Jill Bialosky Interview, plus links to author biography, book summaries, excerpts and reviews

An interview with Jill Bialosky

Jill Bialosky, the author of four poetry collections, discusses her first novel, The Prize

The novel is constructed through the guise of four marriages: gallerist Edward and his wife Holly; rising artist Agnes and her husband, also an artist, Nate; the artist Julia and her husband; and the marriage that binds them all —that of commerce and art. How did you construct these unions and how do they play a role in the larger issues of The Prize?

I didn't realize until I'd finished the novel that marriage was a binding force in its conception. I loved writing the portrait of Edward and his wife Holly's marriage. Marriage is an interesting subject because it changes as life events change us and I was interested in portraying a complex marriage that endures over time. Additionally, I have always been interested in exploring the marriage between two artists perhaps because it is something I don't have in my own marriage. At times I've wondered if such a marriage would impede or enhance the artistic process. I am also interested in how competition plays a role in the marriage between two artists. What if one artist is more successful than the other, for instance. How does that work? Is a marriage between two artists good for artistic creation or destructive? The third marriage, that between Julia and her husband was interesting to me because Edward only knows about their marriage through what Julia reveals to him.

The marriage that binds them all, between commerce and art, was to a certain extent the catalyst for writing the novel. I am a poet at heart, and I work in book publishing where I see the intersection between art and commerce almost on a daily basis. I was interested in exploring this combustible combination. Why do some artists wear fame better than others? What makes an enduring work of art? Can we trick people into believing a work of art is good or even brilliant by awarding it with a prize? Or asserting monetary value upon it? It was great fun to explore these questions that excite, provoke and sometimes anger and exasperate me, in fiction.

The most successful artists in the novel —Nate and Agnes — create art influenced by the attacks on 9/11. Why did you use this as their guiding force? Do you think it shows how artists can interpret reality or transform real world events? Do you think their work shows New York artists seeking to move past these events? Julia's art too comes from a place of loss and longing. How necessary is suffering to the creation of art?

I believe that art has the power to interpret reality—to raise important questions and to incite emotions in the viewer that one might not ordinarily be aware of or privy to—in any medium, whether visual art, poetry, writing, music, performance. Outside of family and friends, it is what I care about most and what inspires and challenges me intellectually so it was particularly fascinating to write a novel in which I could explore these ideas and turn some of them on their head. I chose 9/11 as the subject matter for my artists because I wondered how artists would deal with sensitive, potent, urgent and potentially exploitative subject matter. I don't think an artist can create genuine work without a sense of urgency, without something at stake and often that involves to a certain extent, suffering, or lived and experienced knowledge, but of course, others may argue differently, and in my novel, they do!

We meet Edward at a crossroads, both personally and professionally. His conflicts in his domestic life sometimes mirror those he faces professionally in the art world. What were the ideas behind the creation of this character and how does he seek to resolve the conflicts in his life?

I'm fond of Edward Darby. I've lived with him for a little over five years and it has been fascinating and sustaining to watch him grow and change and get to know himself under my watch. I sought to create a character that shares some of my traits. He's a purist, someone who sought being an art dealer because he loves art and believes in its power to transform and excite and finds himself in a business that does not always conform to his ideals. I wanted to cause trouble for him—in his personal life and trouble in his work life-- and see how he would deal with it and whether his own ideals, about art, ambition, power, love, marriage, desire would hold up or change under these circumstances. It was painful to put him in situations where he did not live up to my own expectations, where he was vulnerable and at risk and I worried over these decisions along with him. I wanted to create a character who doesn't know himself very well, and who has emotional baggage he hasn't dealt with because to a certain extent that is what makes us human. I was fascinated by how reviewers and readers responded to Clare Messud's character in her evocative novel, The Woman Upstairs. Many wanted to dismiss the novel because they did not feel sympathy for the character. That's wrong minded. Characters in fiction, whether sympathetic or not, allow us, if the novel is successful, to examine our own lives. It's an awe-inspiring art in that sense and one that I care about deeply

Edward's father was a huge influence on him, on his deeming art and beauty necessary to life. Do you feel the same? How can art help us in our daily lives?

If I did not feel art and beauty were necessary to life I would not be both a writer and an editor. Both of these vocations are in service to it to some degree. To say it in those terms makes me sound as if I'm a purist. I'm not sure if that is true—though I do respond to beauty in art. But for one who makes her livelihood both as a writer and an editor, I am also keenly aware of the necessity for commerce in the arts and the ways in which it plays into each role. With that said, I believe in integrity in its service and I like to surround myself both in the workplace and outside it around people with the same ideals. There are characters in my novel that do not share those ideals and it was fascinating to me to watch the ways in which their choices played out.

The novel is left a bit open-ended as Edward certainly hasn't solved all of the issues of his life, as often is true in real life. What are your hopes for Edward after the events in the novel? What do you think he has learned?

What is interesting about writing a novel is the point at which it stops. I recently heard the writer Richard Ford speak at a writer's conference. In response to a question about whether novels are finished or exhausted by the writer, he said that he believes an author must authorize the work. I like that idea because for me once I've set up the stakes for my characters, and watch them play out there is a natural inevitability and end. I can't imagine any further, or don't want to. I think Edward has learned, at least for the time in which we witness him, that he must be true to himself, wherever that takes him. This is going to sound very Zen, but lately I've taken up Yoga. Yoga is an individual practice and at its heart it is about being true or honoring that thing within us that makes us unique, even if we discover in the process our own weaknesses and flaws.

As an editor working with writers, and as a novelist, poet, and nonfiction writer, you are certainly very close to the creation and refinement of literary work. How does the process of creating art differ between an editor and a writer? Are there any similarities?

Creating literary work is completely individual. A work of art can only come from that particular person. If I asked you to write a novel, story, or poem about love or loss it would be completely different from any other work about love and loss and that is why creative work is uniquely fascinating. I have come to see that as a writer or artist we are given few tools and those tools involve mostly who we are as a person, our intellectual and emotional placidity, and what provokes us and preoccupies—this is what gives a literary work its voice and personality. How we use these tools to shape and realize an idea, story, or argument into a literary work involves trial and error, imitation and experimentation, success and failure. Being an editor involves a different process. An editor is in service to the writer. A good editor is a close and perceptive reader and understands to a certain degree the stakes the writer has set up for that particular work and by posing questions, suggesting cuts and places for further exploration, may help the writer get closer to his or her own aspirations. It's quite humbling and I find it completely inspiring, to work with the many talented and gifted writers I've worked with over my many years as a book editor.

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