Fear, Safety, and “The Red Grove”: An Interview with Tessa Fontaine https://ift.tt/z14Dp3j
I was fortunate to attend the release event for Tessa Fontaine’s The Red Grove in May 2024, where the questions posed in the book were shared with those in attendance: what kind of world might we have, who might we become, if everyone were truly safe? What price would we pay for that kind of freedom? Time seemed to slow in the room, audience members appeared to lean back in their chairs, as if to plant themselves in the moment to contemplate the concepts. In this story about mothers, daughters, and sisters, Fontaine wrote about possibilities, about the dangers of being a woman in this world, and about the flawed, fierce choices we make to protect what we love.
Tessa Fontaine is the author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, a New York Times Editors’ Choice; Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and best book of the year by Southern Living, Refinery29, Amazon Editors’, and The New York Post. The Red Grove, her debut novel, was named a best book by Amazon Editors’ and People Magazine, and is currently longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Other writing can be found in Outside, The New York Times, Glamour, AGNI, The Believer, People, LitHub, Creative Nonfiction, and more. Raised outside San Francisco, Fontaine is a former professor and has taught in jails and prisons. She co-founded and teaches the Accountability Workshops with writer and pal Annie Hartnett, and lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, daughter, goofy dog, and sassy cat.
I had the pleasure of sitting with Fontaine at her neighborhood coffee shop. We found a table outside to enjoy the 76-degree, humidity-free day in August, a gift in Asheville.
In your first book, The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts, you eat fire and charm snakes. Were you afraid of performing these, or any of the other physical acts you learned? Presuming you were reluctant, how did you move past your fear?
In some ways that is what the whole book is about. How to take something we’re afraid of, either a relatively small act, like eating fire, or something huge, like losing a parent, and not let the fear paralyze us. What became true for fire eating became true for other things; I had to feel the fear and do it anyway. Over time it became less scary and more doable.
You said eating fire was a small thing?
Compared to what was happening in my life. Yes. It’s not an every Wednesday morning activity, but in the middle of the intense emotional, and spiritual feelings I had as I faced my mother’s illness, a physical act carries less power.
In your first novel, The Red Grove, life in the grove is predicated upon the safety of its members. In the last installment of the origin story of the grove, you wrote, “Tamsen [the founder] had never told anyone here that it would be entirely safe. She’d tried to make it so, … but nothing guaranteed it.” Later, the readers are let into the thoughts of another character, Gloria, who has beliefs about life in the grove: “People here choose to protect and care for one another. The belief in safety creates safety.” You, as a writer, created the grove, from its founding to Gloria’s thoughts about it. But, do you Tessa Fontaine, believe in the ideas Gloria spoke of?
There are different kinds of safety. Within a group of friends, a sense of security grows as connections deepen. If the relationship endures, a safe environment is created. Its existence makes it true, a deep friendship inherently creates a secure environment. Unfortunately, it isn’t foolproof, people screw up and betray one another. The big question in the book is, does it matter if the place is actually safe or magically safe? Some who have been harmed carry fear. Is the belief in security enough to help them?
I love the idea of a community choosing to live that way, letting the goodness of those connections and the relationships that they built make the magic of the place.
At the end of The Red Grove (no spoilers here) Luce realizes she both couldn’t and shouldn’t continue to follow the initial move she made. You didn’t let readers into Luce’s thoughts, it was only through her actions and final decisions that Luce’s strength came through. Can you speak about how you crafted that?
There are characters I fall in love with as I’m writing them. By spending time with their flaws and failures I start to understand there are pieces that need to coalesce if the character is going to overcome something or find what they’re missing.
By the end of this book, even though Luce had a major trust broken, in a really substantial way, she leaned into the love she had in the grove and began to trust the community. So readers got to see what, for me, felt like a surprise where a character’s weakness could actually transform into one of their strengths.
Both of your books have been successful. What are the differences, in terms of writing and business, between the two?
Writing The Electric Woman was deeply painful in a soul-searing way. The story shot out of me, both the sideshow and the parts about my family. It felt like I stuck my finger in that wound over and over again, then molded it until it became artful. It was painful, but not difficult, to write.
When I began the novel, I felt the opposite. I had written fiction before I wrote my memoir, but I’d spent so much time on The Electric Woman that when I began to write The Red Grove I took a beat and thought someone needs to tell me what happens, then I’ll figure out how to write about it. It took me so long to feel comfortable knowing I had to make stuff up and then make choices, which sounds so obvious.
To me, writing a novel feels like baking a many, many-layered cake. The first layers are a rough outline of the story and characters. Go back and layer more about characters. Go back, then layer stuff about setting and another layer about this particular sort of mystery thread that showed up. So it’s layer after layer after layer and I never knew that the early versions were going to look so ugly and be incomprehensible. But then it becomes a novel and somehow, it’s seamless.
As for the public-facing side, I did a lot of touring for The Red Grove, but I actually did more for The Electric Woman, which came out in 2018. Oftentimes with a first book there’s lots of buzz, more energy from the publisher. Since it was my first book, I was more nervous and my expectations were higher. In the end, the experience was thrilling. Also, it came out pre-COVID.
The pandemic dramatically changed how and where publishers spent their money. Marketing styles and publicity standards needed to pivot to be effective. Less was spent on in-person events, because fewer people attend them; this is still true. There’s more behind-the-scenes and online activity that many might not be aware of. Publishers send books to online influencers who post about them. This evolution feels disconnected at times. When not physically interacting with readers, it doesn’t have the same feel to it.
This time around I‘m so grateful to have a different perspective. However well the book does and whatever reception it receives is independent from my job as a writer. I didn’t feel that for the first book, it felt more entangled. I was more impacted by the outside reception. This time I’m feeling more distance in a way that’s really helpful. Probably healthy, right?
Punch Bucket Lit is sponsoring Asheville’s first literary festival which will be held at various venues around town, including the Diana Wortham Center, on September 20-21. You’re a member of the board and the host of the keynote event, where you’ll be in discussion with bestselling author Lauren Groff, on Saturday night. What did it take to go from the theoretical idea to the upcoming event?
Rachel Hansen is the Director of Punch Bucket Lit and she, along with Alex McWalters, has done an incredible amount of work bringing the festival to light. They committed to the idea knowing it would be a huge amount of work to make it happen. Next, they gambled that tickets would sell when they started booking event spaces. After that, they reached out to writers which has led to a fabulous lineup of authors with interesting workshops and panels, and a book fair with lots of great presses and journals. I think it’s going to be an annual festival that will bring people here.
That would be amazing.
Right? How cool to have literary tourism in addition to beer tourism.
And your discussion with Lauren Groff …
Lauren Groff is my literary hero and one of our greatest living writers. She’s a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York Times bestselling author of five novels among many, many other accolades. Additionally, she owns a bookstore in Florida which allows her to enact her literacy activism by selling, supporting, and promoting banned books in Florida.
As for our discussion, I’ve read all of her books, but I’m rereading some now. Also, I pulled up podcasts and interviews to listen to other discussions she’s had. Not everyone in the audience at the Asheville Literary Festival is going to be as familiar with her as I am, so I’ll start a bit general. She’s interviewed so much, I’d like to ask questions that are interesting for her, not something she said over and over again. I’m really excited to meet her. We’ve exchanged messages before, but never met in person. I’m going to do my best not to fan girl out.
I know many Ashevillians are looking forward to the Literary Festival, including me. Thank you for making time to speak with me today.
FICTION The Red Grove
By Tessa Fontaine
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published May 14, 2024
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