Gina Frangello Interviews Nava Renek for TNB
The Six Question Sex Interview: Men Undressed Edition: Nava Renek By Gina Frangello December 04, 2011
Like many of the writers in Men Undressed: Women Writers and the Male Sexual Experience, Nava Renek is a triple threat. A writer, editor and educator, she’s also no stranger to anthologies, having herself edited the daring Wreckage of Reason: An Anthology of XXperimental Women Writers Writing in the 21st Century, published by Spuyten Duyvil—a veritable Who’s Who of innovative women writers, including several who also appear in Men Undressed. Nava is the author of two published novels as well as the program coordinator of the Women’s Center at Brooklyn College, and—as we discuss here—she goes for the “tortured type.”
TNB: You’re one of the contributors to a book the entire premise of which is women writing sex from male characters’ points of view. On a scale of 1-10, exactly how nervous does this make you, in terms of every male critic on the planet potentially pointing a finger at you and your co-writers and deriding you for “getting it wrong?” In a Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (or wait, is that the reverse?) era, what would possess you to dare to try and . . . gasp . . . understand the other gender between the sheets instead of just throwing up your hands in helpless disgust like a good sitcom wife and saying, “Men! Who knows what they’re thinking?”
NR: I am not at all nervous about what male critics will say about my interpretation of men’s emotions or actions. Isn’t that what writing is all about…looking inside a character, male or female, and trying to find the common threads that connect us all to each other or make us different? In many ways I subscribe to the view that Men are from Mars, but that is just a superficial explanation of our different ways of seeing. Why arethey from Mars? What are they getting from seeing and reacting to the world that way? That is what I’m exploring without trying to point a finger or put blame on one side in particular.
TNB: Sex is a fundamental human urge, and at its best brings human beings closer together. Is it easier or harder to write from the perspective of a man having, chasing, or desiring sex than it is from the perspective of a man, say, going about the other business of his daily life? Is sex the great equalizer? And if so, why do so few literary writers–male or female–seem to focus on it?
To read more go to http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/gfrangello/2011/12/the-six-question-sex-interview-men-undressed-edition-nava-renek/
David F. Hoenigman Interviews Nava Renek for WordRiot
Nava Renek, the editor of Wreckage of Reason: An Anthology of Contemporary Xxperimental Prose by Women Writers (Spuyten Duyvil 2008), is an educator and writer whose fiction and non-fiction has been published in a variety of literary magazines and websites. Her first novel, Spiritland, was published in 2002. In 2006, she received the first of two research grants from PSC/CUNY to begin the process of producing this anthology for which she received nearly 300 submissions.
She's interviewed here by David F. Hoenigman, author of Burn Your Belongings.
DH: Please tell us a bit about this anthology.
NR: The first question everyone asks me when they hear about the anthology is: what do you mean by "experimental?" I really don't know what elicits this response, but it's almost across the board. Is it a challenge to me, a challenge to publishing, a challenge to the writers who cross preconceived notions of normalcy? I suspect it's a bit of all this, but initially, the question rubs me the wrong way. Must readers already have a concrete idea of what's to be found between the cover of a book before they can feel confident that they'll understand the book? For me, experimentation starts with the freedom to move away from traditional narrative, plot, language, and sentence structure. For others, this definition may be different or different in some degree. No matter what the definition, anyone who opens this anthology, will see the many ways writers have "experimented" with the written word. Some of it is visual, much is by appropriating other forms of the written word and cultural iconography and finding new and less linear means to tell a story.
Because market forces have closed traditional venues for publishing to all but very conventional narrative, almost any writing that is different could be considered "avant-garde" or "edgy" by consumers or booksellers. I hope when reading this book "experimental" is not an antagonistic adjective that makes readers move away from the book, but instead, it's a word that will excite them, prepare them to come to the book with open minds and enjoy the vast range of styles and subject matter found there.
DH: How did you come up with the idea?
