A Conversation with Deb Olin Unferth

On November 7, 2009, Deb Olin Unferth met with an audience of graduate students and faculty on the VCU campus where she answered questions about approaching the writing process with daring, defying the norm. She also addressed the research involved in writing a novel, and what she calls her initia , or the image in her mind that became the concept for the entire novel. Unferth is the winner of the 2009 Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award for Vacation , her first novel, and an assistant professor in the Wesleyan University Department of English.