Thirty West Revisited: Anna Vangala Jones

On moving across the country, volunteering for magazines, and reading broadly.

“Thirty West Revisited” is a series of interviews with past and future authors from Thirty West’s vast catalog. Within, you shall experience inspiration for their writing, the process behind crafting their books, and what projects they are working on next. Conducted by Ollie Shane.

---

Anna Vangala Jones is the author of the short story collection Turmeric & Sugar (Thirty West, 2021). Her writing has appeared in Wigleaf, Necessary Fiction, HAD, X-R-A-Y, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. Find her online at annavangalajones.com

Ollie Shane: What got you into writing? Who are some inspirations for you? Bonus points if they are Thirty West authors.

Anna Vangala Jones: Oh, I started writing fiction as a child. I’d stay inside during recess sometimes to write and my friend would illustrate and our teacher was kind enough to “publish” and keep our stories on the bookshelf for our classmates to read. As much as I adore novels and reread my favorites to the point of memorization, I only became more devoted to reading and writing short stories as I got older. James Baldwin, Donald Barthelme, Jhumpa Lahiri, Octavia Butler, J.D. Salinger, Denis Johnson, and Shirley Jackson were all early influences on my writing. More recently I have loved stories by Sabrina Orah Mark, Ben Loory, Tara Isabel Zambrano, Carmen Maria Machado, Tananarive Due, and Leonora Carrington. 

As for my extremely talented fellow Thirty West authors, though I hadn’t read them before writing my book to be able to call them my inspirations, I do feel a kinship with the short fiction of Shannon McLeod and Jules Archer. I love the way Shannon writes about place and incorporates nature almost as a central character in her work and Jules depicts women as the truly complex, nuanced, and layered people that we are. There is such a lyrical beauty to Shome Dasgupta’s prose that I hope to achieve in my writing. I am honored to think of my stories as being in conversation with theirs.

OS: What was it like getting into and engaging with the writing community? What are its benefits and challenges?

AVJ: When I was a middle and high school English teacher in New York City in my twenties, I would write with what little free time and energy I had for it and now and then, for fun, I would email a story to the New Yorker. I had no connection to any writing community in person or online at that time. It wasn’t until I left my classroom after the birth of my second child that I started taking online writing classes at UCLA Extension and then attended residencies in person at Antioch University Los Angeles. For the first time in my life, I had writer friends and started reading a wider variety of print and online literary journals, figuring out which ones were publishing work I loved, and how to submit my stories there. After I began getting my work published, I then took the next step of volunteering at multiple magazines, as a Fiction Editor at Lunch Ticket, a Fiction Editorial Assistant at Split Lip Magazine, and a Social Media Manager at Pidgeonholes. It was challenging in that of course it resulted in less time for my writing but it was hugely beneficial in improving my work and connecting me with some of the most incredible writers and supportive friends I’ve ever known. I cannot recommend enough engaging with and contributing to your local writing communities as well as broader ones online. 

OS: Where did you come up with the idea for your chapbook/poetry collection/novel?

AVJ: I don’t know that I can pinpoint one exact moment that a vision for it came into being or a specific genesis of the collection in its current form. I wrote the first draft of some of the stories included in it ten years before it was published. I would say that the book and the ideas behind it were constantly evolving along with me. I changed over time and so did the focus and style of the book. The themes of family, female friendship, obsession, immigration, home, loss, etc, were always there but I think the more surreal and dreamy quality to the style of storytelling and the emphasis on isolation, loneliness, and longing all started to take shape in the few years directly preceding the pandemic and developed further during it. But one of my favorite things about this collection is that it can’t be pinned down or assigned to one neat little box when it comes to genre. Of course, we will all always be wondering what we would’ve done differently or could still do better once our book goes out into the world, but ultimately I am happy with the collection and proud of it.

OS: How was it working with Thirty West in your work?

AVJ: I had a wonderful experience working with Thirty West, so much so that I recommended it to other authors. Josh Dale champions each book as if they were his own creation and the finished product is so beautiful. He was incredibly receptive to anything important to me and always gave me the final creative say while contributing helpful insights along the way. Chanel Martins was a careful and attentive editor and always prioritized staying true to the text over any hard and fast rules. Collaborating with her was a smooth process and I appreciated her help in polishing the manuscript to get it to be the best version of itself. Carolyn Brandt read my collection and talked to me on the phone for hours, asking the most thoughtful questions, before designing the cover for my book with her original artwork. The press continues to promote my book now, two years later, which I appreciate so much as it was difficult having my debut come out at the height of the pandemic.

OS: What has been the reception of your work from the wider writing community?

AVJ: I am grateful every time a writer reaches out to tell me that one of my stories moved or inspired them. My book with Thirty West received wonderful blurbs and reviews from authors I admire. In the words of these writers, Turmeric & Sugar has been called “an impressive debut collection by a writer with a clear vision into the human heart” with “glimmering, heartfelt, hard-edged stories of the every day and the strange” that “blend fables, realism, darkness, and comedy, sometimes all at the same time” and “stay with you long after they’re read, hovering near, keeping a hold, just like the spirits and souls written about within them”—the storytelling has been compared to the lyrics of singer/songwriter, John Prine, one of my favorites, and one review said that the stories themselves seem haunted. I also really enjoyed talking about my fiction in depth for interviews in TriQuarterly and Berkeley Fiction Review. I never expected my debut collection to necessarily make big waves or win awards, but anytime writers I respect engage with my work deeply and thoughtfully, it is one of the most incredible feelings as an author. When they talk about the surreal, strange, or ghostly elements of my stories, and the emphasis placed on unexpected perspectives, relationships, and the past intertwined with imagined alternate realities, I “feel seen” as they say. 

OS: What upcoming/current projects have you put out?

AVJ: I am currently working on a second story collection as well as a book of linked stories. My most recently published flash fiction is from the latter and a longer story that is forthcoming in another journal is from the former. I am also always working on a novel but I find myself drawn back to my projects where I get to experiment and write new short stories whenever I get the chance. Even if I ever finish the novel, it’s more likely to be a short novel or a long novella. 

OS: Any advice for the readers of Afterimages?

AVJ: Read, read, read, and then read some more. And not just the classics. Read those but then also read contemporary fiction. Not just the books from the Big 4 publishing houses but familiarize yourself with the exciting work coming out of independent and small presses. Visit your local independent bookstore and join writing communities, whether in the form of workshops in person or online, or volunteering for literary journals. But most importantly try and have fun writing. If you feel yourself losing the joy of doing it, which happens to the best of us, it might be time to take a break and just read a lot for a while before coming back to it.

Turmeric & Sugar: Stories, the debut story collection by Anna Vangala Jones, is out now, through Thirty West or your favorite online retailer.