An interview with Ms Candelaria

  What was your most awkward moment teaching a class at St Paul's?
I once misspelled the word 'sentence' on the dry erase board by shortening it, accidentally, to 'sence'.  I'm sure there have been much greater faux pas that I have forgotten, but my subconscious is being generous with me now, and I'll embrace this.

What were your highs and lows of SPS?
Highs: Pastries, the EP in creative writing, trip to Naples, visit to the Ashmolean, one-on-one meetings about personal statements for US universities, SAT tutoring sessions, the balloon debate, and getting to know pupils and members of the faculty.
Lows: I failed to adequately prepare myself for how lonely the first several months in a new country would be!

 Did you enjoy it here?
The past couple of months have been lovely.  I've made great  friends in unexpected places (in a coffee shop, at an improv drop-in, through a friend of a friend).  Lately, I've been doing a lot of what I call 'making friends in the wild', which involves becoming close to people without the help of any of the tried and true social networks: school, university, the workplace, or a pre-existing friend group.  I never would have done this in New York, but I've found that the experience of getting close to strangers in almost no time at all is something that is enriching.  It takes time to carve out a life in a new city, but I'm beginning to enjoy the one I have created.

What do you intend on doing after SPS?

Taking a giant plunge: I’m going to be a novelist and freelance SAT tutor. This seems to be a suitable occupation for someone who likes words and struggles with mornings.

Do you think you could write about your experience teaching pupils? 
Definitely. I tend to think I write from experience. I’m currently working on a series of vignettes narrated by a character who gives the world’s worst advice. The project is tentatively called 'This is How You Ruin Everything.' There are going to be sections devoted to teaching English lessons.  

Would you consider including watching movies in any of your lessons?
I’d love to show the TED talks by Elif Shafak and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. There isn’t a living writer in the world who hasn’t been asked the question, “Why do you write?”. I’ve found that most of the responses to this question (my own included) are the products of mythologizing personal histories and romanticizing the creative process. Elif Shafak and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie don’t settle for the simple answers. Instead, when they talk about what it means to write fiction, they convey the power that each story can have, and the role these stories play in shaping our ability to understand others. 

How did you enjoy the Naples trip? 

Very much. Gelato and the Mediterranean sun were among the highlights, of course, and I was pleased to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum, but some of the most memorable moments were conversations I had with pupils on the plane and as we walked to and from the flags in Sorrento.

How were you inspired to take up English?

My mother teaches English, and I didn’t have friends as a child, so I spent my time reading novels and the dictionary instead.  

What were your favourite books as a child?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Series of Unfortunate Events, My Mama Had a Dancing Heart, Robinson Crusoe. I read Holes aloud to my brother when I was eleven, so that novel also has a special place in my heart.

(Photo: Ms Candelaria with her mum and brother)

How did you first get into creative writing? 
At an early age, my mother encouraged me to become a storyteller. When I came home from kindergarten, there was the expectation that I would have at least one interesting anecdote to recount; this is what I was asked to do every weekday afternoon. In that way, classmates and teachers were transformed into characters, and minor disappointments and humiliations were turned into major tragedies. Coupled with this expectation of storytelling was the expectation that I would write. When I was six, my mother made the rule that I would write at least one  poem a day. I read and wrote avidly until I was thirteen, when my angsty poetry was featured in a high school showcase. I somehow decided to give up writing for a stretch of four years. Then, at seventeen, I told an English teacher that I wanted to be “a comedian or something,” and she suggested that I might want to become a novelist instead. That’s when I decided that I wanted to write books.

Are you going to be writing any books? 

Christ, I hope so. I wouldn’t know what else to do with my life. 

Did any of the stories we wrote give you ideas for new stories? 
No, but one story did make me incredibly jealous. I recite its opening line every time I am given the chance.

Do you think that studying creative writing as if it’s a science can kill its creativity? 
Oh certainly, but the trouble with this question is the implication that studying and creativity should be mutually exclusive. The danger you’re describing has to do with allowing education to become lacklustre and rote. That’s not a good thing in the humanities or the sciences.  Every discipline should be studied creatively. In fact, good studying should promote creative thinking. To study creative writing well, one must learn the rules without bowing down to them. One must remain a flexible, eager thinker. I don’t have the background to speak about this from a scientific perspective, but I believe that in order for progress to be made in any field, there must be room for exploration, experimentation, a bit of hope, and a bit of vision.

What kind of stories are you best at writing?

Two writing mentors have told me that I specialize in writing stories about “bad girls,” usually female characters in their teens and twenties who don’t quite fit in and are searching for ways to rebel.  A writing mentor once promised me that this would not last forever; he doesn’t think I have been exiled to spend my writing career exploring the lives of these haunted, brainy women-children, but for now, I quite like them.

What book gives you the most inspiration?
In equal measure, Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer and Self-Help by Lorrie Moore. I love 'The Cheater’s Guide to Love' by Junot Diaz. I re-read that story every time I feel I have forgotten how prose should work.

What’s your favourite thing to write about?

The experience of feeling like an outsider. I like to draw attention to sources of discomfort to show that these experiences are real, powerful, and sometimes, funny.

What’s the favourite character you’ve written about/created?

When I was 19, I wrote a story called 'To Each His Own Odyssey' about a little boy named Oliver Mitch Kelly.  Oli is an eight-year-old boy from a sleep town in Massachusetts, but because I spent so many months trying to find his voice, I understand what that life might be like.  Writing fiction gave me the change to inhabit Oliver's world, to be someone who was at once a nihilistic undergraduate binging on literature and a lonely child searching for a dinosaur museum thousands of miles from his home.

One of Madeleine Witt's illustrations for 'To Each His Own Odyssey'

 
Would you like to become a famous author? 
In a dream world, I’d like to produce at least one work of fiction that is very well known. I don’t want fame for fame’s sake, and most writers, after all, do not become very famous. I do hope to write fiction that is worth reading.

Have you won any writing competitions? 
When I was at Yale, I won The Wallace Prize in fiction and another prize for a literary magazine put together by students at Oxford and Cambridge. This feels like a lifetime ago. When I was a child, I won a few poetry and short story competitions. What I remember most is winning a prize for creating a motto for an anti-smoking campaign when I was seven: “Be cool, not a fool. Don’t smoke.”

Are the movies usually better than the books? 
I have a seven-minute attention span (I’ve timed it), so I’m afraid I need to be sedated to make it through full-length films. For this reason, I prefer books.

How many books have you written? 
One, but I’ve only allowed one person to read it.

What differences do you like/hate between England and America? 
In New York, my social obligations give my life more structure than I want, and in London, I have been able to slip away for days before anyone noticed. In England, I wish there were more ketchup and strip bacon, and when I go back to America, I’m sure I’ll discover something I wish could be more like London. People are impossible to please.

What brought you to SPS/London? 
I’d always had a vague fantasy about spending my early twenties alone in a city with hundreds of books and time to write. As an undergraduate, I worked as an SAT tutor and mentored high school debate teams. A friend suggested that I apply to the Colet Fellowship, and it seemed like a good fit.

What’s your favourite football team? 
I’m not a sports fan; I couldn’t name more than two or three football teams if my life depended on it. My brain seems to have been wired in a way that makes it impossible for me to comprehend what bodies are supposed to be doing when it comes to athletic activity. Whenever I find myself in a situation where I have no choice but to attend a sporting event, I bring a novel and notebook to keep myself busy. 

Where are you from in America? 
New York. Technically the city, but realistically, a very suburban enclave with tree-lined streets and limited access to public transportation. (We call it New York City’s forgotten borough.)

Would you rather live forever or get £1,000,000,000? 
Living forever sounds dreadful. I don’t particularly want £1,000,000,000, but I’d happily take it, and of course, I’d be more than willing to pay taxes.  

Many thanks to the 4th form for supplying the questions.