THE THREE with Ursula Villarreal-Moura
An interview, a photo story, and Pop-Up Questions
Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022) and the forthcoming novel Like Happiness (2024). Her writing has appeared in various magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Story, Prairie Schooner, and Bennington Review. Find her at www.ursulavillarrealmoura.com
Math for the Self-Crippling is a gorgeous collection of very short stories set in San Antonio, Texas- Texas, where the author is from- throughout generations. The writing is just fantastic, lush, and slightly surreal, and I read each story at least twice. You feel from sentence one the command the writer has over her subject matter and place, these Chicano families and their struggles and connections, and it pulls you in.
POP UP QUESTIONS
The writer picks five out of ten pop-up questions and answers them.
What book do you wish you could read again for the first time and why?
Oh, the ones I write because it's maddening to read your own book 45,679 times in the editing stages.
What is a quote that has endured in your mind?
My middle school English teacher had a Thomas Mann quote on the wall that read: “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” As a teen, I found the quote perplexing because I loved to write and it came fairly easily to me. The longer I remain a writer, the more the quote resonates with me. I am in awe of wonderful books because I know how hard writing truly is.
What music do you love on road trips?
Ideally, I'd listen to the album Anything Else by the Truth by the Honorary Title, Breathing Tornadoes by Ben Lee, and a mix of Death Cab for Cutie, The Flaming Lips, Saves the Day, American Football, Built to Spill, and Broken Social Scene. These aren't necessarily my favorite bands, but I love listening to them on road trips.
What philosophy, religion or school of thought has given you something real, and what is that real thing?
I've been studying Buddhism on and off for 20-something years. It's granted me the ability to meditate, to know my feelings are transient, and it's piqued my interest in neuroplasticity. I also understand how to focus better. Sometimes I can focus like a boss, but sometimes eh.
What books comfort you?
Say Goodnight, Gracie brings me a lot of comfort; it's a YA novel published in 1988. I also adore Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Shop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela is so smart and quietly hilarious, and I think of it a lot. I love almost everything by Roberto Bolaño, Muriel Spark, Melissa Broder, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Sigrid Nunez. Their books are so magical and comforting to me.
PHOTO ROLL STORY
The writer picks a photo from her phone and tells us about it.
This photograph is from May 10, 2020. During COVID lockdown, I rediscovered my love of scented candles. The ones burning in this image smelled of roses and fresh linen. I usually have a candle lit at various times of the day. I'm obsessed with fragrances, so smelling something pleasant anchors my thoughts and allows me to focus better. I've also had a longtime fascination with reflections in photographs. Both my television and kitchen appear here, albeit in flashed distortions.
THE INTERVIEW
The writer answers questions about her life and work.
Math For the Self-Crippling is such a vivid, detailed collection of stories. The writing, the atmosphere, reminded me quite a bit of The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende, one of my favorite books. Obviously the two works are quite different in some ways, mainly that yours is a collection of short stories and Allende's is a novel, but the feeling that the author was in full control of the mood and the characters, as well as a sense of worlds beyond our knowing, really struck me in both. What was it like writing these stories, how did they come to be?
The House of the Spirits is on my to-read list. I've heard so many wonderful things about it. The stories in Math for the Self-Crippling came about slowly over the course of five years. Some originated as answers to prompts I gave myself, such as writing a story based on a photo. Others were just fun language experiments. I actually didn't think of these stories as a book until around 2017 or so when I realized how many of them I had amassed.
What is your favorite short from this collection, and why?
I'm partial to Blood Paisleys, 1990 and to Abacus of Self-Improvement. The former has a dry humor that I hope readers will pick up on and appreciate. I also like the idea of starting a story with a second-person question. The latter is a fun language experiment. Even though it's my own story, the imagery sometimes still surprises me.
Who would you consider your strongest writing influences, and what did you take from those writers?
I love Muriel Spark and Robert Bolaño. In terms of influence though, I think there are elements of Spark's uncanniness in my work. To be honest, I'm not sure what elements of Bolaño's work appear in my own work, if any. It's possible I adore his writing but have not mimicked his style or themes at all.
Do you have a strong sense of the world beyond the veil, and did you intend to write mysticism into your words?
Much of my fiction doesn't deal with mysticism, but Math for the Self-Crippling certainly does. I was raised with Catholicism, which in a sense requires faith in magic. All religions to an extent rely on a belief beyond the veil. In trying to capture some of the imaginative wildness of my youth, I had no option but to slip into mysticism. That said, I plan to write a novel about dream travel in a few years, or more specifically finish the book I've already started on the topic.
It's been said that fiction writers often have a few themes that they work and rework- either purposefully or not- throughout their life. Does this feel true about your writing, and if so, what would you say your themes are?
The themes in Math for the Self-Crippling are dreams, loss, and death. In my other writing, I would say self-actualization is a major theme. To a lesser degree, financial distress is another.
Has the pandemic made the focus and creative flow of writing harder for you? What do you lean on to stay vital?
No, it's made it easier. I've become more of a homebody. Before the pandemic, I often wrote in cafes or libraries. Now the majority of my writing happens either at home or in outdoor spaces. I'm chronically ill, so I still have to be cautious in indoor spaces. Being able to write outdoors has done wonders for my mood, so I am grateful for that.
What are you working on now, and how is it going?
My editor and I are finalizing edits to my novel Like Happiness, which is slated for 2024 publication. It's radically different from Math for the Self-Crippling. A couple minor characters are religious, so there is some mysticism but it's light. Once those edits are done, I'm taking a break and reading a ton of books. My list includes everything by Patricia Highsmith, New to Liberty by DeMisty Bellinger, and The Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije.