CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT:
Interview with Laurel DiGangi

Rappahannock Review Interviews Editor: “Into the World There Came a Soul Named Joan” focuses specifically on your mother’s relationship with time. What made you decide to add “timestamped” chapters to juxtapose the theme of the story?

Laurel DiGangi: My decision to “time-stamp” my piece was purely technical. It was the easiest and clearest way to tell a story that takes place over sixty years. I hadn’t realized the thematic connection to “time” until Grace Fox pointed it out. I love it when readers see connections that I miss. Always better than when they miss something I was hoping they’d catch.

RR: Throughout the story, you personify time, giving it a strong character. Did you plan to make time a full character in your story, or did it happen by accident?

LD: My initial intent was to write about a quasi-disastrous trip to Las Vegas with my parents, which appears in part near the end of this story. I never intended to personify “time,” but after I wrote, “But Time didn’t care,” I began playing with the concept to see where it took me.

RR: You briefly touch on how religion works into your family’s life, the line “I worry that we’re all going to Hell. In a few years, I’ll stop worrying. Jesus is no match for Time” sticks out to me. Could you expand more about your idea of the church being afflicted by your love of your mom or vice versa?

LD: Initially, I wasn’t sure what I meant when I wrote, “Jesus was no match for Time.” The line just seemed right. Upon reflection, it’s about the power of Time. Even a person’s most profound religious convictions can change over time if they are exposed to different philosophies and experiences. Mine certainly did. And although my mother carried her religious beliefs until death, she still missed Mass because she couldn’t fight Time.

RR: The title of the story is taken from a piece of art titled “Into the World There Came a Soul Named Ida.” Where did seeing that fall into the timeline of writing this piece? Was it something you reflected back on? Or something that sparked the idea for the essay?

LD: I didn’t decide upon the title “Into the World There Came a Soul Named Joan” until I finished writing the story. Initially, I had no title beyond “Time,” but I knew I’d have to do better. I always tell writing students not to title a work until it’s finished, because you don’t know what you’re writing until it’s written.

RR: Your bio states that you worked as an entertainment journalist and now teach writing. Do you feel like your writing has been affected by what type of job you have?

LD: Teaching fiction and CNF has a positive impact on my own writing. Having to formulate and articulate to students what makes a story “work” forces me to take a closer, more critical view of my own writing.

RR: In a few words, what in your opinion makes a story “work”?

LD: I write slowly and intentionally, especially when I first approach a piece. I rarely have the confidence to proceed with a story, whether it’s fiction or CNF, unless I’m happy with my first few sentences. And I can’t move forward unless I have an ending, or at least a key scene in mind that I want to reach. That said, I don’t over-plan. I allow for happy surprises to suddenly appear on the page.