Wales Literature Exchange interviewed our Bookcase author Carys Davies about her writing and her influences.

1. What first inspired you to be an author and where do your ideas come from?

I was a journalist until my early thirties, when I began to realise that fiction is a better way at getting at the truth.

They come from the murk of things I’ve seen, or heard about, or felt, or remembered, or read, or dreamed, or imagined; they come from sentences I never expected to write; from making unexpected connections; from letting my subconscious do its work; from making myself be patient, and waiting until any or all of those things lead me stumbling into a complicated character I love, in a place and situation which feels full possibility.

2. How would you describe your writing?

Spare and disciplined with a vein of lyricism and humour.

3. Which authors have influenced you the most?

Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Penelope Fitzgerald.

4. In your opinion what are the biggest challenges that writers face today – and do you think these challenges have changed since you started writing?

I think the challenge is the same – making a living while protecting the huge amount of time needed to write anything good.

5. What are the hardest and easiest parts of being a writer?

For me, the easiest part is editing: however rough the story still might be when I finally get the elusive thing down on the page, if I can feel its power, then I know that the hammering and shaping that comes next is within my grasp.

The hardest part is beginning something new after I’ve finished a story or a novel. I forget how chaotic and difficult the beginning is, and always expect to know what I’m doing and how to do it, and that’s never the case at the start.

6. Which writer from Wales would you recommend to readers and why?

Cynan Jones, for the beauty and precision of his writing and his narrative control in stories which exert a tense, visceral power.

The Mission House was selected to the Wales Literature Exchange 2020 Bookcase, our annual selection of recent Welsh literary works which we recommend for translation.

Watch Carys read from The Mission House here!