New Mexico State University’s Nelson-Boswell reading series continues Friday evening at 7:30 in the Creative Media Institute Theatre inside Milton Hall. Friday’s featured readers will be wife and husband Danielle Dutton and Martin Riker, both writers and professors in the English department at Washington University in St. Louis. Scott Brocato spoke with them for a preview of their writings from which they’ll be reading Friday.
Scott Brocato:
How and when did both of you get invited to be part of Friday's Nelson-Boswell reading series?
Danielle Dutton:
I think the invitation came in the spring from Professor Richard Greenfield.
Martin Riker:
He was interested in bringing us out together, which is nice for us, because we often get invited to things individually. But it's nice to come together.
Scott Brocato:
How did you decide from which of your works to read? And were you given any general parameters of what you could read?
Danielle Dutton:
Nope, no parameters set. And I think we're both just reading from our most recent books, which is what one tends to do.
Scott Brocato:
Where are you both originally from and how did you meet?
Danielle Dutton:
I'm from California and Marty's from Pennsylvania.
Martin Riker:
So we met--I used to run a nonprofit in Chicago, and I did a little visit to her class. She was studying in the MFA at the School of the Art Institute, and I sort of lectured to her class. And afterwards, she came up and talked to me. Then a year later we met at a party and remembered that we met in the class a year earlier (laughs). It wasn't anything particularly literary.
Scott Brocato:
What are the challenges, if any, to be in a relationship where you're both authors and both professors?
Danielle Dutton:
And not only that, we also run a press together, a small press.
Scott Brocato:
"Dorothy"? Tell us about that.
Danielle Dutton:
Well, it's a small press we started 15 years ago in our kitchen in Champaign-Urbana, IL. And we published two books together every fall. And yeah, we do everything together and ourselves. Basically, I do the--we do editorial and design, and Marty does all the business side of everything. And yeah, that's, like, a really big part of our marriage is doing Dorothy together. And it's a lot of fun.
But yeah, we also both teach at Wash U. (Washington University St. Louis), and we also are both writers. So I don't even know, because I've never been married to anyone else. So it's fun to have a lot of stuff in common to talk about, but I imagine it could also be delightful to be married to someone who did something completely different and brought all of that difference (into the marriage). But I don't know, because I've never been married to anyone else.
Martin Riker:
I definitely didn't experience any of it as “challenges”. If anything, I'm just very happy with all the different things that we do together. I think it makes—I won't speak for Danielle, but it definitely makes me better at all the things that I do, that I have a person alongside me who's also doing those things that can help me.
Scott Brocato:
Well, now let's talk about the respective works from which you'll both be reading Friday night. Danielle, you'll be reading from your latest book, “Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other”. Tell us about that.
Danielle Dutton:
This book came out in April. My last two books were both novels; this one is a collection. And it is, quite weirdly, a collection of both fiction and nonfiction together, which is not normally done. And it's in four sections: each of the names of the title is a different section of the book, and they are distinct sections. But I also think there's a lot of...sort of like cross communication. I think of them as wormholes or portals from like one section of the book into pieces of the other section. So I think about all the different parts very much being in conversation like a very specific project, but it's in these four weird sections.
“Prairie” is stories. “Dresses” is like a weird collage thing. "Art” is an essay on fiction and visual art. And then “Other” is a group of things that are kind of like stories that lean toward essay, or essays that lean towards story. But the themes of the book are running through all four sections.
Scott Brocato:
Can you read us a passage?
Danielle Dutton:
Sure. I'm actually just going to read the very beginning of the essay on ekphrasis, which is, you know, when writing response to visual arts, that makes up the section called Art. And the essay is called “A Picture Held Us Captive”:
Ostensibly, I write novels and stories. Yet I often find myself more interested in spaces and things than in plots. The world is astonishing. I want to ask: how might fiction be conceived of as a space within which we attend to the world? A way of opening spaces, prairies, paragraphs, rooms, in which the world can occur? How might a story embody a specific way of looking? By “looking”, I mean “seeing”. But I also mean a way of being in relation to the world, a politics of attention.
Scott Brocato:
And Martin, you'll be reading from your latest novel, "The Guest Lecture”, which is your second book. What is "The Guest Lecture” about?
Martin Riker:
It's written as a monologue by a female economist over the course of one night. She has a sleepless night. In the novel, you basically spend this sleepless night with her inside her brain. She's worried about her life and her family, but also she's mentally preparing, because she's supposed to give a lecture the next day. She's the guest lecturer the next day, and she's nervous about it. And the way that she's prepared for it is inadequate. So she's just filled with worries, and the book takes you through her memories and sort of her taking herself through her life up to this point.
The thing I'm gonna read is actually the only part that's not in her voice. There's a very short sort of set piece at the beginning that sets the stage for it. So I'll read that right now:
A dark hotel room somewhere in Middle America. The furniture, which is too dark to see, includes chairs and small tables. The TV, probably a desk and a single king-size bed that currently holds three breathing bodies. On the left lies a man; in the middle, a girl; both on their sides and sleeping. On the right, a woman on her back, awake. Her eyes are either open and staring at the ceiling, or else closed. At any given moment, it's one or the other. She lies perfectly still, not making a sound, but inside her head things are busy. A lecture is about to begin.
From there, it goes into her brain river.
Scott Brocato:
What else can Friday night's audience here at NMSU expect for both of you at the reading? Any surprises?
Danielle Dutton:
Well, if we tell you, they won't be surprises (laughs). I just really love reading at universities because it's such a pleasure to get to speak with students, to hear what they're working on, something I always really love doing is actually the Q&A after reading ends, and just hearing what students have questions about. I really like talking on the spot. It's something I enjoy doing when teach. And that's one of my favorite parts of every reading.
Scott Brocato:
So I'll rephrase the question for you, Martin. What do you look forward to with these guest readings?
Martin Riker:
My favorite part is always the Q&A. Without exception. Reading to people is delightful, but when you actually get to have a conversation with them, and you get to watch how the conversation moves to where it wants to move, that's always the most gratifying. So I think it's probably the most fun for other people as well.
