When I bump into neighbor and bestselling novelist, Jill McCorkle, on one of Hillsborough’s tree-lined streets, I know it’s going to be a good day. There’s her smile for starters, and her Southern accent, which she says befuddles even Siri, and a big heart that embraces friend and stranger alike. Earlier this year her latest collection of stories, Old Crimes, was published to rave reviews. “Dazzling,” “splendid,” and “extraordinary” are just a few of her recent accolades. 

Q: You’ve been quite busy the past several years and now you have this new collection of stories. What was the impetus?

A: I always have a story idea or two in progress but find that when fully involved in a novel, I put the stories aside and just continue to add details and thoughts along the way as I store up for time post novel to give attention. Several of the stories had been published earlier, but the bulk of them were ideas left to simmer. I find that when this happens, there is often a thematic connection that begins to take shape, the same as it would if they were parts of a novel.  

Q: The promotional copy for Old Crimes says that you take “us deep into these conflicted and sympathetic characters, puzzling to figure out the meaning of their own lives.” Did writing these stories help you figure out more about the meaning of your own life?

A: I think that it is impossible to fully immerse yourself in a project and the lives of others, and not learn something about yourself, or experience a kind of resurrection—for better or worse–of a particular time or place or memory. I think the real beauty of aging is the ability to look back and see connections and meanings that you never saw before. For me—and I suspect for most of us—this is an endless process

Q: Would you characterize yourself as a Southern writer? If not, why not?

A: I am definitely a Southern writer in that I was born and raised in the south with all of my earliest memories firmly rooted in the microcosm of my hometown. I have an accent that Siri can’t decipher even after living in New England for 20 years. I share that complicated love/hate of the south that so many do. You love the foliage and language and much you associate with the notion of home and you despise a history steeped in racism and hatred and rigid judgments of all kinds.  I think that the danger of being labeled as a “southern” writer would be if it implies that your work is only of interest to others of the same region. In this collection, my characters move back and forth, sometimes in the south and sometimes in New England. After years of teaching in both places, I have come to think that on the page, the biggest divide is rural/ urban.  Students from small towns in New Hampshire or Maine often were very similar to those of the Carolinas. Different language and weather, but thematically kin.  

Q: When you are writing, what does a “typical” day look like for you?

A: I’m always writing and it was a great realization when I discovered that there was no on/off switch but a constant return/ revisit/ recognize all along the way. As a result, I am a compulsive note taker for fear of losing those fragments that blow in and out all day.  Then, when I sit down, I have a beginning of some sort and start typing. I love early morning and that is the time for collecting the ideas and thoughts and revisiting what is in place. I never come to the keyboard empty handed. I like that writing is so portable and so my day is pretty flexible as I go here and there, storing up for a big block of time that allows me to dive in. After almost 40 years, I am only now not teaching on a formal schedule and so I am coming into a place that offers more time than I have had since I was in college.  

Q: Do you have any suggestions for people who want to become writers, whether fiction, non-fiction or any other genre?

A: To borrow from Nike, the best advice really is Just Do It–get something on the page.  The best advice I got as a young writer was that I NOT censor or edit myself prematurely, that I get rid of whoever it was standing behind me with judgment and criticism, so that the first draft offered no concerns except to the characters and situation on the page. I begin each project telling myself that no one will ever have to see it, so let it fly.  It’s liberating to give yourself total freedom and THEN, in revision, you can think about other aspects, problem solve, etc. But there’s no way to get to step two without step one. You cannot sculpt something without first producing a big messy chunk of clay.