It is with great pleasure that I present this interview with Sion Dayson, a talented and extremely interesting young author who I first met in a Paris writers' group several years ago. Her new novel, As A River, has just been released. Sion will celebrate the book launch in Paris at the Red Wheelbarrow bookstore on September 12th.
Sion Dayson was born in New York City, grew up in North Carolina, and earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Utne Reader, The Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, the anthology Strangers in Paris, and many other venues. Her writings often focus on travel, living abroad, and her literary hero, James Baldwin. She has won grants and residencies from The Kerouac House, Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the Stone Court Writer-in-Residence Program. She also got the chance to spend a month writing in Edith Wharton’s house, The Mount. Her popular blog paris (im)perfect explored the City of Light’s less glamorous side. After a decade in Paris, she now resides in Valencia, Spain. As a River is her first novel.
Sion Dayson on As A River,
a Paris Writers News Interview
LZ: Sion Dayson, can you pinpoint the moment when you decided to be a writer?
SD: There was no exact moment, probably because the possibility was always in the air. My mother was a librarian for over 45 years. As you can imagine, the house was filled to the brim with books. She also took us to lots of foreign and independent films and I adored American Movie Classics (I wanted to be a host on the TV channel!). I think being immersed in both books and film from an early age led to a love of storytelling so it wasn’t a huge leap to start writing. Instead of going outside to play like other kids, I would stay inside and type stories on my mom’s electric typewriter. Now it’s a laptop.
How did you hone your craft?
There’s no shortcut. Lots of reading and writing. I took classes, which were helpful. I also did a low-residency MFA. I like the low-residency structure because it allows you to work one-on-one with a mentor – the more independent model (as opposed to weekly workshops) worked well for me. But a program isn’t necessary to write. It’s the hours you spend trying to do the work where the craft gets honed.
What inspired you to write As A River?
I never start with a grand idea or theme in mind. All of my writing is sparked by something small – a stray line of dialogue, an image, a scent.
The genesis story behind the book is kind of funny. I was walking through Harlem one day and overheard some teenage girls gossiping. One said: “she’s pregnant and never even had sex.” Obviously my ears perked right up!
I went home and immediately wrote a scene inspired by that line. What came out featured a young girl named Esse in a small town in Georgia in an era before I was born. But then I got interested in her daughter, Ceiley. What would it be like to grow up with a mother who claims you were miraculously conceived?
Then a stranger came to town, a handsome man in his thirties with something troubling him from his past. I felt a lot of energy when Greer entered the picture and I knew I wanted to know more about him. That meant getting to know his mother Elizabeth and why she was so sad. And Caroline, his first love. And…you can see the cast of characters kept expanding.
Writing is a craft, but is also somewhat of a mystery to me, too. I stay open to what’s unfolding on the page and follow where it leads. Eventually it becomes more clear what I’m exploring, but even then it can be difficult to articulate. The novel deals with the dangers of silence, the question of shame, our struggles to understand each other, and our notions of identity and belonging. It’s also about the stories we tell ourselves and how that affects the way we move through the world.
Whose story is it?
For the most part, it’s Greer’s story. The story of his return to care for his dying mother – and confront the ghosts from his past. As the book advances, secrets are uncovered and we learn what haunts him.
But as I mention above, there is a larger cast of characters. Relationships, of all kinds, shape our lives. That is life.
So while I mostly stayed in close third person to Greer, there are moments when the narrative breaks out and other characters demand a say. Everyone has a story.
Was there a point in creating this work when you thought: I can’t go on?
I think that about every piece of writing! But yes, a novel is especially daunting. When I began, I thought it was just a short story, but then it just kept growing. It felt almost paralyzing to start thinking of it as a novel. A writing mentor had some sage advice: just call it a “thing.” Ha! It did take some pressure off while I was figuring out the larger project.
I don’t write with a plan in mind. There’s never an outline and I definitely don’t know where things are heading. I also write pieces in disparate, non-linear fragments. A major part of my work is figuring out how the pieces go together. It can be a frustrating process and there are moments when abandoning the project does feel tempting. But it’s also a thrill when things start connecting. I’m so glad I followed through.
You’ve lived in France, in Spain, in the USA. Where do you call home? - and why?
Right now I call Valencia home. For the simple fact that it’s where I actually live, of course, but on a more important level, it’s also because I truly feel great here. My decade in Paris was a gift and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But parts of myself were also suppressed there and I felt somewhat out of step. Since moving to Spain, I feel like I’m blossoming again and am more comfortable in my own skin. Can home be where you feel most like yourself?
When I go back to the USA, I also say “I’m going home.” It’s where I was born and raised. There’s no discounting how deeply our origins shape us.
But yes, this concept of home is not as straightforward as it sounds. I think home is also something we carry within us. The last line in my book’s acknowledgments reads: “home is in the people we love."
What advice can you share with young novelists?
Novels are big, messy things. It’s impossible to tackle such a huge project all at once. My best advice is to just keep chipping away at it, one sentence, one paragraph, one scene at a time.
What are you working on now?
A lot of promotion for the book! I’m doing wonderful interviews like this. (Thank you!) Talking on podcasts, taking over Instagram accounts. Soon, I leave for a mini-tour with events in Paris, New York, Philadelphia, and Massachussetts.
Publication of this novel was a long day coming. I wrote the first line of As a River in 2005! So I’m excited to finally help it fly out into the world now.
But when this promotional phase starts quieting down, I might return to a nonfiction project that I started a few years ago about my decade in Paris. I wrote a blog for awhile, paris (im)perfect, that would serve as a good springboard for a longer narrative project. Only the future will tell, though. I’m looking forward to seeing where my curiosity takes me.
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About the author: Sion Dayson was born in New York City, grew up in North Carolina, and earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Utne Reader, The Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, the anthology Strangers in Paris, and many other venues. Her writings often focus on travel, living abroad, and her literary hero, James Baldwin. She has won grants and residencies from The Kerouac House, Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the Stone Court Writer-in-Residence Program. She also got the chance to spend a month writing in Edith Wharton’s house, The Mount. Her popular blog paris (im)perfect explored the City of Light’s less glamorous side. After a decade in Paris, she now resides in Valencia, Spain. As a River is her first novel.
Sion will be celebrating her book’s launch at The Red Wheelbarrow in Paris on September 12 at 7 pm.
Feel free to check out her website for a full list of events. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. She also writes a very occasional newsletter, Sion’s Sparkle Desk.
