“The best writing is transformative…Writing succeeds, too, when it acts as a mirror, reflecting our humanity back to us”: R.L. Maizes talks with Donna Baier Stein about writing outsiders, literary influences, and the path to releasing her debut collection.
“By imaginatively playing with a visual work of art, the writer can expand its meaning—not in terms of enlarging the original work, but in terms of offering more possibilities.” Donna Baier Stein explores the limits and liberties of perception in this essay on writing fiction from images.
“Like many pre-pubescent Catholic girls in the early 1960s, I thought I had a ‘vocation,’ a calling to sisterhood. Well, I did, but it was sisterhood is power—feminism not the nunnery.”
“Many characters in the book deal with unexpected changes in their lives and would welcome facts to guide them. The title seemed to reflect the emotional struggles of the characters and almost implies that it’s simple to change a life. But my characters find that life is complex; what works for one person will not work for another.”
Donna Baier Stein talks with Diane Bonavist about her new book, The Silver Baron’s Wife, inspired by the life of Colorado’s Baby Doe Tabor, as well as the challenges of wrestling with research, how to portray characters with depth, and the ways she approaches writing in different genres.
“Then you sit back one day and think, ‘Who really will care about this? It’s just another story that’s been told so many times, just in different ways.’ Yet there is that illogical reasoning, or rather lack thereof, that makes you continue.”
