Tiffany Quay Tyson

"Don't be afraid.

You were born from cotton slaves and plantation owners, from preachers and kitchen help, from healers and murderers, from liars and truth tellers, from criminals and lawmakers, from bigots and from the oppressed, from monsters and saints. You were born from water and from earth and from blood.
And someday you may feel them watching you; those creatures crouched behind the trees, hiding in the water, lurking on the horizon, those creatures that live beneath shifting sands, above the dark clouds, or behind the stars. But I tell you they aren't beasts or ghosts or aliens come to read your dreams. Those eyes you feel watching you are the eyes of your family.
They mean you no harm."

Award-winning Grove/Atlantic author Kent Wascom says this about The Past is Never:
"Haunting and beautiful, steeped in history and myth, The Past is Never unwinds the darkest knots of what binds families together and reveals the marvels and monsters which lie within us all. In lucid, piercing prose, Tiffany Quay Tyson pushes to the raw edge of life, where the real and the unreal almost touch. This is great southern fiction."

I couldn't agree more. Reading Tiffany's book took me to places familiar and very unfamiliar. And I'm not just talking about physical places, I'm including emotions and spirit. I will never forget the family that resides in the pages of this wonderful book.

A quick summary describes the story as follows:
Siblings Bert, Willet, and Pansy know better than to go swimming at the old rock quarry. According to their father, it's the devil's place, a place that's been cursed and forgotten. But the Mississippi Delta summer days are scorching hot and they can't resist cooling off in the dark, bottomless water. Until the day six-year-old Pansy vanishes. Not drowned, not lost...simply gone.

The Past is Never just won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction and Linda-Marie (representing SIBA as the Asst. Executive Director) and I were fortunate enough to be invited to attend the ceremony at the prestigious Yacht Club in New York City.

Yacht Club

Linda-Marie, Tiffany and yours truly celebrating Tiffany's masterful novel.

Tiffany accepts her award.

The Past is Never is published by Skyhorse Publishing and available everywhere where fine books are sold, including, and above all, at your local independent bookstore. It is also:

Winner, 2018 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize

Winner, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction

Winner, Mississippi Author Award for Adult Fiction

Below are Tiffany's answers to my interview questions and her particularly insightful time travel thoughts.

Tell me about where you live and why you love it so much.

I’ve been in Denver, Colorado for 20 years now and I can’t imagine leaving. I live in a great neighborhood within walking distance of restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and a charming library. I can take the light rail and be downtown in no time or I can hop in my car and be in the mountains in less than an hour. I think a lot of people believe Colorado is snowed in all winter, but that isn’t true. Denver is a very sunny place. I run and play tennis outdoors year-round. Plus, there’s excellent live theatre, great museums, good food. All of that would be enough, but Denver is also home to Lighthouse Writers Workshop, which is a wonderful, large (and growing) writing community. I don’t think I’d have ever finished writing a novel without Lighthouse. And now I have the privilege of teaching there. It’s a good life.

Where were you living when you were 7 years old? Are they fond memories?

I lived in a house on Brookley Street in Jackson, Mississippi, from the time I was born until I left for college. 

It was a pretty typical childhood, I think. My father was an ironworker and my mother worked various office jobs, plus she often worked a second job at a department store. They were very busy, but somehow, they managed to get me to dance lessons and baton twirling lessons and, for a brief time, guitar lessons. They never missed a recital or a school play. 

The kids in the neighborhood would run around together after school or in the summer. Our parents didn’t keep track of us quite as diligently as parents seem to keep track of kids today, so we had a good bit of freedom.                                                                                                             

    7-year-old Tiffany.

There was a creek that ran behind our neighborhood and we’d often spend the day there climbing trees and pretending to be superheroes. 

                                                                        

I mentioned this to my mother recently and she was kind of horrified. She said she never would have allowed us to play around that creek, but as kids it never occurred to us to ask permission.

Did you have a favorite teacher and are you still in touch with him or her?

I’ve been fortunate to find the teachers I need when I need them. Thanks to social media, I’ve managed to reconnect with many of them. Dr. Bill Hays, one of my favorite English professors from Delta State University, always comes to my readings at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi. He had a strong early influence on my reading and writing, and I feel very lucky to be in touch with him now. This summer, when I won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, I got to see several of my college professors at the awards ceremony and it was a joyful evening. I also am in touch with Eve Bell, who was the librarian at my high school for many years. While not a traditional teacher, she nonetheless taught me a lot. She recommended great books and turned me on to new writers. Thanks to her, I’m predisposed to love every librarian I meet. It’s a solid instinct. 

"I'm not kidding anymore Mrs. Sharp. You have our book.  We have your son."

Librarians rarely disappoint me.

