Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kristina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Twenty years ago, when I was a graduate student at Radford University, I took a class on women’s literature with Professor Moira Baker. Noticing that my essays were so creative, Dr. Baker urged me to start writing fiction. She believed that I had a story to tell and that I could tell it well. I have been writing and publishing ever since. It did take me over two decades, however, to be able to earn a living as an author.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Born in Armenia and raised in Soviet Russia, I moved to the U.S. in 1995, after having witnessed perestroika and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Writing in English, my second language, I have published over fifty stories and received ten Pushcart Prize nominations, as well as three special mentions in the Pushcart Prize Anthologies. My work appeared in Zyzzyva, Subtropics, Zoetrope: All Story, Joyland, LitHub, Electric Literature, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, and elsewhere. I am the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, the Tennessee Williams scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction for my first collection of stories, What Isn’t Remembered, long-listed for the 2022 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and shortlisted for the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize. My debut novel, The Orchard, was picked by the New York Post as one of the best books of the year. The paperback edition is a Penguin Random House Book Club title. Foreign editions include: Germany, Netherlands, U.K., and Italy.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One of the first stores I wrote as a graduate student at Radford University appeared in Timber Creek Review in 2003. It was called “Bathhouse Night” and included in my thesis project, which later that year won Award for the Best Creative Thesis. I remember being so surprised and so happy, filled with hope that I would soon publish a collection. “Soon” turned into twenty years, an entire life—long, studious, difficult. But if I had to live it all over again, I would still choose to be a writer. I love what I do, and no amount of rejections can convince me otherwise. In fact, rejections make me work harder. The oldest story in my debut collection, What Isn’t Remembered, was written in 2007 and the newest in 2020. Most of the stories have been previously published in reputable literary journals. Throughout the years, I submitted various collections to various contests, adding or subtracting stories, trying to figure out a magical combination. But nothing ensued, although I came close a few times, and my single stories were finalists for many awards, including ten Pushcart nominations. “Boys on the Moskva River,” which opens the collection, was the winner of the 2013 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. I’d submitted to the Prairie Schooner Book Prize on my own, but my agent sold my first novel, The Orchard, to Ballantine Books only a month before my collection won the prize. It was so bizarre—impossible to believe—and yet, it was true. As a Russian-Armenian who was raised by a single mother and who grew up in the USSR and witnessed perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet empire, I’m used to fighting for every morsel of food or recognition. But, like many of my compatriots, I also believe in miracles. And having two books published only six months apart is indeed that—a miracle.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

There are many brilliant writers whose fiction inspires me, but there are three literary goddesses, whose work I worship: Toni Morrison, Virginia Woolf, and Alice Munro. When I read their novels or short stories, I’m reminded again and again that fiction writing isn’t simply an acquired skill, it’s a sublime gift of storytelling, of something that reaches beyond the craft, beyond what can be learned, understood, studied, or analyzed. Their storytelling isn’t an artifice; it isn’t fabricated or constructed in any visible, palpable way. Their novels and short stories are cathedrals, frightening in their beauty and perfection and grandeur. All I can do is marvel at their genius.

Contact Info:

• Website: kgnewberry.com
• Facebook: kristina.gorchevanewberry
• Twitter: @kgnewberry

Image Credits
Author photo: Ivan Morozov Jacket design (What Isn’t Remembered): Irina Akimova Jacket design (The Orchard): Lucas Heinrich