What, Why, How: Aaron Hamburger

What:

I write literary fiction and non-fiction. All of my books have been fiction (two novels and a story collection), but I’ve written a great deal of creative non-fiction, especially memoir essays, and my dream is to someday write a full book of creative non-fiction. In both formats, I tend to draw material from life, but in fiction, I repurpose details, shuffle things up, and embellish them to make for better stories. In creative non-fiction, I like to reflect on real events whose significance I didn’t fully understand at the time.

I used to think my main subject was cross-cultural interactions, until once I published a piece in an anthology and the editor in his introduction described me as someone known for writing about family. Yes, I thought when I read those words, that fits. I do write about family, both the families we’re born into, and the ones we try to create for ourselves with others, often the ones whom we fall in love with. I love E. M. Forster’s dictum, “Only Connect.” We crave deep connections with others, and so often we fail to achieve them. In my writing, I like to explore how and why this happens to the people I’m writing about. 

Why:

Toni Morrison said it best, I write to find out what I think. So often, my work is prompted by a character or a place or a question that I want to understand better. And it’s been my experience that the pieces I consider my best work are the ones that have taught me something or defied my initial impressions of whatever I was writing about. Conversely, the pieces that just confirmed my original thoughts or intentions end up seeming flat and maybe even smug. 

I find as a writer, it’s best to devote yourself to a project that you find endlessly fascinating and endlessly mysterious. And what could be more mysterious than human character?

Here’s a thought from E. M. Forster on why character is so endlessly fascinating: “In daily life we never understand each other, neither complete clairvoyance nor complete confessional exists. We know each other approximately, by external signs, and these serve well enough as a basis for society and even for intimacy. But people in a novel can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist wishes; their inner as well as their outer life can be exposed. And this is why they often seem more definite than characters in history, or even our own friends; we have been told all about them that can be told; even if they are imperfect or unreal they do not contain any secrets, whereas our friends do and must, mutual secrecy being one of the conditions of life upon this globe.”

So when we’re trying to capture people on the page, how can we break through the limits of intimacy that exist in life? I take a cue here from George Saunders who says the act of revision is asking oneself what can enable me to love my characters more. Notice he does not say like them, but love them. There’s a difference. It’s not necessary to want to have lunch with your protagonist in order to see them with radical empathy. And radical empathy, that’s what it takes not only to be a good fiction writer but also a good citizen of the planet.

How:

Okay, I’m a fiend for quotes. But I can’t resist this one from Octavia Butler: “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.”

I am totally on board with Octavia Butler. I make it my business to write at least three hours a day five days a week. And that writing can take a variety of forms: generating raw material, editing, researching, reading something that’s going to feed my work, writing in my journal, or just plain staring at a blank page in a notebook or on a laptop. I can’t predict when I’m going to feel inspired, so the more opportunities I give myself to be there when inspiration hits, the better my chances are of doing something. 

I do believe that, like exercise, the benefits of writing are cumulative. To me, three straight hours of writing is just as good as an hour here, fifteen minutes there, forty-five minutes somewhere else, and then another hour that I’ve managed to sneak in somehow. They don’t have to be contiguous to count. 

And much better, in my view, to write an hour a day five days a week, then eight hours one day a week. Regular practice keeps your brain in the game, particularly the unconscious part of it. And it lessens the pressure on those times when you are writing, so that you’re free to be creative and stumble into a few happy accidents.

Bio:

Aaron Hamburger is the author of a story collection titled THE VIEW FROM STALIN’S HEAD which was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and nominated for a Violet Quill Award. He has also written two novels: FAITH FOR BEGINNERS, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, and NIRVANA IS HERE.

His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Village Voice, Tin House, Michigan Quarterly Review, Subtropics, Crazyhorse, Boulevard, Poets & Writers, Tablet, O, the Oprah Magazine, Out, The Bennington Review, Nerve, Time Out, Details, and The Forward. He has also won fellowships from Yaddo, Djerassi, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation as well as first prize in the Dornstein Contest for Young Jewish Writers, and his short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

He has taught creative writing at Columbia University, the George Washington University, New York University, Brooklyn College, and the Stonecoast MFA Program.

Links:

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Find Aaron’s novel Nirvana Is Here at: IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Check out his book tour schedule to see if he’s coming to your hometown!

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Linda K. Sienkiewicz is the author of the award-winning novel In the Context of  Love, a story about one woman’s need to tell her truth without shame. Discovering who you want to be isn’t easy when you can’t leave the past behind.

2017 New Apple Book Awards Official Selection
2016 Sarton Women’s Fiction Finalist
2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist
2016 USA Book News Best Book Finalist

“…at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey.” ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed Once Upon a River,and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters

“With tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.” ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller, Deep End of the Ocean

Buy now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound