by Tana Mfuni
When novelist Angela Flournoy steps up to the microphone in the art-lined gallery of La Maison d'Art, anticipation fills the air. You can hear the audience lean in to listen to her.
The National Book Award finalist read selections from her breakout novel, The Turner House, on November 8 as part of the reading series for CNR’s MFA program in creative writing. During the event, Flournoy not only shared her work, but also gave candid advice to the program’s emerging writers.
“One thing I wish I could tell all of my MFA students, especially the ones here in New York, is that if you are doing anything else more than you are writing—you’re [messing] up,” said Flournoy. The writer, who has taught at some of the nation’s most elite writing programs, observed that the time-thieving flashy lights of city life could be a young writer’s kryptonite.
“They’re squeezing in their writing last, and they’re doing all these other things first,” said Flournoy. “You just have to write first,” the author said, bluntly throwing down the gauntlet to CNR students. “Unless you don’t want a career in writing.”
Flournoy knows of what she speaks. As a young writer, she spent more than four years hunkered down, tucked away in places like Iowa, cobbling together The Turner House on her apartment floor. The sacrifice was well worth it. Flournoy’s novel, telling the transgenerational story of the Detroit-based Turner family during the 2008 housing crash, debuted to a chorus of applauding critics, many of whom were on their feet.
Awards showered soon after, catapulting Flournoy into literary stardom complete with jet setting to conferences in Brisbane, New York Magazine photo shoots, and calls from HBO and Issa Rae to help develop a new series. However, more than Flournoy’s new rockstar status, students valued hearing the author’s hard-won kernels about crafting realistic plotlines and three-dimensional characters.
Flournoy spoke about her decision to resist a happily-ever-after ending to The Turner House, something that has drawn both praise and ire from her fans and critics.
“There were certain things that I knew would not be resolved in the pages of the book. Some people have had beef with me because of that,” said Flournoy. The writer encouraged students to employ their writer’s slight-of-hand to play with shifting plot objectives even if their audience is resistant.
For second-year MFA student Anila Zaidi, Flournoy’s advice was a revelation.
The National Book Award finalist read selections from her breakout novel, The Turner House, on November 8 as part of the reading series for CNR’s MFA program in creative writing. During the event, Flournoy not only shared her work, but also gave candid advice to the program’s emerging writers.
“One thing I wish I could tell all of my MFA students, especially the ones here in New York, is that if you are doing anything else more than you are writing—you’re [messing] up,” said Flournoy. The writer, who has taught at some of the nation’s most elite writing programs, observed that the time-thieving flashy lights of city life could be a young writer’s kryptonite.
“They’re squeezing in their writing last, and they’re doing all these other things first,” said Flournoy. “You just have to write first,” the author said, bluntly throwing down the gauntlet to CNR students. “Unless you don’t want a career in writing.”
Flournoy knows of what she speaks. As a young writer, she spent more than four years hunkered down, tucked away in places like Iowa, cobbling together The Turner House on her apartment floor. The sacrifice was well worth it. Flournoy’s novel, telling the transgenerational story of the Detroit-based Turner family during the 2008 housing crash, debuted to a chorus of applauding critics, many of whom were on their feet.
Awards showered soon after, catapulting Flournoy into literary stardom complete with jet setting to conferences in Brisbane, New York Magazine photo shoots, and calls from HBO and Issa Rae to help develop a new series. However, more than Flournoy’s new rockstar status, students valued hearing the author’s hard-won kernels about crafting realistic plotlines and three-dimensional characters.
Flournoy spoke about her decision to resist a happily-ever-after ending to The Turner House, something that has drawn both praise and ire from her fans and critics.
“There were certain things that I knew would not be resolved in the pages of the book. Some people have had beef with me because of that,” said Flournoy. The writer encouraged students to employ their writer’s slight-of-hand to play with shifting plot objectives even if their audience is resistant.
For second-year MFA student Anila Zaidi, Flournoy’s advice was a revelation.
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