Annie Proulx to bring country life to UCLA

By Nick Rabinowitsh
Daily Bruin Contributor

If interviewing Annie Proulx sounds like a welcome challenge,
step right up.

What? Scared? Yeah, understandable. Proulx’s literary
achievements alone make for a daunting encounter.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Shipping
News,” “Accordian Crimes” and
“Postcards,” among others, will be at UCLA on Thursday
for an onstage interview by author Jack Miles. The interview will
be followed by a short reading and will end with a 15-minute
question and answer segment with the audience.

The process of writing, for Proulx, is one of constant
development and unending curiosity.

“The chance to explore various spaces, occupations,
historical periods, geographies and climates makes the occupation
of writer one of constant change and unending interest,”
Proulx said in an e-mail interview.

It is somewhat fitting, then, that someone with a life so packed
with experiences and change would choose to spend her life in some
of the most uncluttered places possible.

“I have no favorite places but very much like exploring
the rural west, especially Wyoming, where I live, and like parts of
New Zealand, Australia, Newfoundland and Ireland. I gravitate to
high northern country, preferring mountains to flatland, streams to
lakes,” she said.

Proulx has always been a wandering soul, favoring the small,
quaint backcountry towns above cities. She even lived in a town of
400 people for 11 years.

It is places like these that inspire her most, so she transforms
them into her studios.

“Although I constantly make notes in diverse places, most
of the draft writing takes place in my Wyoming office, a renovated
basement. It serves as a business office as well so bookkeeping and
composition and books jostle each other for space,” Proulx
said.

Her preference for these places, though, has more to it than
simply that they make nice places to live.

“I am concerned to put the rural regions of the country
down on paper, well aware that most urban and suburban citizens
regard rural hinterlands as little more than sources for
exploitation (like hog and chicken farms, cattle ranches,mining, or
gas and oil extraction) or scenic outdoor recreation sites,”
Proulx said.

In many ways, though, Proulx is not the typical country girl.
She is not the type of person to make idle chat and talk around a
subject; she says exactly what she thinks.

Her childhood, for example, was something she did not enjoy, and
she has no problem looking back on it now.

“My childhood was dull and tiresome and I was happy to
escape from it,” Proulx said. “My father was engrossed
in making his career in textiles, my mother, a housewife-artist
concerned more with the waste of her talents and the care of the
household than venturing forth in any way, could not be depended on
for discussion or adventure. So I spent much time reading and still
do.”

Since then, her life has become a lot more interesting. Proulx
has won an array of awards for her work, most notably in 1994 with
the Pulitzer Prize for “The Shipping News.” She has
also won a National Book Award, a New Yorker Book Award and a
Faulkner Award, among many others.

“The Shipping News” was recently adapted into a
motion picture starring Kevin Spacey, and Proulx is pleased with
the results. She also notes, though, that this surprised quite a
few people.

“What surprised me is that many interviewers did not want
me to like the film. There is a tradition in this country that the
writer hates the movie and many people did not like me to buck that
presumption,” she said.

Proulx also commented on her latest project, fitting right in
with her other rural-themed works.

“In February I finished a novel, “˜That Old Ace in
the Hole,’ set in the panhandles of Oklahoma and
Texas,” she said.

Proulx, although clearly still favoring rural America for
inspiration, is no stranger to traveling abroad for making
appearances.

“I have given readings and talks in Ireland, England,
Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Australia and very many states and
provinces,” Proulx said.

Those at UCLA, though, should feel especially privileged to be
on her map, as she does not visit college campuses very often.

She will be coming back to UCLA this weekend for a panel
discussion at the L.A. Times Festival of Books.

LITERATURE: Annie Proulx’s appearance in conversation with
Jack Miles begins at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 25 at UCLA’s
Freud Playhouse. Tickets are available for $25, $30, $35 and for
$16 for UCLA students, at the Central Ticket Office. For more
information, call (310) 825-2101.