Q&A: Curtis Sittenfeld

Q: Tell me about yourself.

A: I write what’s considered “literary fiction.” I write novels. I’ve written five novels. My first one came out in 2005 when I was 29. It’s called Prep. My most recent in April, 2016 and it’s called Eligible.

Q: Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?

A: My middle name is Curtis, but my parents decided to call me Curtis at birth, so everyone who knows me has always called me Curtis. My legal name is Elizabeth and I feel like in retrospect, actually, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably be published under Elizabeth Sittenfeld for two reasons. One, a lot of people think I’m a man based on me being called Curtis. Two, my first and last name together is such an unusual name that I sometimes wish I was a little less googleable.

Q: Has living in the Clayton/St.Louis area influenced or impacted your writing?

A: My fourth novel takes place in 2009 in St. Louis. It was published in 2013 and it’s called Sisterland. But it actually is based on something that happened in the 1990s in St. Louis, which is when this sort of pseudo-scientist who predicted that there would be a major earthquake in the St. Louis area. And even though I think most scientists did not think it was plausible, a lot of people who live around here became alarmed.
I didn’t grow up here. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. When someone told me that story I was like “Oh an earthquake prediction would be a really great premise for a novel.” It’s funny because a friend of mine who grew up in Jefferson City who told me that story in Iowa in the summer of 2008. But, I don’t think he would have told me the story if I weren’t living in St. Louis. My book Eligible, is set in Cincinnati, and Cincinnati is very much like St. Louis. I do feel like a strong part of my identity right now is midwestern and I think that does influence my writing.

Q: Several of your books have been optioned for movies. What is that like?

A: If a book is optioned, what is basically means is that a person or company is paying the writer. It’s usually not a huge amount of money. And they’re saying, “for the next 18 months I have the right to turn your book into a tv show or into a movie. If I start that process, I have to pay you much more.” And four out of five of my books have been optioned. And in some cases, the 18-month option has been renewed multiple times. But nothing has ever made it to the next stage. So, scripts have existed. Like, for Sisterland, ABC was developing as a script, and I read the script for the pilot tv show, which was never shot. There’s been a script for American Wife, there’s been a script for Prep, but they’ve never been filmed. There have even been actors attached at various times, but it’s never happened. The truth is, I feel like writers whose books have been optioned, you can talk about it in such a way that it sounds glamorous and exciting, but there’s a very wide variety of places that a project can be along the development continuum.
I feel like I’ve had a lot of phone calls over a lot of years. I’ve been meetings, I’ve had great enthusiasm, it’s fun! It’s nice when people are excited about your book, telling you how smart you are. In a sense, you’re getting money for nothing, even if it’s not an enormous amount. But, I’ll say to people I know, “Don’t turn on your tv­ just yet,” or “Don’t buy your movie ticket just yet.”