Q&A: Andrea Jarrell

An Interview with the author of "terraforming"

by Leah Rambadt

Second person isn’t a perspective a writer often considers when choosing the narrative voice for a story. Nor is it one a reader expects when reading a literature piece. For most readers, their experience of being addressed as “you” in text is most likely from “how-to” books, such as a cookbook, or even a self-help book. And, since writers tend to write in a manner similar to what they read, the works narrated in second person can wind up resembling a list or an instruction manual.
 
But how can a reader’s experience change when reading a story written from a second person perspective?
 
Immediacy is the biggest change. In first or third person, you, the reader, are either sharing headspace with the protagonist and their view of the world around them, or following the protagonist and getting insight into their mind. In second person, you are the protagonist of the story, while the author guides you through the narrative.
 
“Terraforming,” Andrea Jarrell’s contribution to Grace in Darkness, is a memoir narrated in second person. You, as the protagonist, experience anxiety – parental anxiety, anxiety of the future – and struggle to achieve some kind of assurance that there is hope in the future. As you follow the journey Andrea narrates, you gain a new understanding of some part of yourself, and the world around you.
 
Andrea received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Bennington College, and is the author of I’m the One Who Got Away, a memoir. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is currently the head of a successful consulting firm.
 
Since Andrea frequently travels for work, I had the opportunity to ask her some questions about “Terraforming” and her writing life by email.
 
Why did you choose to narrate "Terraforming" from a second person perspective? Was it to give the reader a sense of immediacy, or was there another reason?
 
As a writer, second person was another way to get into the story — to try and see it objectively and enter it as if entering the story from a character’s point of view rather than my own.
 
It may seem odd to say given that I write memoir and personal essay, but rather than telling my stories I am more interested in how I can craft literature with my raw experience as my source material. I want to write what might feel more like short stories rather than essays.

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What do you hope readers will gain from reading your story? Did any personal experiences influence this story? 
 
The whole piece is drawn from the personal experience of closing out the time of my life when I was raising children. I hope readers feel the parental dilemma within themselves — the pang of making oneself unnecessary to one’s children.
 
Was the experience of writing "Terraforming" different from your writing experience with I’m the One Who Got Away? If so, how?
 
Different in that I continue to experiment with new approaches to narrative. This felt a little more experimental because of the use of second person to narrate my own experience.
 
Was the parallel between raising children and the terraforming of Mars the basis of the story, or did it form as you were writing? What drew you to make a parallel with the terraforming of Mars? 
 
My daughter actually said the line, “When the colonizing starts, will you go with me?” My immediate response that I’d be dead by the time that happened and the way she began to cry when I said that, stuck with me as the heart of the story. Then I read a news article about epigenetic research in mice; that they had inherited a fear of cherry blossom scent from their ancestors, not because they themselves had been exposed to cherry blossoms. All of this was happening during my son’s senior year of high school. These threads wove together into this story about wanting to prepare my kids for a future I’ll never know.
 
Both I’m the One Who Got Away and "Terraforming" are focused on familial relationships. In what ways has your private life, especially your family, influenced you as a writer in the past? How does it continue to influence you?
 
My private life is my primary material. I want to tell universally relatable stories through the lens of my personal experience. Human connection is what fascinates me and inspires me the most. I look to my personal connections and misconnections to find greater understanding about life. I use what happens in my own life and the way I make sense of it to try to tell interesting, larger stories.
 
How has your professional life influenced your writing life, and vice versa? 
 
My marketing business has trained me to write every day, to write on deadline, to listen to peoples’ motivations and make sense of them, to hook my readers and keep them interested. It’s taught me to cut to the chase, to use one sentence rather than three. I learned a lot more about narrative arcs and effective pacing. So many of the reviews of my memoir have called it “riveting.” I credit this, in part, to my now decade and a half of writing university marketing copy focused on trying to hold the attention of college-bound seventeen-year olds.
 
On the flipside, it’s not a coincidence that the idea for my marketing business struck me midway through my M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Bennington. While I was learning to write stories I began to see the colleges and universities I had worked for prior to starting my degree as big, epic tales with heroes, plots, dialogue and place as central to the story. This was before everyone in marketing was talking about “brand storytelling,” so I was fortunate to be a bit ahead of the curve. When done well, marketing copy needs to be surprising and inspiring. That’s what I aim for. My personal creative work helps keep my marketing work freer and, I hope, more surprising.
 
Why did you decide to contribute "Terraforming" to Grace in Darkness?
 
I was inspired by Melissa Scholes Young’s vision for the book. I love that it is part of an important series. As a transplant to the D.C. area it also makes me happy to be counted among this group of wonderful D.C.-area women writers.
 
Do you think it's important to have a literary journal dedicated to all-women authors? Why?
 
Yes, for a couple of reasons: First, VIDA statistics tell us that women are published less than men, so having another way to get women’s voices and work into the world is important. And second, anthologies are inherently thematic — having a collection by women is a theme in and of itself, especially when these women writers are all contributing their take on a larger purpose for the publication.

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Leah Rambadt is an M.F.A. in Creative Writing candidate at American University.