On the evening of October 23rd, Katherine Vaz came to speak on behalf of her experience as the 29th Harmen writer and her upcoming publication of her 5th literary work. Her book, entitled Below the Salt, is a novel that is placed in the mid 19th century. The main character, John Olives, is imprisoned with his mother, who was arrested for heresy. Her novel explores the interdependence of a mother and her son as they journey to America, and eventually wind up in the state of Illinois.
In her piece, Vaz expresses her fascination with New York through the thoughts of the mother. To quote John’s mother, “In the beginning, there was New York.” The mother marvels at the various skyscrapers and wonders what it was like to be a part of the construction of New York City. Throughout the rest of the novel, they travel to Illinois, where they encounter a group of life changing missionaries. However, Vaz’s work would not be complete without the thematic twists of love and war scattered throughout.
When the mother and son become closer with the missionaries, they run into the Catholic sacrament that is the Eucharist. The mother does not believe that the “communion bread” is truly the body of Christ, himself. Here outpours the internal conflict of reality and religion, with which many people of society struggle. As a young child, Vaz grew up a devout Catholic, but was deeply scarred later on in her life. “People get tired of the magic and want the real,” Vaz commented after her reading. She enjoys delving into the ideas of reality and dreams, which she frequently transitions back and forth from in her writing.
At the conclusion of her reading, the floor was opened up for a question and answer. One of the initial questions asked by a member of the audience was how Katherine comes up with the thought provoking ideas for her writing. To answer that question, she compared the way ideas come to her to the way that songs come to the everyday person. Then, an aspiring writer from the audience claimed she had an idea on a future writing piece. She was having difficulty finding a starting point, so she asked the Harmen writer for some advice. “Less is better than more when starting to write,” Katherine gently told the student. It allows the writer to key in on one focal point, rather experience an array of confusion with countless ideas.
Since her first publication as a writer, Vaz’s career has taken off. She has given talks to the Library of Congress, and she even spent six months in Jacksonville to conduct research. “Research is mostly about how it might apply to my characters, not what they do, but who they are,” she noted. When carrying out studies, Katherine Vaz looks for signals that will give her a better understanding of both her characters and herself.
Photo Credit: Baruch.cuny.edu
