LaToya Watkins’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in A Public Space (2018), the Sun (2018), McSweeney’s (2017), West Branch (2017), and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and scholarships from A Public Space (2018), MacDowell Colony (2016, 2018), Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (2015, 2017), Yaddo (2018), Hedgebrook (2017), and Kimbilio Fiction (2014). She writes and teaches in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. An excerpt from her story “Sweat” can be found here. It appears in the Mar/Apr 2020 issue of the Kenyon Review.
What was your original impetus for writing “Sweat”?
I was stopped at a red light one day after teaching, and I glanced over at the car beside me. There was a middle-aged couple, man and woman, and they were just sitting. They weren’t looking at each other or around them. They were looking straight ahead. It was like they were afraid to move their necks because they didn’t want to see each other. They looked miserable. And I thought about them all the way home. Wondered if they had children. If they still enjoyed each other’s bodies. If they still loved each other or if they had forgotten how or why. I knew I had to write about them.
Can you talk a little bit about the way the conflicts between characters are exacerbated by the animals in their environment—from the foreshadowing in that confrontation to the raccoons to the moment Lotrece holds her husband Clayton at gunpoint?
I don’t know if the conflicts are exacerbated by the animals as much as the animals are offering the characters moments to self-reflect. Lotrece with her own dog as a girl, with Angelica’s cat, with the raccoons, these moments are all meant to help Lotrece understand herself and the emotions swirling around these moments. Clayton has no idea what Lotrece is capable of, but the animals, they do. They are meant to remind Lotrece that she does, too.
Are there other authors who have written about female desire—or betrayal—in a way that has stuck with you?
Suzan-Lori Parks (Getting Mother’s Body) and Gayl Jones (Eva’s Man).
How has your writing changed since you started out?
As I grow older, I have more to write about. More experiences, more pain, more joy, more fear, just more of everything. As I grow older, I speak less and observe more. This is good for my writing. For creating characters and the situations that define them. I think these things allow me to see stories in places that I didn’t before.
Which non-writing-related aspect of your life most influences your writing?
Being a black woman. It’s huge.
What is either the best or the worst piece of writing advice you’ve received or given?
I don’t know if I’ve ever been given bad writing advice. I’ve had people give me advice that wasn’t for me—that wasn’t applicable to me, but I can’t say it was bad. For a long time, I thought “write everyday” was horrible advice—too much pressure. And then I realized that it was just advice that didn’t work for me. I had to figure out what worked for me. That advice—“write everyday” helped me do it.
What project(s) are you working on now, or next?
I’m finishing up a novel and a story collection.