Interview with Sue Mell

Sue Mell, author of the Madville Publishing Blue Moon Novel Award-winning Provenance, is the kind of generous person who will make time for a phone call to tell you everything she knows about small press publishing. You as in me— she did that for me, and we didn’t even really know each other! But Sue is a kind, warm person. Very encouraging and community-minded. So it’s my pleasure to be able to highlight her beautiful forthcoming story collection, A New Day. (Out on Tuesday!)

A finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award, A New Day is a linked collection of stories set between 1982 and 2012, with characters struggling to achieve happiness and success. Dealing with longing and loss, the stories offer a portrait of the inevitable highs and lows experienced in pursuing love and creative expression. It’s an elegant collection.

I’m so happy Sue agreed to this interview!

Did you ever doubt this book would be published?

I did—and just finishing it was the greatest hurdle.

When I began writing short stories in 2009, my intent was always to publish a collection. But after some initial success, with several pieces appearing in Narrative Magazine, I hit a slump. Hoping to deepen my work and generate new material, I entered the MFA program at Warren Wilson, where I wrote early drafts of two more stories that would become part of A New Day. But I also wound up starting a novel, called Provenance, that picks up the life of one of the characters from those earlier stories, only thirty years later. Over the next few years, Provenance consumed most of my writing time, and my goal of publishing a collection languished on a Post-it.

In the fall of 2020, after completely rewriting Provenance during a year-long fellowship with BookEnds, I stalled out again. I had no ideas for another novel—or really anything else. But I still wanted to give the Narrative pieces a second life. So taking the approach that had worked well for the novel, I picked up the stories of those primary characters later in life, and also gave some of the minor characters their due in leading roles. By spring of 2021, I’d completed what was now a linked collection. All that was left to do was send it around.

Something like only four percent of agents will consider a story collection—especially one by a relatively unknown author. And while a collection often comes with the promise of a debut novel in tow, Provenance had won a prize and was already forthcoming from an independent press. I queried twenty-one agents, including a few who’d expressed interest in my work before, but none were willing to take the book on.

Over the course of a year, I also submitted the manuscript to four independent presses and thirty short fiction awards that included publication. And while the collection was a finalist for the St. Lawrence Book award, it didn’t win or place anywhere else, which left me wondering where to turn.

I’d heard about Brooke Warner and the award-winning hybrid publisher She Writes Press from a few writers who’d happily published literary novels with them, and I was thrilled to have them accept A New Day. It’s been a great experience so far, and they’ve just contracted with Simon & Schuster as their new distributor, which is really exciting in terms of the book making its way into the hands of readers.

Can you share any tips or tricks for staying motivated? 

Right now, what’s keeping me motivated is my Substack, So Much Stuff, and the idea of building—and having a direct connection to—an audience who’s confirmed their interest in my work by subscribing. A little validation goes a long, long way in terms of driving me forward.

I also find accountability helpful. When it came to submitting the novel manuscript, I’d told BookEnds Co-Director Susan Merrell I would leave no stone unturned, and that promise haunted me into persevering, regardless of my feelings, in any given moment, about myself or the work.

Any reading recommendations? 

Naturally, I’ve been reading a lot of story collections. Here are some recent favorites:

In This Ravishing World  by Nina Schuyler

Life Among the Terranauts by Caitlin Horrocks

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura van den Berg

Imagine Your Life Like This by Sarah Layden

Emergency: Stories by Kathleen Alcott

Direct Sunlight by Christine Sneed

The Disappeared by Andrew Porter

How Strange a Season by Megan Mayhew Bergman

You Have Reached Your Destination by Louise Marburg

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor

Can you recommend a song that ties into your collection in some way? 

The song that most speaks to me in relation to the collection (and maybe life) is Aztec Camera’s “Stray,” for both the lyrics and the music itself.

Thank you, Sue!