"Did we have the same mother?" was the question that kicked off this interview. Having put important genealogical questions to rest, we were able to move on to the more serious issues this question represented: memory and subjectivity.

"Why it's important to remember and why we remember certain stories the way we remember them," Wieneke said. In "Snakebit," she wanted to force the reader to cast off notions of which story is true or good.

The essay takes these issues out of the teaching and learning situation into the intimate/interpersonal one. The first paragraph throws the reader headlong into this struggle. Wieneke's mother was attached to the cozy memory of a daughter who loved a dog. "Part of that whole thing is that parents try to tell you who you are and that's just her memory of who I was. I found it more heroic to be bit by a snake and to have survived." Wieneke was more attached to the idea of herself as someone who had been in danger and not protected, an image too difficult for her mother to recall in this way.

The development of the essay s style was a surprise to Wieneke. It developed first as an exercise for class. "After completing a first draft, I called my mother and read her the story. As a result, the story changed to a dialogue framed by the original essay. Through the revision process, which I consider to be of the highest importance in writing, the story became its own entity, revealing another story about my mother that I hadn't been aware of. For me that was the story: letting in the pathos that I (subjectively) had failed to recognize as a child."

A valuable lesson learned early in Wieneke s writing career intensified her beliefs about learning and subjectivity. During a writers  workshop, the man with whom she was working hated her story. This got in the way of his finding anything valuable to teach her. "This man hated my story so much that he let that get in the way and couldn't convey anything worthwhile to me. It was really a bad experience. But it taught me something. As a teacher I've hated some stories. But I have to get past that and help students learn something about themselves as a writer no matter how I feel about it."

Wieneke's openness carries over into choice of genre. She writes everything. "It seems like I get into different moods. I feel like writing poetry because I'm more moved by images; I'll play with sounds more. If I'm drawn to narrative, I will write a short story. But all my pieces are constantly being interrupted by something else." Her narrative line, like her life, isn't very linear. She enjoys this as part of the process and likes the surprises that come. For her, writing is a way of discovering about herself and the world. "Sometimes it's a way of crawling towards an understanding."

In the same way, she feels like each piece demands a different focus; setting may be of greatest importance in one and dialogue in the next. In "Snakebit," dialogue drives the action. "I wanted the dialogue to pull the reader back and forth between the present and the past, between the I that I was at the time, the mother and the ghost of the child whose voice at times takes over the story."

Her advice to new writers is simple: "read and write. When you enjoy or loathe someone else's poem, essay, or piece of fiction, try to figure out what it is that drives that emotion. Don't worry about getting it perfect the first time: it may take years to get it 'right." Defend your work, but if you find a good editor, welcome him or her. Take some time. Live a little."

That's her subjective opinion!

Karen Rosica