An Interview with Natalie Baszile (fiction, ’07)
An excerpt from an Interview with Natalie Baszile (fiction, ’07), published at Signature:
An Interview with Natalie Baszile: Writing Queen Sugar and More
In 2014, Natalie Baszile — the renowned author whose first novel Queen Sugar quickly became one of television’s most revolutionary series — wrote the following: “Writing will turn out to be the most challenging thing I’ve ever done besides raising my children. I will experience pendulum swings of exhilaration and crushing self-doubt. But I don’t know any of that yet. Bumping over the railroad tracks, all I know is that I’ve leaped off the cliff. I’m terrified, but I can’t stop smiling.” Nearly five years later, Baszile’s unblinkingly honest and vivid portrait of family, legacy, and love is as necessary as it was the day it debuted. The series, brought to life with the help of the legendary Melissa Carter, Ava DuVernay, and Oprah Winfrey, Queen Sugar’s on-screen adaptation has captivated millions of viewers via the same arresting complexity and heart that drew readers to the pages of its literary predecessor. Whether on the page or as a series, Baszile’s narratives feel deeply personal yet universal in an unshakeable and bone-deep way. The worlds that she creates are more than stories. They’re mirrors reminding us who we really are, where we came from, and where we’re headed.
In celebration of the end of “Queen Sugar”’s third season and in anticipation of its fourth, we spoke with Baszile about what the evolution of her novel has taught her, why storytelling and art is a refuge, how she battles self-doubt, and why books that endure are so vital.
SIGNATURE: In the final paragraph of an essay that you published in the 2014 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, you describe writing as a challenging yet euphoric uncertainty. Has Queen Sugar‘s evolution, as a novel and as a series, changed your emotional relationship to storytelling and craft?
NATALIE BASZILE: First of all, I think that I am even more committed to being honest. I think that the beauty of storytelling — the moment that it’s most magical — is when the reader or the viewer recognizes something in the work that is undeniably true. That happens to me when I read books, and it’s not in every book, but there are books that I’ve come across where every time I read them — it doesn’t matter if I read them two times, five times, or thirteen times — every time I read them, I get a feeling. I have an emotional response because there is something in the work that I recognize from my own experience. That to me is the power of storytelling. It’s when you as the author, or you as the writer of the series, or the director can track the arc of human emotion, the small turns of human emotion, and you can feel that and you can convey that to the reader or to the viewer. There’s no underestimating how difficult that is. It requires a level of vulnerability and keen observation and patience. It’s what I admire in a handful of books that I’ve read and it’s what I admire in in the [Queen Sugar] series, where I feel that truth and that’s just undeniable. That’s what I love about storytelling. It’s what I love about film and art in general. It’s that moment of undeniable truth and it is what I live for as a writer.
[…continue reading here]
