Stephen Elliott is the author of four novels including Happy Baby which was co-published by McSweeney's and MacAdam/Cage in February 2004 and will be published in paperback by Picador in 2005. If you live in Norway the answer is yes, the Norwegian rights have been purchased, so keep your eyes peeled. Same for Italy. He is also the author of Looking Forward To It Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The American Political Process.

small.spiral.notebook: A critic described your latest novel as an example of the great American novel. Perhaps in the late 50’s and 60’s, this concept of the great American novel was easily identifiable – a character or cast of characters in search for the American dream. In your opinion, how does Happy Baby fit? How does it break the mold?

Stephen Elliott: Really? Somebody said that? I don't know how I can begin to fit Happy Baby to that high of a standard. The only judgement I feel safe rendering on Happy Baby is that it's the best book I've ever written. That it's as good a book as I can write. I don't know if Happy Baby is entirely new. It's not an experimental novel. It's an extension, I hope, of Hemingway and Bukowski and Sylvia Plath and other minimalist writers who avoided back story and heavy handed description in favor of keeping the story moving, allowing the character's history to tunnel under the surface of the narrative.

The one way it's different, perhaps, is that it deals explicitly with sexual themes that are often buried in texts or are only written about by gay authors: JT Leroy, Dennis Cooper, Michelle Tea. There's very little literary fiction about men who get off on being abused by women. And there's not that much fiction that deals explicitly with a person who associates abuse with affection. I wanted to write about these things as much because I wanted to understand them as because I wanted to explain them.

SSN: You’ve noted that Happy Baby was better than any of your previous works, that you worked for eight hours straight each day on the novel. How long did it take you to write "happy baby" in comparison to your other books? Do you think the time you spent (or didn't) on the novel affected the quality of the book? Did this project discipline you in a way your previous books had not?

SE: It took me two years to write Happy Baby. I had a Stegner Fellowship funded by the Truman Capote Foundation at Stanford University. That really enabled me to spend all of my time writing. It wouldn't have been possible otherwise. I spent two years or so on all of my other books but I was able to spend so many more hours per day on Happy Baby. Also, I think as you write more books it gets easier and easier to spend long periods of time writing.

SSN: With respect to your own personal background – the line between fiction and nonfiction wonderfully blurs in Happy Baby. I’m curious about the motivation of a fictional novel and characters as opposed to a non-fiction one.

SE: Ultimately, in novel versus most memoirs, the actual truth doesn't really matter. All that matters is the emotional truth of the story being told. I don't even have a good enough memory to recount all of my childhood, especially quotes and specific details. But the fact that I spent a lot of time in group homes as a child as a ward of the court obviously influences me a lot. When I write about children in group homes, children who have abusive parents or no parents at all, I feel that I know what I'm talking about.

If you wanted to you could divide all novels into stories where the protagonist is a stand for the author (or at least seems to be) and novels where the author doesn't appear to be in the story at all. I prefer novels where the protagonist is a stand in for the author.

SSN: For years, the literary community found a stronghold in the New York publishing circuit with a smaller extension out west with beat poets, San Francisco poetry scene and most recently with Valencia and McSweeney’s, do you feel like you're a part of a particular 'literary community'? Does that affect or impact your work and writing? In what way?

SE: I definitely think there is something important happening in the San Francisco literary community. The business side of writing doesn't exist in San Francisco the way it does in New York or even Los Angeles. Just about everybody in the publishing industry in San Francisco is a writer. You're not likely to meet someone in San Francisco at a cocktail party who will publish you in their magazine or write a review or introduce you to an agent. But you will meet a lot of great writers who live there because it's a really positive, non-competitive environment. And if you look at the young writers living there now, Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, JT Leroy, ZZ Packer, Adam Johnson, Ryan Harty, Michelle Tea, Julie Orringer, Vendela Vida, Andrew Sean Greer. The list just goes on and on. It's a great community that I think is really passionate about the quality of their writing and less concerned about making a deal. Of course there are some great literary journals like McSweeney's and Zyzzyva, but not enough to justify the literary mecca it has become.

I think the encouraging atmosphere in San Francisco has helped me a lot.

SSN: Who are you reading at the moment? I find I’m most sane balancing classic literature (what I fondly term the ‘old stuff’) with contemporary, finding that the daring risks writers made before us serve only to infuse an individual writer’s style. Ex: Who other than William Vollmann dares so auspiciously to write Proustian length? Which authors crack the whip and raise the bar for you?

SE: I don't read the classics very much any more and recently the real back and forth for me is non-fiction and fiction. The last great novel I finished was Half A Life by V.S. Naipaul, which I loved. When I finished it I thought somebody should give the Nobel Prize committee an award for giving such good awards. Another great book I just finished was the Shah of Shahs, which is kind of creative non-fiction about the Iranian revolution. It's really good. I also loved Nick Flynn's memoir (not yet released but I got an advance copy) Another Bullshit Night In Suck City.

SSN: Do you find that you're more influenced and inspired to produce new work when you immerse yourself in great writing or do you need space from reading to start something new?

SE: Being immersed in great writing definitely helps me. When I read a great book it always inspires me to write. For me, reading and writing go hand in hand.

SSN: If you could have taken anyone to a high school prom – a formal (it could be an actress, a writer, a pet!) who would it be?

SE: Probably a female police officer, but it would be years before I figured out why.

SSN: Having completed the Wallace Stegner program and having also taught writing at Stanford, how do you feel about the academic side of writing? Does it help? If so, do you feel that the instruction itself is what helps, or is it the enforced schedules & time dedicated to the craft?

SE: The Stegner program isn't that comparable with an MFA program. There's no classes or grades. It's more similar to an NEA grant with a little bit of structure. But I think the academic side of writing is fine. Some of my favorite writers, like Michael Chabon, have MFAs. I learned a lot from the other fellows, especially since I didn't have an MFA and they did. I stole what they learned on the cheap. The great thing about MFAs is that they keep you writing for a couple of years when otherwise you might not.

SSN: With acclaimed books such as Politically Inspired and the forthcoming, Looking Forward to It or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the American Electoral Process (Picador) – was the shift from literary fiction to political essays and commentary a natural one? When did you first become politically aware? Why?

SE: I first really became politically aware when Proposition 21 passed in California in 2000, mandating children be tried as adults, taking away the judge's right to distinguish where this was inappropriate. The bill had no real support, the original backers had moved away from it, and nobody expected it to pass but it did. It was the first time I thought that if I had quite my job I could have maybe stopped that from happening. It's such a tragic bill. So then I got political. I worked for Nader in 2000 because he was the only candidate against three strikes laws and the death penalty. Obviously, things didn't quite turn out well from that decision. But I don't regret it. Then 9/11 happened and I started to question the point of even writing fiction. That's when I decided to put together the Politically Inspired anthology. Politics is a hard drug to kick once you're hooked. I write a lot about politics now but I think my writing is a little different since I started as a novelist and then worked my way into non-fiction, which is the opposite of what most people do.

SSN: Describe life on the campaign trail. From the release of Michael Moore’s controversial documentary, the aggressively critical viewpoints from European press and our involvement in what many term an unpopular war – do you feel in this particular election more a fervor than in any others you have known?

SE: I've only been involved in a couple, but there seems widespread agreement that this is the heaviest election in modern times. They say that the interest levels now are the same as they were in October of 2000. The nation seems more politically tuned in then at any point in my short life. But I'm only 32, so what do I know? I love being on the campaign bus. I love the feeling of sitting at the table while history is made. To me, an American presidential election is the greatest event in the entire world.

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Visit Stephen Elliott’s website

small.spiral.notebook reviews Happy Baby