Interventions: An Interview with Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher
- InterventionsAn Interview with Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher
Collaborative creation in the realm of the novel is a rarity. I'm not sure why. Film, children's books, and comics do more than fine with many mini-creators at the helm. Indeed, when we have had prose fictional collaborations they've resulted in some innovative—even excellent—creative results. In Italy, a group of ten Futurists created Lo zar non è morto (1929)—a much applauded speculative espionage novel. There's that wildly raucous rollercoaster ride Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg created (under the pseudonym Maxwell Kenton) with Candy (1958). Playboy named Candy one of the "25 Sexiest Novels Ever Written," and because of its radical innovation of the picaresque form, back in the day I could justify having it front and center on my PhD reading list. More recently, there was the Amazon Prime serial remake of the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett fantastical novel, Good Omens (1990). And, as recently as 2015, five Australian women made headlines with their co-created, The Painted Sky, published under the pseudonym Alice Campion. Gosh, today, there's even sophisticated AI that co-creates fiction with you: you begin the story with a launch like "once upon a time..." and it will continue the story, asking you to chime in every once in a while as it spins stories anew. The jury's still out on this.
With Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher's publication of Sanctuary (2020) we see yet another great burst of creativity through the collaborative process.
Of course, Paola and Abby represent remarkable creative talents in their own right.
Paola's an award-winning film director, artist, actor, and activist; she's cofounder of the Women's March on Washington. She's been named Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film." Working as seamlessly as a director of films like Entre Nos (2009) acting in internationally acclaimed Sangre de mi Sangre [2007]) to her novels published in English and Spanish The Ones Who Don't Stay (2013)—a Romeo and Juliet story that follows the life of Mariana and Antonio in a war-torn 1970s Colombia and their nightmarish life in the US.
Abby's a much-applauded author of YA fiction, memoir, and nonfiction in national newspapers and magazines. For instance, in Breaking Free: True Stories of Girls Who Escaped Modern Slavery (2014) she dramatically drops us directly into the complex minds of three women, survivors of sexual enslavement. In Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying (2009) Abby immerses us in her own ten-year-old self's complex response to loss. Abby's also written and performed for the Second City in Chicago as well as The Upright Citizen's Brigade, HBO, and Nick Jr.
Together, Paola and Abby create a remarkable, near future-set story that follows Vali and her little brother Ernie—in a US where all citizens are chipped and tracked; counterfeit chips are the order of the day for undocumented immigrants, until they malfunction. Sanctuary states are fortifying against the xenophobic neighbor states. Taken together, Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher lay to rest the lone-genius novelist myth. They announce to the world that the melding of two minds in the fiction writing process can and does result in brilliance.
I had the great honor of meeting and learning from Paola and Abby about their collective journey.
Paola, after migrating to the US, your mother struggled to raise you and your brother on her own.
We migrated from Colombia to a working class and poor community in LA. My father abandoned us. He told my mom that he was going to work, and he just never came back. He left my mom with a three-year-old and a seven-year-old— and two hundred dollars.
My mom had a high school education. She knew absolutely no English. I saw her struggle to put food on the table. Some days she succeeded. Some days she didn't.
There weren't a lot of resources given to the community. The only opportunity that was available to us...
