Jennifer Givhan
Author Interview - Jennifer Givhan
Author of RIVER WOMAN, RIVER DEMON
Eva Santos Moon is a burgeoning Chicana artist who practices the ancient, spiritual ways of brujería and curanderisma, but she’s at one of her lowest points—suffering from disorienting blackouts, creative stagnation, and a feeling of disconnect from her Magickal roots. When her husband, a beloved university professor and the glue that holds their family together, is taken into custody for the shocking murder of their friend, Eva doesn’t know whom to trust—least of all, herself. She soon falls under suspicion as a potential suspect, and her past rises to the surface, dredging up the truth about an eerily similar death from her childhood.
Struggling with fragmented memories and self-doubt, an increasingly terrified Eva fears that she might have been involved in both murders. But why doesn’t she remember? Only the dead women know for sure, and they’re coming for her with a haunting vengeance. As she fights to keep her family out of danger, Eva realizes she must use her Magick as a bruja to protect herself and her loved ones, while confronting her own dark history.
A psychological thriller that weaves together the threads of folk Magick with personal and cultural empowerment, River Woman River Demon is a mysterious incantation of reckoning with the past and claiming one’s unique power and voice.
Author Interview - Jennifer Givhan
Author I draw inspiration from: Toni Morrison and Ana Castillo
Author Interview - Jennifer Givhan | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: Anywhere I can carve out a bit of space from mothering & gig economy responsibilities. By a body of water hits the spot in my heart, but it usually ends up being curled up in my bed.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: The Owens sisters from Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic (they could get us out in a jiffy and then we'd go off somewhere for drinks). But in a kitchen, I'd rather be stuck with Tita from Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate. I need to learn her recipes, for sure.
Author Interview - Jennifer Givhan | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: Like a constant companion and buoying force, a very real imaginary friend and the Ancestors' voices, I've known I was an author and storyteller and story keeper and poet from the time I was a very little girl, probably around three or four.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Depends on where I am and who I'm reading with. Audiobooks with my family and kids, especially on long road trips together. For my own enjoyment, give me a good ole paperback I can bend and crease to my heart's desire.
The last book I read: Rudy Ruiz's Valley of Shadows. I'm currently reading my first ever Stephen King novel; it's Salem's Lot. Rudy is my press brother at Blackstone Publishing and his magical real Western horror is fantastic. My books have been compared to Stephen King's several times, and I've never read any of his novels, though I love his memoir On Writing, so I decided to remedy that this summer! I'm enjoying immensely so far and I can see the crossovers between his work and mine!
Author Interview - Jennifer Givhan | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Both (my novels grow from several journals + Word docs in a folder). There's magic that happens with the kinetic motion and flow of energy from the hand to the pen and paper, but since I've grown up typing on computers (and type fairly quickly), my story brain has been trained for more complete ideas when they're typed, so my notebooks are usually freer and sprawling and imaginative, then I get to serious work on the computer.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Tita in Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and Katniss in Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Katniss is so much like my daughter, who is my best friend, and I'm so much like Tita), though I think both characters have a lot of spunk and sass.
Author Interview - Jennifer Givhan | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: There is no alternative, ha! I'm also a mama and teacher/coach/mentor/guide but all of these also revolve around storytelling and lyricism and digging up the hard truths. For me, being a poet/storyteller isn't a career but an identity, a way to make it through this life.
Favorite decade in fashion history: Pinup diva, so 1940s, and I can usually be found in a dress or romper, so I think I was made for this decade (though the hairstyles take a level of mastery and back combing I haven't managed to achieve).
Place I’d most like to travel: Frida Kahlo's Blue House in Mexico. My daughter and I have a plan to go there before long.
My signature drink: Mornings, it's iced coffee. All the rest of the day, Coke Zero (sometimes with a little rum and a squeeze of lime).
Favorite artist: Frida Kahlo is my Spirit Guide (and I'm also enamored of and empowered by her Mexican women surrealist contemporaries, María Izquierdo, Leonora Carrington, and Remedios Varo).
Number one on my bucket list: Being a New York Times bestseller, hands down. Most of the other things on my bucket list I've done. We went flying in a hot air balloon over Albuquerque a few years back, and that was magical. And we took the kids to see a play on Broadway -- where I had never even been in an airplane until I was an adult (my mom was terrified of planes and so many things) and truly believed New York was a pipe dream. I grew up in the Southern California desert on the Mexicali border and it was a whole different world down there -- so detached from the rest of the United States and contemporary goings on were we. Once the internet came around, it was a bit more connected, but I honestly didn't even know there were other living poets -- I thought they were all dead white people we read about in textbooks like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, though I still loved them completely. There were no coffee shops or poetry readings or writing workshops. I don't think I even knew what the New York Times was. So as an adult, I try and live my life to the absolute fullest and not let fear keep me or my family from our dreams.
Find more from the author:
https://www.instagram.com/jenngivhan/
https://twitter.com/GivhanJenn
https://www.facebook.com/jenn.givhan.3/
Author Bio: Jenn Givhan is a Mexican-American and indigenous poet, novelist, and transformational coach from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices. Jenn is the author of five full-length poetry collections, most recently Belly to the Brutal (Wesleyan University Press), and the novels Trinity Sight, Jubilee, and River Woman, River Demon (Blackstone Press). Her work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, POETRY, and many others. Follow her at jennifergivhan.com.
