If you Google award-winning fiction writer, Karl Iagnemma, you may find yourself on the wrong page––literally. Karl Iagnemma’s Home Page identifies him as a “Research Scientist and Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology” and the numerous publications listed all relate to his research with nary a literary journal among them. Luckily, Karl foresaw the possible confusion and included a link to “a fiction-related page” that showcases his short story collection, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction.
While it is not unusual for writers to engage in other primary (and perhaps more lucrative) careers, some might find it surprising that a writer who delves so deeply into human relationships is, by day, a researcher in the field of robotics. It is even more surprising that, rather than putting a wall between his two careers, math and science often provide a framework for Iagnemma’s short stories. In fact, the title, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, was “… intended to be a play on an academic thesis, many of which have lofty titles like On the Properties of X or On the Nature of Y....”
Encouraged to choose a minor course of study while pursuing his Ph.D., Iagnemma chose Creative Writing and wrote much of his short story collection while a student. His work has appeared in Tin House, SEED, One Story, and Zoetrope as well as the Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies. He has won numerous prizes including the Paris Review Discovery Prize, and On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Series.
While continuing his robotics research at M.I.T., Karl Iagnemma is also working on a novel. He recently took the time to answer some questions for our readers about the writing life and balancing his two careers.
R&T: You work as a Mechanical Engineer conducting research in the field of robotics. Many people might find it odd that you combine that career with writing, especially as so much of your writing deals with human relationships. Do you see any connections between the two professions?
Iagnemma: I do. Research is a much more creative endeavor than many people might think. A research investigation begins with an idea, a spark, and proceeds through stages of increasingly structured analysis and exploration––the same mental process I use when drafting a short story. Of course, the day-to-day work is much different for research than it is for fiction writing, but the underlying creative processes feel very similar to me. And, for both writing and research, when something is good it usually feels elegant and somewhat inevitable.
R&T: When and how did you first discover that you wanted to write fiction?
Iagnemma: I don't think there was a single "eureka" moment. My mother wrote children's stories when I was growing up, so fiction writing always seemed like a reasonable adult activity. As a teenager I wrote a bit––a few pages of prose when the mood struck me or when I wanted to particularly impress a girl. It wasn't until I was at the University of Michigan [as an undergraduate], enrolled in a writing class taught by Charles Baxter, that I began to take writing seriously, and think about how I might improve my fiction.
In retrospect, my first undergraduate fiction workshops were really what did it. I’d always possessed a vague urge toward writing, but Charles Baxter really inspired and encouraged me to take the craft seriously. I owe him a deep debt of thanks.
R&T: In addition to your short story collection, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, you have collaborated on several books and articles on robotics. Do you find one form of writing easier than the other? Is it hard to switch gears?
Iagnemma: Technical writing is far, far easier than fiction writing, largely because technical writing is an exercise in reporting something that has been done––I did this, observed this, computed this––whereas prose writing is an act of artistic expression. There are rules for the former but no (useful) rules for the latter. As a result, it’s impossible to get writer's block when working on a technical article––you simply sit in the chair, turn the crank, and watch out for dangling participles. As all fiction writers know, however, there are many, many occasions when an image won't appear, or when a character won't reveal his (or her) self.
That said, it's not too hard to switch gears, because the most basic goal of all writing is the same: To clearly express a thought. That's why I think any form of writing––journalism, technical writing, legal analysis, whatever––is probably good exercise for fiction writing. It's a form of practice, like playing scales or shooting free throws.
R&T: In your short stories the characters all seem to struggle to impose some rational framework onto their relationships. In many cases, they fall back on science and mathematics. In one, it is the pseudo-science of phrenology. In The Indian Agent, it is the bible and the relationship isn’t romantic, but intercultural. Do you see this as something universal in human relationships or as something specific to certain individuals? What is it about that aspect of relationships that interests you?
Iagnemma: I think it's a fundamental human impulse to try to assign order to the utterly disordered and confusing aspects of life. We are continually trying to understand why person A did what they did, or what person B might do next. Sometimes it's very hard to accept that a person does something significant simply because they felt like it. Or because they were bored. Or because they were reminded of a time in fourth grade when.... You get the point.
