Ten Terrifying Questions with Hayley Scrivenor

Hayley Scrivenor is a former Director of Wollongong Writers Festival. Originally from a small country town, Hayley now lives and writes on Dharawal country and has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong on the south coast of New South Wales. Dirt Town (our Book of the Month for June!) is her first novel. An earlier version of the book was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize and won the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award.

Today, Hayley Scrivenor is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …

Hayley Scrivenor

1. To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I was born in Wagga Wagga, in New South Wales. We moved around a lot when I was kid because my dad was in the army, but when my parents split up, I moved with my mum to a small country town near Wagga called The Rock. We stayed there for all of primary school. When I was due to start high school, we moved to Wollongong. I’ve done some stints overseas – in France, and China – but I did all of my university study, including a PhD in Creative Writing, in Wollongong. I feel very lucky to live on Dharawal country.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

Honestly? At twelve, I most wanted to be skinny. That makes me so sad, now, to realise that is what I would have wished for above all else. At eighteen I dreamed of a job that involved languages, maybe working for the UN (I may have been overestimating my language abilities a teensy bit, I can see in hindsight!). And at thirty I wanted to be a published novelist. I’ll be thirty-two when my first book comes out, so I think my dreams have improved, for sure.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?

That there was a single answer to things. I used to feel very weak-willed because I invariably found myself swayed by the story in front of me. Now I value that ability to see the many sides of something.

4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?

Firstly, I’m glad this isn’t worded as a question of degree – I honestly couldn’t tell you what has most influenced my writing, because it feels like it changes from day to day, hour to hour. But the following works are ones I’ve been thinking about this week:

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt was a book I read over and over again. It was the novel that kept me company as I tried to figure out character, it helped me have good sentences in my ears, as the poet Jane Kenyon would say. I know The Secret History is most people’s favourite Tartt book, but The Little Friend just fell open in front of me at the right time.

Before I knew I ever wanted to write, the Billy Joel song ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ taught me that the specifics matter. You don’t choose your influences, I think.

Melissa Lucashenko’s ‘Dreamers’ is my favourite short story of all time. It’s a masterclass in structure. Usually, we’re told that a satisfying plot is one where we see the characters change. What is so truly great about ‘Dreamers’ is that by the end of the story you are the one that has changed – the character is in the same position as they were at the beginning, but your knowledge of them has altered what you want to happen. It’s pure magic and it taught me something vital about plot.

5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a novel?

I can honestly say I was built for the novel form. As an aspiring writer, for a long time I worried that working on novel just meant that I would find out I couldn’t write more slowly than if I were to work on short stories instead. But I followed the little voice that told me a novel was what I wanted to do. Over time, I learned that a novel becomes a vessel that expands to fit everything it needs.

6. Please tell us about your latest novel!

It’s the hottest November on record in a small country town in New South Wales when Esther Bianchi doesn’t make it home from school. Esther’s best friend, Ronnie, is determined to find Esther and bring her home. Their friend, Lewis, saw something on the day Esther went missing that he can’t speak about because it would mean revealing his deepest secret. Constance, the mother of the missing girl, can feel her life falling apart around her. When Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels, a Sydney cop who is reeling from a relationship breakdown, comes looking for the missing girl, what she learns will reopen old wounds and set new events in motion.

The book is called Dirt Town because that is what the kids of Durton call the place where they live. It might not sound it, but it’s an affectionate term. Ultimately, it’s the story of what the loss of a young girl does to a whole community, and my goal is that by the end we care that Esther is gone.

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

That we are not alone in our suffering, or in our joy.

8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?

Non-fiction writers, particular those who write about the big structures in life through the lens of their own experience. I simply couldn’t do what they do. I’m a voracious reader of non-fiction. Recently I read and loved Eda Gunaydin’s Root & Branch, I love Sarah Krasnostein, Rick Morton, Chloe Hooper. I simply don’t know how they do it. I couldn’t get by without the plausible deniability fiction offers me.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

I want to write novels for the rest of my life. I want to continue to write sentences that ring true, that satisfy some inner criteria that is always being refined.

10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Write down the bits from stories and articles and novels that speak to you. Try to explain why they are good, drill down to see what is actually happening at the level of the sentence, the word. Something happens to your own writing if you do that enough, something good.

Thank you for playing!

—Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor (Pan Macmillan Australia) is out now. Limited signed copies are available while stocks last!

Dirt Town

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Hayley Scrivenor

My best friend wore her name, Esther, like a queen wearing her crown at a jaunty angle. We were twelve years old when she went missing.

On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together. Esther never makes it home. Ronnie's going to find her, she has a plan. Lewis will help. Their friend can't be gone, Ronnie won't believe it. Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels can believe it, she has seen what people are capable of...

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