Books editor Claire Maby talks to Catherine Chiji, whose novel about a toxic marriage, narrated by a magpie named Tama, won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Books Awards 2023.
Claire Maby: Good morning Catherine! Congratulations and how are you?
Catherine Chiji: I am equal parts satisfied and exhausted.
How did you celebrate last night?
I went to the after party upstairs at the Aotea Center. For a while I watched the after party from the sidelines because I was doing a lot of photos and interviews. But having joined the party, it was wonderful to talk to the trustees of the Acorn Foundation and reminisce with them about the amazing woman that was Jan Medlicott and celebrate her legacy, which is extraordinary. She bestowed this reward forever; and the money grows in line with inflation every year. It’s extraordinary stuff and has brought a lot more attention to New Zealand fiction, as a great big prize money does.
I also got to talk to the three judges from New Zealand in the fiction category. Stephanie [Johnson]Gemma [Morrison]and John [Hura]. I also noticed that John Mitchinson, who is the international referee this year, started to follow Over there on Twitter.
How does Tama celebrate?
He ordered $64,000 worth of deep-fried cockroaches from room service. So he had a great time. My husband Alan and my daughter Alice who is seven were also there last night. It was a very late school night for them when they got back to Ngāruawāhia, but it was magical to sit there in the audience. When I got on stage I saw Alice looking so excited and so proud.
This is so wonderful. I thought about Tama’s voice, how extraordinary it is, and wondered if having a toddler around helped develop that voice?
I hadn’t thought about it, but it’s probably true. I wanted to make his voice very distinctive and quite different from the human voices in the book, so he had to have a different rhythm to his voice. And in particular, I wanted to touch on musicality in The Magpie is calling. So I was conscious of the use of repetition and the use of rhythm and in trying to copy that kind of noisy waterfall that you hear when the magpies scream and call.
Tama is a foundling child, both a mimic and a collector. He also testifies: is he a bit of a writer?
Yeah, I think that’s probably why I feel so deeply identified with him. I mean, obviously he’s a part of me, he’s my creation. There is always something of me in all my characters, however far they may be, they are from my own experience. I established him as an outsider: a stranger in a strange land, a creature of the wild who has been relegated to the domestic sphere. And because of his outsider status, he acts as a witness to what goes on between the four walls of this house and what goes on in this marriage.
What you have achieved is such a stunning achievement: the authentic voice of an animal. What research did you do? Have you read other books that describe animals that can talk?
I actually held back because I’m pretty superstitious about reading anything that seems pretty similar to what I’m writing because I don’t want to be influenced by it. But in terms of research, I have done a huge amount of research into the anatomy and behavior of magpies, and the history of the introduction and distribution of magpies in New Zealand. Much of it was pretty dry science reading.
I read a lot from an Australian researcher, a woman named Gisela Kaplan, who is actually a world authority on the Australian magpie, and gathered all kinds of fascinating information that I put into the characters. For example, the fact that magpies can sing two notes at once. This informs the two voices I give Tama in the book. There is his inner voice where he tells us his story and that voice is eloquent and musical and often quite lyrical. And then there’s the voice that people hear, which is everything he says in quotes in the book, and it’s all pure mimicry. It’s quite different from his other voice and to a lot of people it sounds like he doesn’t know what he’s saying and can’t understand what they’re saying. But, man, he knows better. And Marnie knows that, as do I.
Other things I learned about magpie anatomy also fueled the story. For example, the fact that their eyes are located laterally, so they can see one thing with their left eye and another with their right. In the book, the right eye is used for things like objects and routine, and is associated with a calm state; and what Tama sees from the left eye is associated with emergencies, fear, strong emotions, and a particular position or geography. So even though the reader won’t know about these differences between the left and right eye, I still wanted to express the fact that this amazing creature can see the world in a way that is different than we can. It also fits with what I wanted to do with the two different worlds in the book. There is the wild and the domestic, and they touch each other and flow into each other in the story. And Tama has a foot in both worlds.
The world of Magpies also has emotional and spiritual depth: it has a structure for belief and history. What informs this aspect of Tama’s world?
The research again. I realized that it was very hierarchical and that certain behaviors would not be tolerated. If a magpie goes outside of what is acceptable behavior, it will be removed and often become quite violent until it is forced to leave the group. If this happens, they will most likely not be able to join another group and will live alone, which is associated with a much lower life expectancy. So that kind of research really developed that aspect of the book for me, that a herd would have these strict rules and trauma.
For Tama, to be tainted by remaining in the human world and being drawn to the human world means that he is no longer welcome in his flock and with his family.
You’ve written this outstanding series of novels that just keep coming. I’ve been reading about your work ethic, your grueling writing schedule, and I was wondering, aside from just writing, and writing furiously, what advice could you give to those working on a novel?
Yes, besides going to your desk regularly, I would say join a writing group, share your work with other writers.
Look for those people who are attuned to the kind of things you produce. And that doesn’t mean they are people who will tell you that every single word is perfect and doesn’t need to be changed. But it’s been so important to me over the years to have writer friends who I can show my work to and who won’t have to tell me what doesn’t work and what does. We need that kind of encouragement. Writer friends, Tracy Slaughter, Elizabeth Knox, they were so invaluable to me when I got to the point where I couldn’t see the wood for the trees and could no longer tell where I should go with or what I should get rid of. You just need an outside view of a work as long as a novel, because you get so close to it that you often lose sight of what you need to keep and what you need to do.
Does writing get easier for you over time? Or is each book a new challenge?
I think every novel is its own challenge; each book is such a different creature. It feels like a mountain to climb when you’re on the front page. Or they are for me anyway. And I’m always trying to do something different or trying to push myself in a different direction or take on a different challenge.
But I think I’ve become more organized in terms of how I write, much less chaotic. I write more consistently these days, which is helpful because it means I end up throwing out a lot less. For my earlier books, I would allow myself to work on whatever struck me as most interesting on that particular day. This is one way to do it and it worked for a while. But that meant that often when I went through all the material I had, I ended up with three different things that couldn’t belong in the same novel because they contradicted each other, so I had to throw two away. I work more efficiently these days.
How does prize money affect you?
I mean, it’s huge. It’s a life-changing amount of money for a writer, for anyone. The cost of living is spiraling out of control and we are definitely feeling the pinch. So it’s probably a pretty boring answer to say I’m going to throw it at our mortgage. But that’s what I’m going to do with it. And it gives me such a sense of stability to be able to know that I can clear this big debt. Every writer needs a stable place to write, and for me that’s home. It feels pretty special to be able to use the money for our home.
A new novel called Pet is coming out soon. Can you tell us what this is about?
It’s a literary thriller set in a New Zealand primary school in 1984. It’s told by a 12-year-old girl who falls under the spell of a glamorous, charismatic new teacher. Gradually, Justin begins to see that something is wrong.
Carnival of the Ax by Catherine Chiji (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35) can be ordered from Unity Books Wellington and Auckland.
Pet by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) can be pre-ordered online here.
Catherine Chiji appears on Oakland Writers Festival in an event called “What the Magpie Says”11.30am Friday 19 May at Aotea Centre.