Page 4 - Marino2005

2.3, September 2005
Nebula

E.M. I'm sure some readers will recognize some echoes of these works in your
two volumes, Mattanza and The Stone Boudoir. How much did your readings
influence you and how much did the places themselves and the contact with
people inspire you? Can you tell us more about your writing technique?

T.M. Everything in Mattanza and Stone Boudoir really happened -- no invented
quotes, scenes, people, or situations. When I gave up on writing poetry, in my teens, I

thought to myself I could at least make evocative declarative sentences. So that’s what
I tried to do.

I am telling true stories, with me in the picture. I included myself because I am sure
my presence affected what happened, in some way. You can’t really be a fly on the

wall, observing but unobserved. I was part of the scene. I worked with the facts. I call
it narrative journalism. I did include my various emotional reactions: rapture, horror,

feeling like an outsider, feeling like an insider, you name it -- because I wanted to
give the experience of being there. My eyes were the readers’ eyes.

To answer your second question: the people and places my subject matter influenced
me more than other writers did. My goal was to mirror reality. That’s what helped me

pick my words. The influence of other authors is in the courage they give you to write
your own way. And of course when I read something written wonderfully, it makes

me strive for artistic mastery of my own tale.

E.M. I can see your deep involvement in your writings … In your books you also
express a serious concern about the damages that we are causing to our
environment and about the loss of one’s tradition and cultural heritage. Could
you tell us more about it?

T.M. All I can think of is my friend Cristina on Favignana, whose house faces the sea
and the tuna trap. She said that once, when she had serious surgery, and was being put

under, and she wasn’t sure she would wake up again, the image that passed before her
eyes was of the tuna boats being towed in a line to the trap so the men could count the

tuna in it.

While I was reporting for Mattanza, the fishermen and the islanders in general were in

the denial phase of grief, if you ask me. I haven’t been back there during the spring

Marino: …An Interview with Theresa Maggio 121