SMC alumna discusses book
SARAH NESTOR
News Writer
Last evening, Saint Mary's professor Max Westler, led the discussion of his former student's, first novel "Big Stone Gap." Saint Mary's alumna and author Adriana Tirgiani answered questions via the telephone.
Trigiani's family moved to Big Stone Gap, Va. when she was a girl. The population of Big Stone Gap holds steady at about 5,000 people. Trigiani told the story of being in fourth grade with 16-year olds and that in seventh grade there was an 18-year-old boy in her class that drove to school. Despite the difficult academic situation, Trigiani thrived thanks to adults who helped mentor her.
"Mentors are really important and guidance counselors have a lot of impact in the community," Trigiani said.
From this guidance Trigiani was able to go to college at Saint Mary's when only about 4 percent of graduating seniors go on to college in Big Stone Gap.
"Saint Mary's opened everything to me. I had a lot of guts but that was it. What I got there was amazing," Trigiani said.
Trigiani based many of her characters on people she remembers from her childhood. The character of Iva Lou is based on a woman who worked with her mother and exuded sex appeal. She then made the character the town's bookmobile librarian.
"How fun and restorative to the souls of librarians to have a character that loves books and sex the same amount," Trigiani said.
It was not a goal of Trigiani's to become a novelist. She wrote the screenplay of "Big Stone Gap" first and then a friend told her it was good enough to be a novel.
"It was not my dream to write a novel. I came to New York to get a show on Broadway. It was an accident but I just worked hard and stayed open," Trigiani said.
Trigiani is currently working on the movie "Big Stone Gap" for which she is the director, producer and writer. She is also finishing the third book in this series.
Trigiani will be speaking at the Sophomore Literary Week on Monday at 7 p.m. in Washington Hall.
All News Stories for Thursday, February 7, 2002
