David Hicks is a professor at Regis University in Denver, where he also co-directs the Mile-High MFA program.
Excerpts from his book “White Plains” have been published as short stories in “Glimmer Train,” “Colorado Review,” “Specs,” “Saranac Review,” and “South Dakota Review,” along with other journals.
White Plains was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards, one of Westword’s “Best Books of 2017” and the Arapahoe Libraries’ 2018 “Village Read.”
The follow is an interview with Hicks about “WhitePlains”:
What inspired you to write this book?
I had published a bunch of autobiographical stories and was thinking of putting together a collection; but when I arranged them chronologically, I saw that the book had a novel arc. I then needed to fill the gaps between stories, so I did so with stories from the ancillary characters’ points of view.
Who are your favorite authors and/or characters?
I’m a professor of early American literature, so I’m a big fan of Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, and Dickenson, and of the character of Ahab in Moby-Dick. Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” is my favorite novel, and I love everything Ron Carlson writes.
Why did you choose this excerpt to feature in SunLit?
It’s a key moment of the book, the turning point, when Flynn has bottomed out and needs to figure out what he’s doing.
What was the most fun or rewarding part of working on this book?
The most fun was asking my children, Stephen and Caitlin, to write the chapters told by Flynn’s children, about an event in their lives that I didn’t know about. They did a wonderful job, and I find those two chapters quite touching. I just can’t read them in public—I get too emotional.
What was the most difficult section to write in this book? Why?
Probably the chapters from the ex-wife’s point of view. Since the book is autobiographical, I had to suspend my own biases about my divorce and embody what it was like for my ex-wife. It wasn’t very flattering, but I think those scenes make the book better.
What was one interesting fact you learned while researching this book?
That the earth moves at roughly 1,000 miles per hour. It didn’t make it into the book—it almost did, in the section excerpted here—and I know most people learn this in school, but man, that just blows me away, that the planet is plummeting through space at that speed while we’re going about our everyday lives.
What project are you working on next?
I’m finishing up a novel about the demise of America, as told by a waiter in Yonkers. It’s really long—about 160,000 words—but it’s kind of a big topic, so I’m trying to decide whether to cut it down or let it be as big as it wants to be.
Buy: “White Plains” at BookBar
Excerpt: “White Plains” by David Hicks
More from The Colorado Sun
- Littwin: The racist Buffalo massacre tells a story of America that we don’t want to hear
- Opinion: The overly broad recycling bill on the governor’s desk deserves a veto
- World Cup schedule adds Alpine ski races at 2 more U.S. sites, including Aspen
- Man who shot protesters in Aurora is sentenced to 120 days in jail
- Rural Colorado students go to college at low rates. But one town bucks the trend.
- Colorado mountain towns feel more crowded than ever. But census data shows the population has barely changed.
- Hydropower is 53% of the renewable energy supply in the West. Drought is slowing down production.
- This Littleton detox center feels like a relaxing hotel. Is this the way out of the fentanyl crisis?
- Opinion: A solar-energy trade dispute erupts at exactly the wrong time
- Partner of fired Aurora police chief accused of making false sex abuse report against city councilwoman
