March 2017 saw Rain Mountain Press publish Deborah Clearman's debut story collection, Concepción and the Baby Brokers—and other stories out of Guatemala. Deborah was kind enough to take some time to answer these mini-interview questions.
EWN: Your short story collection, Concepción and the Baby Brokers—and other stories out of Guatemala, was published in 2017. What story within the collection had the earliest publication history outside of being in the collection, and what was that history?
Deborah: “The Race” was the first story in the collection that I wrote and the first to be published, in Beloit Fiction Journal in the spring of 2011. Three other stories in the collection were subsequently published in literary magazines. The remaining five I held back to publish as part of the collection.
EWN: How did the publication of this particular collection come about? Were you solicited by the publisher, win a contest, agent submission, etc.?
Deborah: I was introduced to the publisher by another writer and I was delighted by her enthusiasm for the project. My publisher is very passionate about the books she takes on.
EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as an author? Primary form to work with, or something you write when an idea hits, or …?
Deborah: This collection grew very organically out of my experiences of living in Guatemala while writing my first novel, Todos Santos, published in 2010. I return every year to my small house in Guatemala and I’ve heard many stories. I watched the town of Todos Santos grow from an isolated Mayan village, cut off from the world by mountains, into the globally interconnected 21st century. I’ve developed deep emotional ties to people there and I wanted to tell their stories through their eyes. I became passionate about some terrible and complex inequities plaguing Guatemalan society, to which Americans unknowingly contribute. The collection begins with three linked stories that focus, through fiction, on the phenomenon of the third-world baby farm—babies being stolen and sold and young women being paid to breed babies, to fill the incredible demand in the US for adoptable children.
Actions by and interactions with the United States and its people have affected Guatemala throughout its history. Yet the average American knows next to nothing about Guatemala. Readers of my novel Todos Santos often tell me how their preconceptions have been changed by the book. One wrote, "Deborah Clearman's novel is an eye-opener for readers like me who come to it with little more than a generic picture of Guatemala in mind: a country with beautiful beaches, widespread poverty, recent political violence, and little hope that things will get better." Another said, "After reading what Todos Santos has to say about the country's violent history, its endemic corruption, its poverty and disease, its superstition and xenophobia, the kidnapping . . . do we want to cross Guatemala off our list . . .? No . . . " Because the Guatemalan characters have come alive for my readers.
These characters include a desperate wet nurse who steals the baby in her care for sale in the international adoption market. A young man with a future returns to his native village to ride in a disastrous horse race. A Guatemalan immigrant in Washington DC learns more than English from a public library volunteer. A teenage girl tries to trap her professor into marriage. I aspire to change ignorance into empathy. When readers know more about the migrants on the street corner looking for work, they ail make better decisions about immigration reform. Americans need to know what the drug trade has done to Guatemala. When considering a foreign adoption, they need to know about the baby farms. The countries change--Cambodia, Vietnam, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nepal--but the human trafficking goes on.
The short story form has allowed me to follow my passions from character to character. They are human stories that touch readers with their familiar emotions and dilemmas even though the setting is foreign. They are stories of love and struggle, between men and women, husbands and wives, parents and children, and among members of a close-knit community. The stories flowed out at the same time I was working on a novel. When I finished the last story, “Saints and Sinners,” I knew I had a collection.
EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?
Deborah: I read fiction continuously, every day. I divide my reading between novels and short stories and I find both forms nourishing in different ways.
EWN: How will you be celebrating National Short Story Month this May?
Deborah: Reading Emerging Writers Network and discovering new short story collections to add to my reading list.
EWN: Thank you very much for your time!
Deborah: Thank you for honoring short stories!
Deborah Clearman studied art history and fine arts at Bryn Mawr College and pursued a career in painting. Represented by First Street Gallery in New York City, her paintings and prints have been widely exhibited in galleries and museums. She wrote and illustrated The Goose’s Tale for children. Todos Santos, her first novel, came out in 2010 from Black Lawrence Press. Her short story collection, Concepción and the Baby Brokers—and other stories out of Guatemala was published in 2017.
For eight years Deborah was Program Director for NY Writers Coalition, a nonprofit organization that offers free writing workshops to underserved communities throughout New York City. Deborah has led creative writing workshops in such nontraditional venues as senior centers, public housing projects, adult basic education programs, and prisons. Since 2011 she has led an ongoing weekly writing workshop for women in jail on Rikers Island. A member of PEN, she serves on the Prison Writing Committee.
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