Artist Spotlight: Paul Harding

Former Expos preceptor Paul Harding returned to Harvard on Tuesday, not to teach but to preview his upcoming novel, “Enon,” at the Coop. Though Harding is now instead the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the novel “Tinkers”, the influence of his previous teaching experiences remains evident in his recurring emphasis on revision, his eagerness to spell out insights in unambiguous terms, and the surprising openness with which he shares details of his growth between novels.

The Harvard Crimson: Are there certain methods of working that you prefer to others?

Paul Harding: I actually don’t have lots of little writers’ fetishes, but one of them that I do have is that I always keep my reading and writing notes in these little four-by-six spiral notebooks that I have to get from Bob Slate, which is right in Harvard Square. I buy them by the dozen, ’cause I’m afraid they’re gonna go out of business…. I constantly write down ideas for lines or write down quotes from books I like.… I’ll come up with a sheaf of handwritten things that are on cocktail napkins, or bookstore receipts, and then I’ll type them into the laptop.

THC: What has changed in your writing habits in between your first and second novels?

PH: “Enon” is about twice as long as “Tinkers,” so I had to write a book that was twice as long in about half the time…. In between the two books you learn, sort of, what was just sort of...[it was like] having to reinvent the wheel every day. You know, dumb luck, beginner’s growing pains.... I don’t write very efficiently. I write more than I need to and then I burn it back down, I distill it back down—and then I revise it again and I break it down, and I revise it again…. I thought with “Tinkers” it was just that I didn’t know how to do it, I’m not particularly good at it…but it turns out that’s just how I get the best prose.

THC: So it was less about developing writers’ muscles, and more about recognizing that this was just the habit of writing itself.

PH: Well, it’s both. I think it’s true that I’m in writing shape. I can sit down, and in the first draft I can write better sentences right out of the gate. And revision now is more devoted to making sure the sentences are consistent to the character and the larger vision of the book…. But then there’s still that vetting process, the process of just making sure they are still as good as I can possibly make them.

THC: You mention that while writing “Tinkers,” you were also busy raising young sons. Did these experiences inform how you wrote the novel, and in particular its central father-son relationship?

PH: Yeah, my kids helped me because they burned away any impulses I might have had for being precious or [a] diva…. The second you have children, it’s like: boy, you thought you didn’t have any time before, and then you realize what it’s actually like to not have any time.

But then when I had children, it’s like it opened up a whole other dimension of my humanity that I otherwise wouldn’t have known was there, if I hadn’t had them. It was like the textbook definition of the word profound: it was profoundly difficult, but it was profoundly heartening, and lovely, too….

“Tinkers” wouldn’t have been what it is without having [had my] children…. Now the kids are kind of older, and they keep me humble in other ways too. They both call the book “Stinkers”! They’re like, “how’s that book Stinkers doing?”

—Staff writer Victoria Zhuang can be reached at  victoria.zhuang@thecrimson.com.