I suspect that it's even harder for technically-minded people (like myself) to accept irrationality. Many of the characters in my book try to find ways to understand the world through science or math, but none of them are really successful. And that's what interests me (and everyone, I'd guess) so much about human relationships: that they are so imprecise, indefinable, uncertain, unpredictable.
R&T: Do you think it is easier writing fiction when it is not your first career? Have you ever felt compelled to write but couldn’t?
Iagnemma: There are strong pros and cons to writing while you have a full-time job, as I do. As far as I can see the best thing about it is the utter lack of pressure. If I don't finish my novel, I can still pay the rent. Not a bad thing, both from a practical point of view (I enjoy not being homeless) and a psychological one (writing fiction might be a bit less fun if I had to rely on it for my income).
That lack of pressure can also be a con, of course. A deadline is sometimes the thing that nudges a writer toward work. A second drawback is that having a day job cuts into a writer's available writing time. Personally, I'm lucky if I can squeeze in an hour in the morning before work and an hour after, and a few hours on the weekend. It makes for a busy schedule.
In the end I guess it's a question of personality, and it seems to me that most dedicated writers end up trying to arrange their careers around their writing, or vice versa. For me it's meant actively searching out a career with a great deal of flexibility, one that allows me to come in a half-hour late if I'm seized by inspiration, or put my analysis on hold while I write a few lines of dialogue.
R&T: Given that you do balance these dual careers, what is the writing life to you? Do you consider yourself a writer who is also a mechanical engineer or an engineer who also writes fiction?
Iagnemma: To be honest I don't really identify with either label, probably because I enjoy both careers and have goals and aspirations in both. I think there is a general assumption that a person who wants to write should devote themself entirely to writing, or should take a job that is mindless and boring simply as a way to make a living. It's a depressing view! A person's occupation often informs (or even defines) who they are, and because of this a job can be a rich mine of fiction-worthy situations, characters, language, etc. If I were giving advice to a young writer who was trying to find a way to support themself, I would tell them to try to find a job that is interesting and intellectually satisfying, and not be afraid to let it seep into their writing.
R&T: I understand that you are currently working on a novel. Can you tell us a little about that?
Iagnemma: It's a novel about a scientific expedition in the 1840s, and it's also a story about a father in search of his lost son. I'm about 80% finished––I can't wait to see how it ends.
R&T: How would you compare writing a novel to writing short stories?
Iagnemma: I've found novel writing to be much harder than story writing, in the sense that it's a much larger mental effort and an enormous test of will. For me, the difficulty in story writing lies in precision: getting the sentences exactly right. Patience and the willingness to revise can carry a writer a long way toward writing a decent short story. The novel, however, seems less concerned with precision and more with structure, pacing, and character, all on a grand, terrifying scale. It's like a huge boulder that you push and push against, without knowing for certain that it will ever move, and fearing all the while that it might roll back and squash you.
R&T: You have achieved great success with your writing––publishing in respected journals and receiving several awards. Is there anything you could tell our readers, some of whom are new writers, about the way you approach your craft?
Iagnemma: I approach writing with great humility and respect for its difficulty, and gratefulness for any sentence that comes out halfway decent. Fiction writing is such a hard thing to do. I am not a "natural" writer––it takes me several drafts before a scene or story is readable––and long ago I realized that revision is a necessary part of my process. So I rewrite obsessively, often doing fifteen or more drafts of every scene, each draft a little less terrible than the one before.
For more information about Karl Iagnemma and his writing or to read excerpts from On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, visit his web site .
Nannette Croce is Senior Editor- Prose at The Rose and Thorn. Her favorite part of the job is interviewing talented writers about their craft and hoping that some of it rubs off. Her own fiction has appeared in Beginnings, The Writers Post Journal, and, of course, The Rose and Thorn. She also writes book reviews for historical journals and her essays and articles have appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit her web site .
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