For her first novel, Melinda Moustakis focused on the origins behind her Alaska-themed short stories

Melinda Moustakis was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and grew up in California. Her story collection, ”Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories,” won the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Maurice Prize, and was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 selection. She is the recipient of the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the NEA Literature Fellowship, the Kenyon Review Fellowship, and the Rona Jaffe Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. Melinda recently lived in Denver, Colorado, before moving to Providence, Rhode Island. “Homestead” is her debut novel.

The author’s book “Homestead” was a finalist for the 2024 Colorado Book Award for Novel.

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?

Melinda Moustakis: “Homestead” was inspired by my maternal grandparents, who met in Anchorage and very quickly married and lived on an old school bus on 150 acres of a homestead claim in Point MacKenzie through their first winter waiting to build a cabin. The book takes place between 1956 and 1959. My grandmother was from Texas and met my grandfather on a trip to Anchorage while visiting her sister. They were married for 50 years, which I could wrap my head around, but what I could not imagine was the everydayness of being married to a practical stranger and living on a bus in the first winter of a marriage. 

So the project came out of the question of how to survive one day at a time. Each chapter of the novel moves forward a month and focuses on a few days and so that allowed me to write about the small details—the animals and trees and weather and stars and the emotional push and pull of two very different people trying for a life together in an unfamiliar place. The federal government had certain requirements in order to earn the deed to the land and so trying to fulfill those requirements, such as building a cabin and planting so many acres of a crop in order to get the deed, becomes a driving force in the book. 

At the same time, I had in mind the question of Alaska becoming a state, and so that historical backdrop becomes another propulsion. My first book, “Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories” was published in 2011 and is about three generations of this same homesteading family. I homed in on this one generation and wrote the origin story, the relationship that started these generations in Alaska. 

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?

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Moustakis: This excerpt is from the very beginning of the book and introduces you to the main characters, Lawrence and Marie. The first line, “God made the trees and men make the kindling,” is based on something my grandmother said to me as I was interviewing her about her experiences, especially those early years, as we walked around the homestead. 

I was immediately struck by the thought that it was the beginning of something. The cabin still stands, as sort of a monument to my grandfather’s hard work, and in talking to her, as she described hauling water, the wood stove, the task of laundry, I was compelled to make her labor and work visible in the novel, to include this work that might be overlooked or invisible. 

I had also heard the story of how my grandfather went to go look at the property for the first time and ended up without a map and coming across a helicopter in what he thought was the middle of nowhere and having to be lifted up into the air to see where his land might be. I liked the idea of starting with this vision of the land from above, of the vastness of this landscape, and losing sight of this vision as the story moved forward. 

SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write? And once you did begin to write, did the work take you in any unexpected directions?

Moustakis: The novel fuses family history with the history of statehood in Alaska and conversations surrounding what statehood would mean to different populations in Alaska. There is a mythology that Alaska is “The Last Frontier” and a place of wild escape and an untouched and pristine wilderness, but Alaska Natives and Indigenous people have lived there for thousands of years. 

“Homestead”

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So I am writing from a place of working against these mythologies. The research of this time period led me to topics like the Cold War, the politics of statehood, women’s maternity health, Alaska Native history, segregation in Anchorage, and the land taken by the federal and new state governments. 

Besides interviewing my grandmother and using my own memories of the homestead, I consulted Sonny, my uncle, who spent a lot of time at the homestead as a kid and he shared a lot of those memories with me. He is the second oldest of nine kids. I consulted him a lot during the writing process. My parents, too, have a lot of memories of the homestead and both grew up in Anchorage. 

One book I thought a lot about while writing “Homestead” was “Lila” by Marilynne Robinson. I learn a lot from authors whose books are all related as if they are actually writing one big book. Louise Erdrich is another. One very unexpected part of the process of writing this novel was after working on the draft for five years I started to wonder how the book ended. 

I had written half of the book and pondered what everything was working toward. Then one day I realized that the second chapter of the book might actually be the ending and I cut it and pasted it at the end. And suddenly the whole book turned inside out in a way and I could see how I would write to that end. Without knowing it I had written the beginning of the book as Chapter 1 and the ending of the book was there all along, hiding as the second chapter. 

