Ask the Author: Jamie Lyn Smith
Answered Questions (7)
Jamie Lyn Smith
The stories in Township are linked in some of the ways that lives are linked here in rural Ohio. My hometown is Mount Vernon, Ohio. I’ve long been fascinated by the idiosyncrasies of life in Knox County, where our eclectic population includes world-renowned authors, downsized factory lineworkers, Appalachian migrants, weekenders with opulent lakehouse retreats, Amish and Mennonite crafters, professors from internationally acclaimed liberal arts institution Kenyon College, students from the evangelical Christian fundamentalist university, and farm families who have worked the same land for generations. The county seat of Mount Vernon-- my birthplace-- features a squeaky clean historic district dubbed “America’s Hometown” for its picturesque brick streets and lavish Victorian homes. There are miles and miles of sprawling subdivisions. And at the outskirts, there are blighted farmhouses, human trafficking operations, militia groups and animal hoards. The nickname "America's Hometown" and the setting serve as models for Laurelton, the fictionalized town in Township.
I wrote most of the stories in Township between 2013-2015, when I was completing my MFA at Ohio State University. I found myself writing about weird, wild, rural Ohio from the point of view of an insider (I was born and raised there) - outsider (I had just moved back after nearly 20 years in New York and Los Angeles). My stories -- the characters, the settings, the stakes-- did not have much in common with writers in my workshop, or even in the program at large. I didn't realize they were all that unique, and I'm still unconvinced they are entirely representative: rural culture is not a monolith. It is far more complex than outsiders might think. But I was grateful in that time at OSU for the support of my incredible mentors-- Erin McGraw, Lee Martin, and David Lynn-- who encouraged me to keep telling these stories, and helped me understand how they might actually matter.
I wrote most of the stories in Township between 2013-2015, when I was completing my MFA at Ohio State University. I found myself writing about weird, wild, rural Ohio from the point of view of an insider (I was born and raised there) - outsider (I had just moved back after nearly 20 years in New York and Los Angeles). My stories -- the characters, the settings, the stakes-- did not have much in common with writers in my workshop, or even in the program at large. I didn't realize they were all that unique, and I'm still unconvinced they are entirely representative: rural culture is not a monolith. It is far more complex than outsiders might think. But I was grateful in that time at OSU for the support of my incredible mentors-- Erin McGraw, Lee Martin, and David Lynn-- who encouraged me to keep telling these stories, and helped me understand how they might actually matter.
Jamie Lyn Smith
“Hometown,” a novel set in contemporary rural Ohio, follows the lives of three millenial friends across two decades.
The novel begins in 2000, when Amanda, Jesse, and Tyler are teenagers. In the first chapter (published in 2018 under the title “Lifeguards”), Jesse is a young man searching for both personal freedom and a life of his own after rejecting his parents’ offbeat Christian separatist sect. Amanda is the gifted scion of a well-respected local family, but writhes under the scrutiny of being proudly biracial in a mostly-white town. Tyler struggles to reconcile his love for Amanda with his working-class family’s racism, and must choose between a dead-end job or military enlistment and deployment to Afghanistan.
Subsequent chapters rotate point of view between characters analepses, bringing us to 2018, when recently widowed Amanda returns to Laurelton with her three Afro-ChicanX children. Her work at St. Francis Domestic Violence Shelter brings her into contact with Tyler’s transgender daughter, who fled to Jesse's house after Tyler's assault.
Jesse, now married and raising a teenage daughter of his own, is the pastor of a nondenominational evangelical church whose congregation grapples with current issues: gender, immigration, police brutality, and reproductive rights.
Tyler stirs up outrage when he loses custody of Brandi, stoking an online mob that turns ugly when a“traditional values” faith group partners with a "constitutional conservative" paramilitary gang-- the same alt-right group endorsing Tyler’s campaign for county Sheriff. Tensions escalate when Jesse's wife Litsa organizes an LGBTQIA advocacy group and is forced to mediate from the pulpit as “Hometown” hits a flashpoint.