To read more go to http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1640
The Six Question Sex Interview: Men Undressed Edition: Nava Renek By Gina Frangello December 04, 2011
Like many of the writers in Men Undressed: Women Writers and the Male Sexual Experience, Nava Renek is a triple threat. A writer, editor and educator, she’s also no stranger to anthologies, having herself edited the daring Wreckage of Reason: An Anthology of XXperimental Women Writers Writing in the 21st Century, published by Spuyten Duyvil—a veritable Who’s Who of innovative women writers, including several who also appear in Men Undressed. Nava is the author of two published novels as well as the program coordinator of the Women’s Center at Brooklyn College, and—as we discuss here—she goes for the “tortured type.”
TNB: You’re one of the contributors to a book the entire premise of which is women writing sex from male characters’ points of view. On a scale of 1-10, exactly how nervous does this make you, in terms of every male critic on the planet potentially pointing a finger at you and your co-writers and deriding you for “getting it wrong?” In a Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (or wait, is that the reverse?) era, what would possess you to dare to try and . . . gasp . . . understand the other gender between the sheets instead of just throwing up your hands in helpless disgust like a good sitcom wife and saying, “Men! Who knows what they’re thinking?”
NR: I am not at all nervous about what male critics will say about my interpretation of men’s emotions or actions. Isn’t that what writing is all about…looking inside a character, male or female, and trying to find the common threads that connect us all to each other or make us different? In many ways I subscribe to the view that Men are from Mars, but that is just a superficial explanation of our different ways of seeing. Why arethey from Mars? What are they getting from seeing and reacting to the world that way? That is what I’m exploring without trying to point a finger or put blame on one side in particular.
TNB: Sex is a fundamental human urge, and at its best brings human beings closer together. Is it easier or harder to write from the perspective of a man having, chasing, or desiring sex than it is from the perspective of a man, say, going about the other business of his daily life? Is sex the great equalizer? And if so, why do so few literary writers–male or female–seem to focus on it?
To read more go to http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/gfrangello/2011/12/the-six-question-sex-interview-men-undressed-edition-nava-renek/
David F. Hoenigman Interviews Nava Renek for WordRiot
Nava Renek, the editor of Wreckage of Reason: An Anthology of Contemporary Xxperimental Prose by Women Writers (Spuyten Duyvil 2008), is an educator and writer whose fiction and non-fiction has been published in a variety of literary magazines and websites. Her first novel, Spiritland, was published in 2002. In 2006, she received the first of two research grants from PSC/CUNY to begin the process of producing this anthology for which she received nearly 300 submissions.
She's interviewed here by David F. Hoenigman, author of Burn Your Belongings.
DH: Please tell us a bit about this anthology.
NR: The first question everyone asks me when they hear about the anthology is: what do you mean by "experimental?" I really don't know what elicits this response, but it's almost across the board. Is it a challenge to me, a challenge to publishing, a challenge to the writers who cross preconceived notions of normalcy? I suspect it's a bit of all this, but initially, the question rubs me the wrong way. Must readers already have a concrete idea of what's to be found between the cover of a book before they can feel confident that they'll understand the book? For me, experimentation starts with the freedom to move away from traditional narrative, plot, language, and sentence structure. For others, this definition may be different or different in some degree. No matter what the definition, anyone who opens this anthology, will see the many ways writers have "experimented" with the written word. Some of it is visual, much is by appropriating other forms of the written word and cultural iconography and finding new and less linear means to tell a story.
Because market forces have closed traditional venues for publishing to all but very conventional narrative, almost any writing that is different could be considered "avant-garde" or "edgy" by consumers or booksellers. I hope when reading this book "experimental" is not an antagonistic adjective that makes readers move away from the book, but instead, it's a word that will excite them, prepare them to come to the book with open minds and enjoy the vast range of styles and subject matter found there.
DH: How did you come up with the idea?
To read more go to http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1640