By
Shana Heiser
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Sheehan nervous, ready to share her work with audience
The work of novelist Aurelie Sheehan, from her first poem at the age of 11 to the 1994 publication of "Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant: Stories," comes out of her emotional need to write.
She said writing began as an outlet for her emotional expression as a child.
"When I was told I had to wear a back brace for scoliosis, I wrote a very serious poem that helped me gather courage for the days ahead," she said.
In high school, Sheehan's best friend, exposed her to a new writing style.
"(My best friend) Jenny loved Sylvia Plath and turned me on to angst and language," Sheehan said. "I got the idea that writing was something that you could do with your life."
Citing her parent's love for writing as her earliest influence, Sheehan said that more recently it has been someone else inspiring her writing.
"When I met my husband, I wanted to tell him all the stories of my life, so I wrote an essay collection with him in mind," Sheehan said.
Sheehan is writing a second novel, "The Blind Girl," which concerns the "moral education of a secretary," she said. However, her writing is not confined to short fiction - Sheehan writes full-length fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
Instead of a consistent theme, her love of language and the way it "soars" is the main focal point of the pieces, she added.
When contemplating a story, Sheehan often imagines seemingly interesting or humorous situations, such as "contrasts or clashes between two disparate elements which seem like they might make a good story."
Speaking from experience, Sheehan offers words of advice to aspiring writers.
"Write what you feel passionate about. Rewrite critically but also lovingly," she said.
"If you are writing stories, try to get them published individually prior to selling the collection as a whole," she added. "Be brave enough to face a lot of rejection, and to persevere and keep going for many, many years."
Reading aloud makes Sheehan nervous, but it helps her figure out the relationship between her and the reader, she said.
"It's good to get out of the closet, so to speak, and stand up there and tell people what you've been thinking all these months," she said. "I don't think (my work) is better expressed aloud, but here's hoping it's not worse, either."
Sheehan said one of her favorite novels is Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman."
"He uses language stunningly well, and he is extremely funny and bizarre," she said.
Sheehan, the recipient of awards such as the Pushcart Prize for her essay "The Seven Sisters" and a fellowship from the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, served as the poetry coordinator for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. before coming to the University of Arizona.
Sheehan will read excerpts from her published works tomorrow at 8 p.m. in the Modern Languages auditorium. The event is sponsored by the UA Poetry Center.
Shana Heiser can be reached at catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu.
