Q&A with Polly Stewart

 

 

 

Polly Stewart is the author of the new novel The Felons' Ball. She also has written the novel The Good Ones. She lives in Lexington, Virginia. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Felons' Ball, and how did you create your character Natalie?

 

A: I love writing about the Blue Ridge Mountains, and this book (like my last novel, The Good Ones) started with that setting. My family had just visited Fontana Lake in North Carolina, and I was fascinated by these lakes created by the WPA in the ‘30s that resulted in the relocation of entire towns in Appalachia. That was the model for Lake Monroe in the novel, and also led me to the theme of buried secrets.

 

Natalie was a difficult character for me to access in some ways. I don’t have biological siblings, and her role as the youngest of three sisters is so integral to who she is as a person. Once I realized how she’s torn between wanting to please her family and wanting to establish herself as an independent adult, that really unlocked her personality for me.

 

Q: The writer Rebecca Makkai said of the book, “The Felons’ Ball is full of secrets—ones that refuse to reveal themselves and ones that refuse to stay buried. It's also full of wit and empathy and characters as real as your own family members.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was so thrilled with this, not the least because Rebecca Makkai is one of my favorite writers! I’m especially happy that she found the characters so compelling. The Macreadys are very different from my family, but they became so real to me over the course of writing the book.

 

I always know that a book is on the right track when I can imagine myself hanging out with the characters, and I definitely felt that way about Natalie and her sisters and parents. They’re not always nice people necessarily, but I wouldn’t mind being invited to their parties.

 

Q: The story takes place in a Southern town--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: It’s the most important! A writer friend of mine from California told me about 10 years ago that he didn’t really hit his stride as a writer until he moved home from the East Coast to the West Coast. I was living in California at the time too, and I thought that sounded ridiculous—a real writer can write anywhere!

 

When I moved back to Virginia, I realized that he was right. There’s something about the area where I grew up that really motivates me creatively. I know the people, the landscape, the accent, and it’s very generative for me.

 

Q: Did you need to do much research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: The Macready family were moonshiners in the past, and one of the questions in the novel is whether they’re still making illegal liquor in the National Forest near their home.

 

I knew a little about moonshine because it’s still very much around in the part of Virginia where I live, but I did do some fun research on the federal raids in the ‘90s that drove the industry even more underground.

 

To me moonshine represents the general refusal to follow the rules of conventional society that we see in Appalachia, for better and for worse.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m in the midst of revising my third novel, The Glass House. It’s about a series of murders in a wilderness area in the Blue Ridge and the intertwined lives of two sisters and their daughters. I know it doesn’t sound like an upbeat topic, but I’m having a great time writing it!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Like the sisters in The Felons’ Ball, I’m a registered yoga teacher. Between kids, writing, and my day job, I don’t have time to teach right now, but it’s a huge part of my life, and I had a great time writing the yoga scenes in the novel.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Polly Stewart.