Thursday, May 19, 2022

Q&A with Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood

 

Photo by Marie C. from Ibakefilms

 

 

Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood is the author of the new novel Constellations of Eve. She also has written the novel If I Had Two Lives, and her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Electric Lit and LitHub

 

Q: What inspired you to write Constellations of Eve?

 

A: The novel is an alchemical blend between my own experience in love--how to nurture it, fight for it, free it--and my spiritual belief in the idea of the souls meeting again and again across time and space.

 

Q: The author Binnie Kirshenbaum said of the book, “With each discrete episode chronicling Eve’s life, Rosewood unflinchingly exposes the disturbing complexities, conundrums, and fears that accompany love, marriage, and motherhood. The honesty is sharp; the truth is piercing.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think it’s an apt description of the story, and the ways we have to endure even the great love of our life.


Q: Did you know how the book would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: No, I never know where a story is going. I write one word at a time. I like to be surprised.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: Maybe that beauty and pain are intertwined--there isn’t one without the other. Actually, I hesitate to prescribe anything to the reader. Once the story departs from me and into the world, it has its own life. The reader is entitled to their own unique experience.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on an essay about familial gossips that have gained traction, influence, and power of myth. I’m examining how myths inherited from family shape our experience and interpretation of our life.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

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