Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [13]
Q&A with Author Adriana Trigiani
How to write a book about your hometown
(and still be welcome back)
Trigiani’s main character, Ave Maria, is a 30-something life-long resident of Big Stone Gap. While Adriana moved away after college to write for television in New York City, her books are the imagined life she might have lived had she stayed there. Her parents still live in Big Stone Gap and, when she returns for book signings, she’s embraced by the community.
Q: How did you write a book about a town where you haven’t lived in nearly 20 years, from a New York City apartment?
A: That’s the best way. I deliberately didn’t go and spend long stretches there; I wanted to have the feelings I had back then. Art helped me – I had a giant painting of a house in a clearing in the Blue Ridge Mountains and I would stare at it. It looks a lot like the cover of the first book.
Q: Did you think about what it might mean for this little town to have a novel set there?
A: I didn’t think about that at all. I thought it was like naming it “Philadelphia.” When I went home I realized how important it was to them. If it helps them, that’s great.
Q: There are some names in the book similar to real people’s; are they based on the characters of those people?
A: No, they’re all fictitious characters, though I did steal some nicknames and parts of real names. Iva Lou is the name of a friend, but she’s so far from that character. I used surnames that were authentic to the area. I saved a lot of obituaries.
Q: Are you Ave Maria?
A: No, but the first book catches the sense of living in a place and time that, while it’s enchanted, you’re dreaming of what’s to be. She’s not me, but she became a real person to me and really dictated how things would go and took over the twists and turns of the plot. I did get books from the Wise County Bookmobile, like she did, about three a week.
Q: Would you ever consider moving back to your hometown?
A: I think it’s just the most beautiful place; I think it’s America. But when I’ve had the experience of something, I don’t have to repeat it.
Trigiani’s first book in the trilogy, Big Stone Gap (Random House, 2000), is set to become a movie and will be filmed in town. The second, Big Cherry Holler, was published in 2001, and the third, Milk Glass Moon, in 2002.
Western Virginia
Mineral springs and cooler climes have drawn vacationers to the resorts of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge for more than a century. Civil War campaigns raged up and down the valley, leaving nearly every small town with a tale to tell and a battlefield nearby. Today’s visitors come searching for antique treasures, to explore deep caverns, and view the waterfalls and vistas of Shenandoah National Park.
Getting Here
Interstate 81 and the Blue Ridge Parkway run through the heart of Western Virginia along the Blue Ridge, providing easy access to the Shenandoah region. Travelers arriving by air generally use Roanoke Regional Airport, tel. 540-362-1999.
Regional Information
Shenandoah Valley Visitors Center, I-81, Exit 264, New Market, tel. 877-Visit-SV, www.shenandoah.org.
Western Highlands Travel Council, 241 W. Main Street, Covington, tel. 540-962-2178, www.alleghanyhighlands.com.
Strasburg
Strolling down Holliday Street at twilight after a fine dinner at the Hotel Strasburg, I’m overcome by the scents of spring: fresh-cut grass, wisteria climbing a porch trellis, honeysuckle intruding into a hedge. In the approaching darkness, lights shine from inside Victorian-era houses. Cars start to stream out of the nearby high school as a ball game lets out.