Q&A: Marissa Levien, Author of ‘The World Gives Way’

In a near-future world on the brink of collapse, a young woman born into servitude must seize her own freedom in this glittering debut with a brilliant twist; perfect for fans of Station Eleven, Karen Thompson Walker, and Naomi Alderman.

We chat with debut author Marissa Levien about The World Gives Way, writing, book recommendations, and so much more, PLUS we have an excerpt from The World Gives Way at the end of the interview!

Hi, Marissa! Tell our readers a bit about yourself!

Hi there! I’m a blond, left-handed creative type who grew up in the Pacific Northwest and now living in New York. I used to be a musical theater performer, but now I write about apocalypses (both are very dark professions). I love all genres of reading. I hate mayonnaise.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

That would probably be The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. I think I read it the first time when I was eleven years old, but I’ve read it about once a year since then. [Couldn’t tell if “lightning round” meant you’d like me to not think too long, to keep my answer short or both. If you’d like more explanation, here’s further gushing on this book:] It’s this incredible puzzle box of a story. The set-up seems simple: a group of strangers are brought together for the reading of the will of an eccentric millionaire, and end up getting roped into a murder mystery. As a kid, I loved it because I couldn’t predict the twists and turns, or the way the story managed to wrap itself up just so. But then as an adult, I became impressed with it for a whole host of new reasons– beyond the mystery story, it’s also about class, immigration, race, empathy, and how everyone is deeper than they seem. And then my writing nerd brain started going mad when I noticed the POV structure too. Raskin stages these scenes where the POV regularly flits from person to person, and somehow it still feels simple and easy to follow. It’s amazing.

When did you first discover your love for writing?

I’ve loved telling stories for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a book family– the spare room in our house became a de facto library, all the walls were lined with IKEA bookshelves. I remember that room being filled with spy novels and murder mysteries.

I remember doing short creative writing assignments as early as elementary school. Most of the stuff turned in was fairly short and sweet, stories about cats or families. Then I would churn out these truly bonkers stories about aliens and desiccated bodies. I think that was a sign.

Your debut novel, The World Gives Way, is out June 15^th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

A warm, humane, aesthetic apocalypse.

What can readers expect?

This is a book set on a generation ship, with characters on the run, making peace with the end of the world. It’s also a classist dystopia. All that’s to say: it’s definitely a sci-fi adventure. But it’s also very character-centric. The story focuses a lot on human connection and forming your own version of family. I was reading a lot of Emily St. John Mandel and Karen Thompson Walker at the time, two authors who do an excellent job bending genre to tell very human stories.

What was the inspiration behind The World Gives Way?

I’d had apocalypses on the brain for a few years (I’m sure the 2016 election had plenty to do with it), and I kept thinking about what it would be like for a character to know that the end of the world was coming, and what a story would be if it was less about trying to prevent an apocalypse, and more about fighting to live the best life possible in the time that’s left.

I’d also been thinking a lot about artificial worlds, about a place that looked mostly similar to the real world, just with uncanny tweaks and aesthetic changes. Mountain ranges, but the mountains are made of stained glass. A desert, but the sand dunes take on different colors. I even started dreaming about artificial worlds… years ago I had a dream about two people sitting upside down on the night sky, but the sky turned out to just be a huge expanse of sheet metal with light bulbs for stars. Stuff like that really helped inspire the story..

Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?

One thing I’ve learned about myself in real life and in writing is that I avoid conflict at all costs. Which in life is mostly fine, but in a book it can lead to characters turning completely static. A story needs conflict. If I don’t fight these instincts, I end up with my characters sitting alone in various rooms, not moving, just thinking  poetically about things.

The way I’ve gotten around this is to set story goals for myself. Instead of, say, a word count goal, I’ll sit down to write and make it my goal to have at least one exterior thing happen in the passage. It can be a small thing or a large thing– a character declaring war, or making a cup of coffee– just so long as it moves the story forward in some way.

Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I really loved writing all the angry parts of my main character, Myrra. She is an indentured servant in a world that is heavily imbalanced when it comes to class and wealth (this isn’t sounding familiar, is it?), and she’s had to lie and fight and manipulate her way forward. So she’s angry a lot. As a person who is generally sunny and avoids conflict, it’s wonderfully cathartic to write a character like that.

What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?

“You’re not a writer until you’re published.” I’ve heard versions of this before, sometimes directly, and sometimes just hinted at in the way up-and-coming writers are treated, and it always strikes me as a snobbish power play. People write for lots of reasons, to get in touch with themselves, for creative release, to communicate to others, and yes, sometimes they hope to be published. But every example of this is a valid form of writing, and makes that person a writer.

What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

I toiled for years working on novels and not finishing them, writing stories that didn’t publish, working at bookstores and taking writing workshops here and there. At the time, I don’t think I was really confident enough to commit to my writing. I spent a lot of time doing things halfway, too worried that I’d fail. Then one day, a switch flipped. I was working a day job that I enjoyed but didn’t love, and I saw myself getting consumed by it; I could see that if I didn’t change something I was going to stop writing altogether. So I quit my job, took a risk, got into an MFA, took on student debt, worked hard, made no money, got an agent halfway through the program, and we pitched to publishers shortly after I graduated. This is not how it happens for everyone, but this is how it happened for me.  It was a lot of nothing for years, and then things happened very fast.

Now nothing has changed, and everything has changed. I still have a day job at a bookstore. I still don’t make a ton of money. But the way I identify myself has changed. When someone asked, “What do you do?” I would say “I work at a bookstore/an art gallery/a bar, and I write sometimes.” Now I say, “I’m a writer, and I work at a bookstore, sometimes.”

What’s next for you?

I’m working on a haunted house story right now, and it’s been wonderful to write, partially because I love ghosts and horror, anything moody and gothic, and also because I’m setting it on the Oregon Coast, where I grew up. It makes a nice change after all the worldbuilding I did in my first book, and it’s also the perfect setting for a ghost story. I’m honestly surprised more horror stories aren’t set in the Pacific Northwest– there’s so much moody weather, all grey skies and dark impenetrable forests. I know Stephen King favors Maine, and English Gothic novels like their dark windy moors, but I think the Northwest has them beat.

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Yes! Working at an independent bookstore, so I spend a good deal of time thinking up book recommendations. A recent top five:

1. Susannah Clarke’s Piranesi will completely transport you and make you believe in human goodness.
2. Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here will offer you a hilarious tale of human combustion that also manages to be a perfect allegory for parenthood.
3. Tina May Hall’s The Snow Collectors is a fantastic gothic murder mystery that also features Victorian Arctic Exploration (?!).
4. Yuko Ogawa’s The Memory Police is a dystopia that will kill you with its poetic beauty and leave you wonderfully indulgently sad.
5. Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians has some of the best characters I’ve read in a horror novel in a long time, and somehow made elk terrifying. I grew up around elk– now I’ll never look at them the same way again.

Will you be picking up The World Gives Way? Tell us in the comments below!