Thinking back, is there a book that you realize now that really changed the way you look at life?

I don’t know that any one book has changed the way I look at life, but I do believe a lifetime of reading has shaped my outlook. It’s like books are my friends. They give me advice and keep me company. For example, in the Ellen Gilchrist short story “The Double Happiness Bun,” the character Nora Jane Whittington says: “You don’t have to do what they want you to do if you don’t have to have their stuff.” I have thought about that line a hundred times over the years. 

                       

                Ellen Gilchrist

After college, I worked for a year as a newspaper reporter and I made less per hour than I’d made at some summer jobs in high school. Even so, I managed to save a tiny portion of every paycheck. I knew I’d need money to escape and to build a better life for myself. So, I ate a lot of cheap canned food and wore the same clothes over and over again. Anytime I felt deprived or tempted by a new pair of shoes, I would remind myself that I didn’t need stuff, that stuff would only weigh me down and make it harder to leave. I think everyone should know how little they can live with. Even now, though I have plenty of stuff, I would much rather collect experiences than collect objects. And I know that if I had to, I could still get by with very little and be okay, just like Nora Jane Whittington in that short story.

Do you have a favorite children’s book?

                                             

I love so many books that it’s impossible to choose one over all the others, but I’ll give you a selection. I adored From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, though I always figured it would be better to be locked in a library than in a museum. I read and re-read Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. I didn’t even know what an egg cream was, but I craved one after reading that book. 

I often dreamed about being Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Young Laura Ingalls Wilder

 Clearly, as a child, I liked books with feisty female protagonists. I still do.

What are the funniest or most embarrassing stories your family tells about you?

I don’t think I’m the source of too many funny stories, but one of my older cousins remembers a time when I got some dirt in my shoe and started crying. I was very young and, apparently, declared that I didn’t like getting my feet dirty. I refused to keep walking over the muddy ground. As my cousin tells it, my father carried me over the muddy patch, took me inside, and washed my feet. 

This may be an embellishment, but it’s possible. Needless to say, my cousin thought I was a spoiled brat. I don’t even remember this, but I’m sure it’s true because I still hate to have dirty feet. I don’t wear flip flops or go barefoot, and I always wear socks or slippers around the house.

Is there any message you want to give to future generations?

If I had a message for future generations, it would be to keep telling stories and trying to understand people who aren’t like you. Also, if you haven’t done so already, find a way to get money and corporate influence out of politics. Elect better leaders and hold them accountable when they become corrupt.

How did you meet your husband, the world famous producer/director John Burshtan? How did your first date go?

John and I both worked at a public television station in Denver. We were friends for a long time and that ultimately evolved into a relationship. As such, we didn’t really have a formal first date. We didn’t need one. We basically started a conversation that is still going on today. It’s still a very good conversation.

Wedding Day for Tiffany and John

Looking back, how would you say you are different now than you were in your 20’s.

When I was in my twenties, I spent a lot of time worrying about what other people thought about me. Now I know that no one thinks about me all that much, which is really quite liberating. Also, in my twenties I was so impatient. I was always chasing the next thing rather than enjoying the moment. I’ve made a real effort to cultivate patience over the years, and to live in the now. It’s still a struggle, but I’m getting better. 

What would constitute a “perfect” evening” for you?

Dinner at home with my husband followed by a neighborhood stroll with our dog. Then maybe we’d watch a little something on one of the streaming services. I’d definitely read a few chapters of a good novel. Possibly I’d have ice cream. (I get to have this evening all the time. It really is perfect.)

Were there parts in The Past is Never that your editor cut that you hated to see go? If so, what were they?

Actually, no. I loved working with my editor. It was a great collaboration. Her suggestions made the book stronger.

In my many years as a publisher’s rep, I spent a lot of time exploring the wonderful back roads of Mississippi and the delta. Is fictional White Forrest and its quarry, one of the main locations in your book, based on any real small town or place?

White Forest is very loosely based on the area near Greenwood, Mississippi, a place where I lived for about a year, but the quarry is purely of my imagination. I wanted to write about a cursed place, but not one that already exists. I didn’t want to be beholden to existing myths and legends, I wanted to create my own. The Mississippi Delta is full of places that are rumored to be haunted or cursed. The Crossroads, where bluesman Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the Devil, is there.  Mont Helena in Rolling Fork is built on an old Indian mound and people swear they’ve seen ghosts there. But the quarry is my own creation. It was somewhat inspired by the Devil’s Punchbowl in Natchez, Mississippi, which is a place that is rumored to be cursed, but which is actually just the site of a long history of human atrocities. I’m fascinated by such places.

Robert Johnson and the Devil
                   

Mont Helena

                                     Devil's Punchbowl                                 

    

One of the main and most fascinating characters in your story is “Bert." Is she based on someone you know or met?

