This year’s Ex-Libris correspondent, Anna Gerwig, sat down (on Zoom) with MAWP alum Zhanna Slor to discuss the winding path of books, writing advice, and her debut novel, At the End of the World, Turn Left, the cover of which features one of her very own oil paintings.
From my conversation with MAWP alum and author Zhanna Slor, one thing was evident: Zhanna is a book person.
After graduating from DePaul’s MAWP program in 2012, and as a book person, she continues to read and write every day. I don’t know about you, but that’s one piece of writing advice I hear all the time: read and write something every day. While this might seem simple, Slor remarks that many (even those who want to be published; even those in school for writing and publishing) don’t actually follow through. Someone may be a brilliant writer, but at the end of the day, if they don’t make time for it or push through the uncertainty, then they don’t write—they don’t have a book or story. And while I consider myself to be a book person like Zhanna, I’m encouraged to get more serious about dedicating time to read and write outside of deadlines and grades; to read and write for the sake of itself and to get behind stories again. “Be persistent,” Slor says, “and write. Write badly, write the bad books.” Get it all out there and keep going, and there just might be a story that others want to read, too.
During her time at DePaul, Dr. Michele Morano’s class on the personal essay greatly informed and shaped how Slor thought of writing itself. Slor remembers learning about the craft and its pacing from Morano, who said:
Getting into a piece of writing feels like I’m walking down a long hall, opening doors and stepping through, and then at a certain point I’m fully into the essay (or story) which is like a great room, and then the process of backing out and closing doors one at a time begins.
Ah, the process. Slor went on to tell me the winding journey of her upcoming book, At the End of the World, Turn Left, which comes out in April. In fact, the novel actually began (around 2014) as a book of personal essays from her experiences as a Russian-Jewish immigrant in the 90’s living in Riverwest, Milwaukee. This memoir-style book then turned into a novel in 2017 with similar characters and a re-imagined (and fictional) plot. Later, a crime publisher picked it up, and an editor worked with Slor to make the story into a crime novel. In total, the book’s plot alone went through 4-5 different versions.
When I asked what that process was like as the author, she answered, “it was fun to put the characters I knew into new places.” Again—Zhanna Slor is a book person. While it’s easy to become exasperated over continual edits, even defensive over your creative work, Zhanna’s perspective—“it’s fun!”—was refreshing and reminded me to be curious about writing characters and plots and all the rest. After writing her own crime novel (and reading many others), she advised writers to give it a try, take a class, because it will hone your skill. “If you can write a good crime novel,” with all its clues, mystery, and reveals along with everything else in a good book, she said, “You can probably write anything. There’s a lot of originality in crime novels.”
Later, Zhanna advised, “Enjoy the process of editing.” Again, I was reminded to be intentional about enjoying stories and the journeys it takes to write them. Along with her book, Zhanna has been published in numerous literary magazines and has experiencing working in the publishing industry as well. You can read more about Zhanna, her background, and her work here. Pro tip: if you scroll to the bottom of the page, there’s a link to a playlist described as the soundtrack to the novel.
I walked away from my conversation with Zhanna and the black Zoom screen feeling perhaps more brutally aware of the difficulties of working as an author or publisher, but also more motivated to do the thing, knowing it will likely take years and an abundance of manuscripts. Book_01, Book_02,… Book_19… I can almost see it cluttered on my desktop now, but maybe, hopefully for a lot of us, “Book_ARC” or “Book_Final” will be there, too.
At the End of the World, Turn Left explores the unique experiences of two immigrant sisters and a mystery that will change their family forever. Find out more on her website and preorder through Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, Indigo, or Amazon.
Authors Zhanna Slor and Michele Morano will be speaking at a virtual “in conversation” event at Room of One’s Own Bookstore in Madison, WI on April 23rd at 6:00 PM.
Be sure to check the blog for more information regarding this event, a DePaul event, and a book review as we near the April 20th release date.
Thanks again to Zhanna for her time and collaboration!