Makenna Goodman
Author of HELEN OF NOWHERE
A house holds a mirror, asks questions, makes demands of its occupants. Live in a space long enough and become part of its consciousness—if you believe it has one.
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In Helen of Nowhere, the possibility of a new beginning quickly transforms into an unexpected encounter when a disgraced professor finds himself communing with the former owner of the country house he’s interested in buying.
A maverick of contemporary fiction, Makenna Goodman has crafted a swirling, imaginative novel that cleverly considers the price of reputation, ego, and contentment.
Photo by: Sam Kelman
Girls on the Page
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Where did Helen of Nowhere begin for you, how long did you have the premise and characters in mind before you began writing?
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Makenna Goodman
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I began the book in 2020, right before we went into lockdown. I was working at a boarding school at the time, teaching high school English, and we were at a moment of great uncertainty both because of the pandemic and because of student protests around the country demanding change. The school remained open and we were in lockdown together, a group of about 60 people on a working farm in the rural countryside. A vibrant group of students faced with the utmost uncertainty in their lives wanted to believe that change at the school was possible. This was happening at a time when both anything and nothing seemed possible—there was a mass shift in how we lived our lives—and it was interesting to be a part of a very small community faced with big, real-world conversations about how to live, and what to do. Was it possible for us to create a kind of utopia together, as the rest of the world fell apart? Or, were we a microcosm of a fraught societal reality, as if performing a play called “What Went Wrong”?
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How and when did the structure of this novel take shape? Did you plan on having a multi-voice narrative from the beginning, or did the voices sort of demand their own space after you began writing?
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I began writing in my journal in response to the questions I was experiencing in my daily life.
And I was reading a lot of philosophy, especially Plato and Aristotle, a lot of older texts. I was interested in learning about classical Western and Eastern philosophy to make sense of the moment we were in. There was something comforting about going so far back in human thought, to a time of a much different kind of upheaval, as a way to contextualize the time we were in, so much is similar, so many of the questions remain the same. Society has changed, but humans have remained concerned with things like survival, power, love, and loss. Eventually, characters began to emerge, based on metaphors for certain aspects of the human condition. The characters started to take on a life of their own, and I directed them in a sense, as if they were actors.
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“Each character is a projection of some part of me, that is given a body to act out with. Each character is a collection of research, interactions, experiences, people, and projections. As such, they’re all inside of me, forever, in one mutation or another, shapeshifting.”
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—Makenna Goodman
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I’d love to hear about the nature of your “inspiration gathering”.
Some authors have a reserve of photographs, quotes, poems, films, etc. that they dip into for inspiration. For Helen of Nowhere—or any creative project—what did/does your creative caching look like?
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Whatever I read or watch or experience when I am writing a book, goes into the book. Whether it’s low brow television, art films, poetry, or some conversation overhead at the grocery store, it is cached in my mind, and then when I begin writing, it bubbles up and makes itself known. Obviously I am drawn to certain things, there is a kind of winnowing, but what I immerse myself in is driven by a desire to deepen an understanding about being human. I am interested in how we experience being alive, although when you say it out loud, it sounds so basic. Currently I am noting the kinds of research I am drawn to, the books I am buying, the music I am listening to, the head space I am in, the questions I am asking. What will this turn into? I don’t know yet. The story has not emerged – we aren’t at the sand table stage just yet.
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What does writing feel like for you? Where do you “go” when you write?
It’s kind of out of body, I have to say. I sink down into a different layer, and let the pen communicate something that often comes out very surprisingly. It’s in me, but I am not articulating it verbatim. There is an energetic influence. Call it the subconscious, call it spirit, call it whatever you want. It’s like a dream state – like a lucid dream state. Maybe that’s why I can only write at night.
Makenna Goodman is the author of two novels, Helen of Nowhere and The Shame, and has written for international publications including the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Harvard Review, The White Review, BOMB, The Common, ASTRA Magazine and Mousse Magazine. Also an editor, she is based in Vermont.
To buy a copy of Helen of Nowhere, consider supporting one of Makenna’s favorite bookstores:
Antidote Books, Type Books, Still North Books and Bar, Norwich Bookstore,
and Books are Magic.
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Interview by Emma Leokadia Walkiewicz
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