I’m not sure how I came up with Bert, but I suppose she’s a mash-up of women and girls I’ve known. She’s dealt a pretty bad hand early in life and she finds a way to push through and emerge stronger because of it or in spite of it. She’s complicated and flawed, but I like her. I like people who acknowledge that life is hard, but still manage to find purpose and meaning in the world. Bert does that. I didn’t base her off anyone, but I’d be proud to know her.

The parallel stories of all the characters and how their lives merge is so well done. Was that the idea right from the beginning? 

I’m a terrible plotter! When I start writing a book, I don’t know where it will go or how it will come together. The whole process of writing is one of discovery. Because of that, I always end up writing a ton of stuff that doesn’t make it into the final draft. With this book, I started writing the sections of backstory as kind of an exercise for myself. I wanted to understand the history of the characters and the place. I wanted to know how they were formed. I really didn’t intend to use any of the earlier timeline, but I kept writing it and at some point, I started weaving it together with the main storyline. Then I took it out. Then I put it in and took it out again. Finally, I put it all in and sent it off to my agent, fully expecting her to tell me those early sections weren’t working. But she didn’t. I figured an editor would make me take them out. But that didn’t happen either. So that’s how all those parallel storylines came to be part of the book. I kind of feel like I was allowed to get away with something.

And in a short essay…………………………

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME

to any period from before recorded history to yesterday,

be safe from harm, be rich, poor or in-between, if appropriate to your choice,

actually, experience what it was like to live in that time, anywhere at all,

meet anyone, if you desire, speak with them, listen to them, be with them.

When would you go?

Where would you go?

Who would you want to meet?

And most importantly, why do you think you chose this time?

I wouldn’t choose to spend much time in the past, because I like owning property and having bodily autonomy and being able to control my own finances, which women couldn’t do for most of human history and which, frankly, we may not be able to do in the future if our political tides don’t shift. But I might make a short visit to Rochester, New York, in November of 1872. I would like to accompany Susan B. Anthony as she cast that famous vote in the presidential election, the one that got her arrested and cemented her reputation as America’s most famous suffragette.  

Then, I’d like to sit in her parlor on Madison Street, have a cup of tea, and ask her how she handles being ridiculed, mocked, and disparaged by the media and by leaders at every level of government. I would ask her how she feels about the women who call her names and who accuse her of trying to destroy the institutions of marriage and family. I’d ask if she finds it disheartening to see so many women actively working against their own civil rights.

Then I would tell her that women now have the right to vote and to serve on juries and to run for office, but in many significant ways things are much the same. I would tell her about the very silly people who spent years dissecting Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe and hairstyle, but not one minute considering her policy proposals. I would tell her how Americans sat by and let a bully of a man brag about groping women and then elected that man as president. And I would tell her about the man who whined when Sen. Elizabeth Warren refused to sit down and be quiet, how he complained to his fellow lawmakers and the media, “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” I would tell her about all the people who argue that a woman does not have the temperament to lead, while the petulant man-child sits in the White House and throws daily hissy fits on Twitter.

Then, I’d tell her about Twitter. 

I’d thank her for devoting her life to fighting a battle that she’d never win in her lifetime. I’d tell her that, sadly, there is still much work to do, there are still men and women trying to chip away at our basic civil rights. And I’d tell her how tired I am some days and how I can’t believe we’re still dealing with this level of sexism and misogyny and hatred in 21st Century America. I would ask her for advice on how to keep going when the world seems to be working against you.

I choose this time and this place because I recently visited Rochester to receive the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. While there, I visited the Susan B. Anthony House and Museum alongside a professor and a librarian from the University of Rochester. During that visit, we talked about how Ms. Anthony was really a whiz at public relations and media and how she’d have thrived in the age of social media. The librarian in our midst commented that Susan B. would have been great on Twitter. I suspect she was right; librarians usually get things right. And I found myself feeling grateful for all the women like Susan B. Anthony who fought for our civil rights in the past and for all the women fighting for our civil rights today. I am often tired by the time I read the morning news, but these persistent women give me hope. 

Thank you Tiffany, not only for writing such a spellbinding book but also for your wonderful and persistent spirit. 

Tiffany can also be very funny.

Oh, about the "Quay" in Tiffany's name:

"My mother went to high school with a woman whose middle name was Quay (pronounced Kway). She liked it because it was such an unusual name, so she gave it to me. When I was born, Tiffany was not a particularly common name. But, as is often the case, within a few years it became quite popular. I rarely meet other women my age named Tiffany. Almost all the Tiffanys are a bit younger than I am. But Quay remains an unusual name for a woman of any age. I know of only two other people named Quay, though I had one person reach out to me after my first book was published to tell me there was a Quay in her family, as well."