The novel begins in 2000, when Amanda, Jesse, and Tyler are teenagers. In the first chapter (published in 2018 under the title “Lifeguards”), Jesse is a young man searching for both personal freedom and a life of his own after rejecting his parents’ offbeat Christian separatist sect. Amanda is the gifted scion of a well-respected local family, but writhes under the scrutiny of being proudly biracial in a mostly-white town. Tyler struggles to reconcile his love for Amanda with his working-class family’s racism, and must choose between a dead-end job or military enlistment and deployment to Afghanistan.
Subsequent chapters rotate point of view between characters analepses, bringing us to 2018, when recently widowed Amanda returns to Laurelton with her three Afro-ChicanX children. Her work at St. Francis Domestic Violence Shelter brings her into contact with Tyler’s transgender daughter, who fled to Jesse's house after Tyler's assault.
Jesse, now married and raising a teenage daughter of his own, is the pastor of a nondenominational evangelical church whose congregation grapples with current issues: gender, immigration, police brutality, and reproductive rights.
Tyler stirs up outrage when he loses custody of Brandi, stoking an online mob that turns ugly when a“traditional values” faith group partners with a "constitutional conservative" paramilitary gang-- the same alt-right group endorsing Tyler’s campaign for county Sheriff. Tensions escalate when Jesse's wife Litsa organizes an LGBTQIA advocacy group and is forced to mediate from the pulpit as “Hometown” hits a flashpoint.
Jamie Lyn Smith
1. Read: Read everything. Read well outside your interest. Especially, especially-- read outside your home culture. Read stories by writers from all over the world, all different social and economic classes, races and identities. Read fiction, nonfiction, poetry, science, and for God's sake read the damn newspapers. All of them, as many as you can stand.
2. Listen: Train your ear to human speech. How do people speak differently in different situations? What are pleasantries, customs, fillers, manners? Dialogue is such an important part of fiction, and reveals so much about character. Learn to listen to it, and the way people style themselves in order to present themselves to others.
3. Learn: Always be learning something. A craft, a hobby, a practice, a sport, a game-- but keep yourself on the humble at all times by challenging yourself to learn new things, things that bring you into the company of others and outside yourself.
4. Go Out: every chance you get-- every time you can hear a poet, a writer, a playwright talk about craft and read from their work, you grow as a writer. And this is also a kind of literary citizenship, because if you want people to show up for you, you gotta show up for people.
2. Listen: Train your ear to human speech. How do people speak differently in different situations? What are pleasantries, customs, fillers, manners? Dialogue is such an important part of fiction, and reveals so much about character. Learn to listen to it, and the way people style themselves in order to present themselves to others.
3. Learn: Always be learning something. A craft, a hobby, a practice, a sport, a game-- but keep yourself on the humble at all times by challenging yourself to learn new things, things that bring you into the company of others and outside yourself.
4. Go Out: every chance you get-- every time you can hear a poet, a writer, a playwright talk about craft and read from their work, you grow as a writer. And this is also a kind of literary citizenship, because if you want people to show up for you, you gotta show up for people.
Jamie Lyn Smith
Writing. Writing helps me understand the world, which is perhaps why I so often write about characters I truly despise... going into the mind, motivations and backstories of these characters helps me understand and sometimes epathize. Sometimes.
Jamie Lyn Smith
I can't get writer's block. I have so little time to write, that is just isn't a luxury I can afford. If I "can't" write, I edit. If I can't edit, I reread old chapters. If I can't focus on reading, I research. I will say that when I'm struggling to get words onto a page it helps for me to light a candle and pop in earplugs: just like a canary shuts its beak when you put a dropcloth over the page, the sensory combination of muting the real world (and making it smell like pine needles) seems to do something to draw me into the world of my own mind, where I'm free to create and unencumbered by reality.
Jamie Lyn Smith
My proofs are due Monday. There it is, in one sentence.
Jamie Lyn Smith
I would love to travel to the world of Luis Alberto Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter. Not only is it one of my favorite books, but the way that Urrea employs character to deliniate and enrich setting is like watching a master weaver create a tapestry. I was fascinated with the pre-revolutionary setting.
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