Anne Germanacos’s collection of short stories, In the Time of the Girls, was published by BOA Editions in 2010. Her novel, Tribute, published by Rescue Press, appears in 2014. Together with her husband, she ran the Ithaka Cultural Study Program in Greece on the islands of Kalymnos and Crete. She runs the Germanacos Foundation in San Francisco.
An excerpt from her novel, Tribute, appeared in Issue Fifty-Nine of The Collagist.
Here, she answers questions "in the form of excerpts"—with further excerpts from Tribute. Enjoy!
What is writing like?
"An erotic inquiry? An inquiry into eros?
A bit of porn, a smidgen of philosophy."
"I go there alone, mingle with ghosts."
"Need to put things in order, take a walk on a treadmill, translate something, be translated."
"Is this a fault, a quirk, or simply a habit?"
"naked, flipping our skin off, and on again"
"(a sliver of perfection)"
What isn't writing like?
"I watch that line of ants, arduously, marchingly carry a piece of something we neglected to put in our mouths."
"A lover is naked; an artist's model poses in the nude. The writing should seem naked, but the seemingness of it makes it nudity."
When you do it, why?
"I love trading glances."
"Still eager to know the secret at the very heart of the world."
"Time to get going, time to pay attention."
"All of us attempting to fuck our way through life?"
When you don't, why?
"(You know what you need to do but can you make yourself do it?)"
"Just ride out into some sunset or other"
"(If only I could report from another world--or place, at least.)"
"Where do you wear your skin? (Do you wear it, or does it wear you?)"