SunLit: Are there lessons you take away from each experience of writing a book? And if so, what did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?

Moustakis: I try to write a book where at the end I know I have given it my all. I studied first chapters of books to see how authors began their novels and moved from chapter to chapter. Taking on a novel means taking on a much larger narrative arc than a short story. The scope is so much bigger and there are so many narrative threads that I had to keep track of — to hold the characters’ past, present, and glimpses of their future all at once. 

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?

Moustakis: The book was a constant in my life when I had to move to different states for many different jobs and fellowships. So one of the biggest challenges was facing so much uncertainty and then getting to a point where I felt like I could write again after a move and then returning to the project and starting over in so many ways, over and over.  

SunLit: If you could pick just one thing — a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers would take from this book, what would that be? 

Moustakis: To be completely enthralled and transported by the world of this novel. To be stunned. 

SunLit: In a highly politicized atmosphere where books, and people’s access to them, has become increasingly contentious, what would you add to the conversation about books, libraries and generally the availability of literature in the public sphere?

Moustakis: Libraries are an essential part of thriving communities. I had the Cullman Fellowship at the NYPL and the opportunity to work there in an office and research with a cohort of fellows. And a group of us went to see the documentary “Ex Libris: The New York Public Library” that had just come out by Frederick Wiseman and went behind the scenes of not only our location near Bryant Park, but all the different branches and how they supported communities across the city. I would recommend this documentary to anyone who is interested in knowing all the resources that libraries provide, like internet access, as only one example. 

SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write? 

Moustakis: I am becoming a creature of habit in terms of creating an environment for writing after moving to so many different states for fellowships and visiting professorships. There’s a very simple desk without drawers that I have bought a few times. I go back and forth between writing by hand and typing on a computer, especially in the beginning stages. There must be something about the calisthenics of writing by hand that connects one’s heart to the brain. 

SunLit: Tell us about your next project.

Moustakis: I have begun working on the sequel to “Homestead.” 

Just a few more quick questions

SunLit: Do you look forward to the actual work of writing or is it a chore that you dread but must do to achieve good things?

Moustakis: It really depends on the day. There are writing days that feel as though you are chiseling away at stone and only have a bit of dust to show for all of that effort. And I would say a majority of them might feel like that. And then there are days where the stone breaks apart and cracks enough that a little light comes through and you know what to write next. 

SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of?

Moustakis: A story called “Melinda and the Giant Strawberry” that I illustrated and my teacher, maybe this was fourth grade, had it bound and laminated. My mom still has it. 

SunLit: When you look back at your early professional writing, how do you feel about it? Impressed? Embarrassed? Satisfied? Wish you could have a do-over?

Moustakis: I feel like I did the best I could. I wrestle with the work until I know I have done all I can to make it impactful. My first book was a linked short-story collection called “Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories” and I know my writing has expanded and grown and deepened after the process of writing a novel. 

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?

Moustakis: When I am frustrated with a project I have to think about writing as simply one word after another. And I know this must come from the quote by Margaret Atwood: “A word after a word after a word is power.” There are also a lot of quotes on writing that talk about how in the end perseverance is what matters most and that feels true a lot of the time, especially since my first book came out in 2011.

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?

Moustakis: That I am reading other Alaska authors (Ernestine Saankalaxt’ Hayes, Christine Byl, Lily H. Tuzroyluke,)  and also debut novels and collections. 

SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?

Moustakis: I need silence in order to hear the rhythm of the sentences. 

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?

Moustakis: Winning a short story contest as an undergraduate where my story was published in the college literary magazine. 

SunLit: What’s your greatest fear as an author?

Moustakis: How long it will take me to write the next book because I seem to have a lengthy process. 

SunLit: What brings you the greatest satisfaction?

Moustakis: When I hear from readers who are so appreciative and bowled over by my book and mention the lyrical writing style and the transportive nature of the writing. I’m not writing for a lukewarm reaction. I want readers, if they fall into the world and the lyricism, to be astonished.