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| Téa Obreht Illustration by Grafilu |
20 Under 40: Q. & A.
Téa Obreht
By Jennifer L. Knox
June 7, 2010
Téa Obreht was featured in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue. Her story will appear later in the summer.
When were you born?
September 30, 1985.
Where?
Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Where do you live now?
Ithaca, New York.
What was the first piece of fiction you read that had an impact on you?
Sheila Burnford’s “The Incredible Journey,” which I borrowed from my elementary-school library one summer and never returned. I still have it.
How long did it take you to write your first book?
Three years—although, looking back through my notes, I realize that some characters and events are much, much older.
Did you ever consider not becoming a writer?
When I was eight years old, I wrote a paragraph-long short story about a goat on my mother’s hundred-pound, black-and-white-screen laptop. The story came about largely because I liked the way the word “goat” looked on the page, but I decided then and there that I wanted to be a writer. That desire never changed.
What, in your opinion, makes a piece of fiction work?
When something inexplicable happens in the transfer from writer to reader, and the piece, despite its imperfections, rattles and moves the reader. The best fiction stays with you and changes you.
What was the inspiration for the piece included in the “20 Under 40” series?
My family lived in Egypt from 1993 to 1996. Our last year there, before we moved to the States, my mother and I spent a month at the Red Sea. I wasn’t a brave child, but the underwater world was so incredible to me that I was somehow able to overcome my terror of it. I doubt I’d be able to do so again, as an adult, but its magic stayed with me for years, until I finally wrote “Blue Water Djinn.”
What are you working on now?
I am currently researching my second novel.
Who are your favorite writers over forty?
T. Coraghessan Boyle, Toni Morrison, and Gabriel García Márquez.
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