of a perfect song, with that long intro, and the mixture of light and dark. I once played it so many times in a row at my flat in London that I was in danger of needing to find a new place to live. I think that tune belongs to a montage of Malcolm the misguided craftsman from the story The Jeweller’s Replacement.

What did you enjoy the most about writing Hush?

I feel so lucky to have written Hush alongside nine other people who were also writing books. We’d meet in the workshop room once a week, read each other’s work and discuss the good and the bad – or the less confronting, sunshine and fog.

During the critique, the writer has to sit quietly (i.e. not jump in and defend themselves) and hearing your friends talk about your characters as if they are real is magic. When imaginary people take on a life off the page, that’s just the best.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

Well there’s finishing and finishing. We had the manuscript deadline at uni so it just had to be done. There was a hand-in party and we all brought our bound manuscripts to the bar. You’d think that would have been the time to celebrate, but honestly we were mostly so zombified by the final push that people generally arrived flustered, straight from the printers, and drifted away early to bed.

One advantage (maybe the only one) to being a short story writer is there are multiple moments when you feel you’ve finished something. That’s a ‘hell yeah, another one in the can’ moment for me. It’s a relief to complete a story, honestly. Then the work begins of trying to make it not awful.

What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?

Well as part of my unofficial campaign for the short story, I’m going to have to say Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day. It counts because it was published on its own as a standalone book with a hardcover. Imagine.

The movie Small Things Like These with Cillian Murphy was an adaptation of Keegan’s novella. It’s difficult to describe why her writing is so good, but the way she combines the everyday with an undercurrent of menace is gripping.

And I’m also going to say Catherine Chidgey’s next book. It’s not out yet, but I’m waiting on it like it’s the new season of The White Lotus.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

Another enforced deadline. I have just begun a PhD in creative writing, and 70 per cent of that is producing a book manuscript. My subject is American writer Amy Hempel and how she uses animals in her stories. Hempel is goddess of the short story for me – not to oversell it or anything – and to combine that with study about how humans interact with animals is a perfect storm for my obsessions. So I’m writing things, and I don’t know exactly what they are yet, but I don’t think it’s a novel.

Thanks for the questions, NZ Booklovers. I’m going to go choose a song for all the other stories now so they don’t feel left out.

Ugly Hill Press