Laura Vogt is the author of the new novel In the Great Quiet. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Q: How much was In the Great Quiet based on your own family
stories, and what did you see as the right balance between fiction and history?
A: Minnie, the main character of In the Great Quiet, was
inspired by my ancestor, my great-great-grandmother. She’s woven together from
both family stories and historical research. I read hundreds of interviews and
journals of homesteading women from the 1890s frontier.
The balance was very instinctual: I gathered information,
and Minnie boldly came to life. Minnie, as a character, was insistent. I wanted
to honor the legacy of my ancestor but was even more interested in chasing down
a story I wanted to read, in building a character that would be inspiring,
relatable, and historically accurate.
I’m passionate about rewriting the history of the everyday
woman. I’m fascinated by what life would have been like for an ordinary,
everyday mom on the 1893 Oklahoma frontier. What life may have been like for an
“ordinary” woman in 1593 Ireland. I’m deeply curious and committed to
uncovering untold stories, overlooked women, those lost to time.
I remember the moment I first heard of my ancestor Minnie
Hoopes. Over a decade ago my grandmother Verla and I were chatting in her
sitting room, while she shared old family stories.
She told me of her grandmother, and I immediately saw
Minnie: A vivid, emotionally fraught portrait of a woman on the frontier,
leaning forward over her horse, red dust clouding, as she chased down
adventure. I glimpsed a moment in a woman’s life, felt as if I glimpsed her
pain and her yearning—and I desperately wanted to know more.
At that time I was writing another novel, and so Minnie
waited patiently.
In 2019, I began my research of the Oklahoma frontier, which
included interviewing my grandmother and compiling family stories. My
historical research added color and nuance, but by then the character of Minnie
had already been walking alongside me for some time.
My research hunted down an answer to the question: Why would
a woman of the 1890s go on such a dangerous adventure? What was she running
from? When she saddled up her horse on September 16, 1893, readying for the
race, was she terrified or excited?
Autumn of 1893 was a desperate time: an economic depression
and a drought. So was she hot and sweaty? What did the crowd and the prairie
sound like?
In the first-person accounts I read, pioneer women
experienced the gamut of emotions: some were giddy and exhilarated while others
were haunted. I want to tell stories about elemental desires: longing, hunger,
hope. To consider questions women grappled with in 1893 that we still grapple
with today—questions about ancestry and time, memory and belonging.
While writing, I didn’t often consider the balance between
the “true” life of Minnie and what I imagined. The character of Minnie was so
forceful and compelling.
If you read In the Great Quiet, you’ll see she’s bold and
tenacious. She wasn’t one I could look away from or tell to quiet on down. It
was only when I began to share my novel with readers that I considered that
question.
Now, I often think about the tension between truth and
inspiration. Many readers adore that In the Great Quiet is inspired by my
ancestor. And it is. But to me, a possibility of how a woman lived—any ordinary
woman—is just as fascinating as a factual, biographical account of my ancestor.
Q: Can you say more about how you researched the novel? What
did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: In my research of homesteading women, I sought out
first-person narratives of the frontier, such as journals and interviews. I
read over a hundred history books, scoured photographs and newspapers, and took
research trips to western Oklahoma, to visualize the topography and nature
throughout the seasons.
My background as a historian is in the history of
mentalities, a specific approach to cultural history that uncovers how those of
the past looked upon their world. I love to dig into how people
interpreted their environments.
What surprised me the most was the dynamic quality of the
women’s voices: their unbridled passion, their lush hope, their brutal terrors.
Their emotions seemed right at the surface, easier to glimpse than I expected.
There are many rich accounts of pioneer women full of gratitude and wonder,
along with foreboding for life alone on the frontier.
These stories, ripe with emotion and wide-ranging adventure,
all the iconic expansiveness and hazards of the Wild
West, are where I situated this narrative of Minnie. I wanted to capture a
compelling woman vibrating with life—someone you couldn’t help but root for,
someone you must follow on their journey.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify
for you?
A: I drafted In the Great Quiet in 2020. I had a newborn
son, a 5-year-old daughter, and a 7-year-old daughter. My oldest was diagnosed
with type one diabetes in January of 2020. And so, as you can imagine: There
was no quiet that year.
For some time before the pandemic, I had been researching
and dreaming up Minnie’s story. I had hoped to explore the tension between
isolation and community. It was something I often thought of as a mom.
When I typed out the phrase “in the great quiet,” Minnie
alone in the vast frontier, the prairie silent, lonesome, but startlingly alive
with the sounds of nature, there was almost a sigh in my soul.
In the Great Quiet.
What is that? Where was it? Could I please, for five
minutes, run through the woods and find it?
I like how “in the great quiet” is a bit hazy, a bit
amorphous. How each reader might have a slightly different understanding and
relationship to this indescribable “great quiet.”
For me, it’s a deep sigh. A longing.
Both a physical place—the broad meadows and lost forests of
the Oklahoma frontier. But also, “great quiet” is some place deep within. A
peace, a resting, a hope.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: Hope.
Life can be so incredibly brutal and bleak. I write to sweep
readers away so completely into a story that they come back transformed. As an
artist, I seek the widest, most expansive dreams. I long for In the Great Quiet
to jostle readers right in the heart.
One early reviewer shared that “In the Great
Quiet swept me away so completely that closing the book felt like coming
back from another lifetime.” My goal is to create an immersive, transportive
story, where readers are tugged alongside Minnie, where they grapple with
questions and when they close the book, they are someone new.
Another reviewer shared that In the Great Quiet “captures
the ache of struggle so beautifully that it almost feels like you’re living it
right alongside the characters. And yet, through all the pain, there’s this
persistent thread of hope that reminds you how resilient the human heart can
be. Watching each person slowly find their way, stumble, and rise again felt so
genuine and heartfelt. By the end, I found myself both teary and comforted, as
if I’d walked through something sacred with them.”
And that’s exactly what I want to do: Take my readers on a
journey, that when they come up for air at the end it’s as if they walked
through something sacred.
The reader closes her review with, “It’s one of those rare
stories that stays with you long after you’ve closed the book, leaving you
quieter, softer, and somehow more hopeful than before.”
I cried reading that review. To leave a reader “more hopeful
than before” is my grandest dream.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m drafting my next historical novel, which takes places
in 19th century Ireland. The story follows a resilient, curious
botanist in a world that’s dangerous, moody, and romantic.
As with all of my work, I’m exploring what life was like for
an everyday woman, long ago. The novel takes place both in the environment of
first-generation female academics and the lush, undiscovered landscapes of
Ireland. It’s loosely entangled with my ancestors, who were boat builders along
the Irish coast.
There’s an evocative sense of place, a dash of wilderness
survival, and a deep friendship between two women. And of course, plenty of
romance.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’m incredibly humbled and honored to be here, sharing my
story with you. I’ve dreamed of writing novels for most of my life, and I’m
thrilled to now be sharing In the Great Quiet with readers.
I have a book club guide on my Substack, with discussion
questions, behind the book information, icebreaker games, a family recipe, and
a bookish craft. I cannot wait to connect with readers and book clubs. You can
most often find me on Instagram, sharing a sunset timelapse or book
recommendations.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
