Mattea Kramer
Author Interview - Mattea Kramer
Author of The Untended
Casch Abbey is a waitress, single mom, and recreational boxer who falls in love twice: first with a veteran who secretly grows pot on a rich man’s land in Vermont’s Green Mountains, and then with a painkiller that eases her long-buried pain. After her foot is crushed under the wheel of a station wagon, Casch loses her waitressing gig and goes broke—and the meds for her foot are her only source of relief. But when the drug is recalled due to outcries of widespread addiction, Casch’s dependence imperils her already tenuous life, as cravings lead her into her small town’s simmering netherworld. Intimate and exhilarating, The Untended will upend your every assumption about who is a hero and who is worthy of love.
Author Interview - Mattea Kramer
Author I draw inspiration from:
Viet Than Nguyen and his masterpiece The Sympathizer about the American war in Vietnam. I heard Nguyen speak a couple years ago and he described editing The Sympathizer backwards one sentence at a time. That’s how you make a book that good! There are a few writers whose writing *and* dedication to process inspire me constantly – in addition to Nguyen, Jezmyn Ward, Jennifer Egan, and Lauren Groff are all on this list.
Author Interview - Mattea Kramer | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
In winter: in front of my wood stove. And in summer: in my hammock!
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Selin from Elif Batuman’s brilliant novel The Idiot – or the nameless protagonist in Lauren Groff’s exquisite novel The Vaster Wilds. In the former case, I know there would be brilliant dry humor; in the latter, we could spring free from that elevator and survive through nothing more than the rawest will to live.
Author Interview - Mattea Kramer | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I was in the first grade. We wrote and illustrated our own stories, complete with construction paper covers and stapled bindings. It was utter magic, and I was hooked from that moment.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
My personal favorite is the paperback. I love books as physical objects! I like hardcovers as well, but they’re heavy to hold and of course more expensive to acquire. I do also love the accessibility of ebooks; the last time I was traveling, I had a good book on my phone and loved reading while waiting in line at the airport without needing to keep taking out a book or tablet. Meanwhile I’m so delighted that audiobooks have become wildly popular. They’re not my personal favorite, but the more ways for more people to read, the better! I have a dear friend who is blind and the proliferation of audiobooks is a huge gift for her.
The last book I read:
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein. I loved it. Klein takes a big problem in her own life – that is, being constantly confused with Naomi Wolf – and turns that problem into a brilliant and entertaining synthesis of many disparate and urgent topics in our world today. Keep up your awesome work, Naomi Klein.
Author Interview - Mattea Kramer | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Both. If I’m struggling to get an idea into prose, I start by getting messy with a pen and paper – literally messy. I’ll scribble down a question, and I often pose that as a question to inspiration itself, as opposed to a question to myself – basically, I open myself up to the unexpected process of creativity. I’ll scrawl stream-of-consciousness notes and ideas, and even my own self-critical thoughts as they arise. (This is a technique I first learned in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – a book that changed my life and that I cannot recommend highly enough.) This process of scrawling messy notes and thoughts allows me to see what I’m working with, including both the substance of the idea, as well as the blocks I’m experiencing. Sometimes I then write down encouragement to myself, and/or I give myself a tiny assignment: just write one paragraph, or write three bullet points. And then I do. And once I’m feeling the inspiration flowing, that’s when I switch to the computer.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Harriet the Spy, from the eponymous book by Louise Fitzhugh. Inside my adult self today lives the girl who fell in love with Harriet, her notebook, and her game called “Town” – which inspired many knockoff games in my young life. I feel like she and I would be best friends because we would dare each other to pursue ever greater hijinx in our parallel quests to write everything down.
Author Interview - Mattea Kramer | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
If I weren’t a writer I’d be dead! But in addition to being a writer I’m a researcher, policy analyst, and advocate for a more just and compassionate world. And I think writing fiction is related to all of that, because so much of fiction is empathy: feeling what it’s like to be someone else.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
The seventies. The bright patterns, polyester rompers, feathered hair, and big glasses.
Place I’d most like to travel:
The Azores. I’d like to experience some mineral hot springs on an archipelago in the Atlantic. That sounds pretty cool.
My signature drink:
The dirty gin martini, which was also favored by my dad and my grandmother, who both live on in my memory.
Favorite artist:
Henri Matisse and my friend Jenny Katz, who is a designer, writer, and singer/songwriter/drummer, and who on any given day is making a piece of art that isn’t just cool unto itself but also expands what’s possible in the realm of unfettered creativity.
Number one on my bucket list:
Publishing The Untended on May 6th!
Anything else you'd like to add:
For several reasons, I love the name Hasty Book List.
Find more from the author:
About Mattea Kramer:
Author Interview - Mattea Kramer
Mattea Kramer is a writer and researcher who has been published in The Nation and has appeared on MSNBC. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
