Tara Campbell Continues Book Tour at Hugo House

City of Dancing Gargoyles cover

TaraCampbell.com

In Tara Campbell’s novel City of Dancing Gargoyles, the author unifies genres to create a lyrical, at times absurdist, visionary saga, of two sentient gargoyles as they seek respite from the cataclysmic climate on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Known only as “M” and “E”, they eventually travel alongside two unlikely allies—humans Rose and Delores Baker—in a search for the mysterious City of Dancing Gargoyles.

The novel presents a world where inanimate objects gain consciousness, seemingly in response to human excess. Through the gargoyle "M"'s stories and scientific reports interspersed throughout the narrative, readers glimpse cities transformed by these newly sentient entities. In one town, trees collaborate to combat crime, often acting with swift and final justice, the rules known only to them. Another city faces an unexpected threat: a culinary experiment gone awry has produced sentient chocolates, creating a surreal and disturbing scenario.

Campbell's work blends elements of fantasy, magical realism, poetry, and speculative fiction, which evokes the styles of a host of renowned authors, including Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, Walter de la Mere, Octavia Butler, Jonathan Swift, Douglas Adams, Ann Carson, and Brian O'Nolan, offering readers a robust, immersive literary experience.

Tara Campbell’s book tour continues at Hugo House in Seattle, with a reading and writing workshop on September 18, 2024, from 7pm-9pm at the Salon Stage.

I was fortunate to interview Tara in anticipation of her reading and workshop.

Nicole Bearden (NB): Your novel "City of Dancing Gargoyles" blends elements of speculative fiction and magical realism and even elements of poetry. How do you balance these genres to create a cohesive narrative, and what challenges did you face in merging the fantastical with the everyday?

Tara Campbell (TC):

I've always been a great believer in reading and writing across genres. I loved reading and writing speculative fiction as a kid, but then when I went to college, I thought I should "grow up" and start reading more literary fiction. I fell out of writing altogether while pursuing a career in international education but went back for my MFA as a non-traditional student in my 40s. American University's MFA program encouraged taking classes across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and I appreciated that expansive approach. Then, after my MFA, I found myself snapping back like a rubber band into my original, weird, speculative self—but with additional background and tools to be even more creative with it. I can't say I've faced challenges merging the fantastical with the everyday in my writing; it's more a matter of finding the readers that want to take that particular journey with me.

NB: Magical realism often serves as a lens to examine social and cultural issues. How does your use of this genre in your writing allow you to explore contemporary themes or concerns?

TC: I find it incredibly freeing. Working in the surreal allows me to convey how bizarre some of our own self-inflicted problems are. The story "In the City of Sneaking Needles," for example, was my way of dealing with our intractable addiction to firearms; if there was an epidemic of needles sneaking up on people and stabbing us in our schools, churches, offices, movie theaters, homes, etc., we'd find a way to deal with it. But somehow, we can't seem to tackle the very real problem of gun violence. "In the City of Gurgling Windchimes" is an examination of generational wealth, and the way we have put all the responsibility on those without it to bootstrap their way up in an increasingly unequal system. Surrealism allows me to get my arms around a complex situation by portraying the dynamics in sharp, ridiculous relief.

NB: Prose style can significantly impact the reader's experience, especially in speculative fiction. How would you describe your approach to prose, and how do you adapt your writing style to convey the otherworldly elements in your stories?

TC: I often describe my work as speculative fiction for people who don't think they read speculative fiction. I think the main thing that's been tricky to navigate is the level of ambiguity different audiences are willing to engage in. Based on years of workshopping with mixed readerships, I've noticed that speculative readers tend to be more comfortable with not knowing everything at the start and figuring things out as they go, whereas mainstream readers often want to be fully grounded in setting and character before they embark on the rest of the journey. This also applies to the ending—different kinds of readers want different degrees of resolution in the end. So the level of ambiguity is something I've been experimenting with in my work, and I've been trying to be braver and get weirder as I go.

NB: Speculative fiction covers a wide range of subgenres and styles. Which authors or works in this field have most influenced your writing, particularly in terms of world-building and integrating fantastical elements into your narratives to address real-world concerns?

TC: Every interview I've ever taken part in has had a shout out to Margaret Atwood. Her worlds, like in The Handmaid's Tale and the MaddAddam trilogy, are so haunting because they draw directly from worlds we already know. She doesn't have to create new science or new means of repression because those things are already part of our world. She's observing and recombining them in ways that are both fantastical and eerily familiar.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I was obsessed with that book to the point of dressing in a bathrobe to give a book report at school (yes, I was an incurable nerd). Much of my work is the love child of those two, somewhere between stark and absurd. One of my readers described it as "dark absurdism and existential whimsy with a heartbeat." I always need a bit of humor with my despair.

Tara Campbell / Hillary Deane

NB: Your upcoming book tour includes a stop at Hugo House in Seattle. What are you most looking forward to about engaging with the literary community there, and how do you think the Pacific Northwest's writing scene differs from other regions you have been a part of?

TC: It's been an interesting transition from the DC-area writing community to the Seattle-area writing scene. Both have been so open and accommodating, nothing like the competitive environment you hear about in New York. The one thing I've noticed is that people tend to gather by genre here in Seattle, like I'll find poetry groups and speculative fiction groups, whereas in DC there tends to be more cross-genre mixing at readings. But then I'm writing this in a cross-genre meeting of Shut Up and Write, and open mics here often blend music, writing, comedy, etc., so it's all just a different way of building community.

I've been blown away by the con [convention] culture and the depth of talent in the speculative fiction community here in the Pacific Northwest. So many amazing writers, so much cosplay, and bookstores that feature local writers. It's been refreshing to write in a space where speculative fiction is acknowledged as a main attraction rather than a niche.

NB: At Hugo House, you'll be leading a workshop on September 18. Can you give us a sneak peek into your approach for this session and share one key insight or exercise participants can expect.

TC: Of course! I'm going to read a little bit to introduce my novel, but then open up my process and give folks an opportunity to try out the idea that sparked the creation of the book. Our prompt is going to be all about cultivating "deliberate paradoxes," a novel pre-writing technique from Michael Moorcock. We'll be mashing together concepts that have no business being together and setting them into motion.

NB: As a creative writing instructor, how would you describe your teaching philosophy? Are there any unique methods or activities you use to help your students unlock their creativity and develop their craft?

TC: I like to approach my classes as an invitation. I don't base them on the assumption that people have deep knowledge of genre tropes or literary techniques, because I'm all about opening up writing and genre to new people. I remember going to my first sci-fi con and feeling totally out of place in the genre that I was supposedly writing because I didn't know all the books and references that people were talking about. I want to be the place people can go to dip their toes in, to encounter stories that are toeing the lines between genres, and to be reassured that you don't have to be an expert before setting pen to paper. We're all making this up as we go, and all voices are important.

I also encourage multiple roads toward storytelling: prompts are a great way to activate imagination, and flash fiction is wonderful for cultivating imagery, and "hermit crab" stories are fantastic for experimentation, so all shapes and forms are welcome in my classroom.

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Tara Campbell is an award-winning writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse, and graduate of American University's MFA in Creative Writing. Publication credits include Masters Review, Wigleaf, Electric Literature, CRAFT Literary, Uncharted Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Escape Pod/Artemis Rising. She's the author of the eco sci-fi novel TreeVolution, two hybrid collections of poetry and prose, and two short story collections from feminist sci-fi publisher Aqueduct Press. Her sixth book, City of Dancing Gargoyles, was released by Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP) in September 2024. She teaches creative writing at venues such as Johns Hopkins University, Clarion West, The Writer's Center, and Hugo House.