C. J. Spataro
C.J. Spataro is an award-winning short fiction writer, and her work has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies including Taboos & Transgressions, Iron Horse Literary Review, december, Sequestrum, and Exacting Clam. She directs the MFA in Creative Writing and the MA in Publishing programs at Rosemont College in suburban Philadelphia and was a founding partner of Philadelphia Stories. Her debut novel, More Strange Than True, is forthcoming from Sagging Meniscus Press in June of 2024.
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Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?
I studied music in college. I have a bachelor's degree and a master’s degree in voice, so music has always been a big part of my life and the things I learned studying music have influenced just about everything in my life in one way or another. I almost always listen to music when I’m writing. What I listen to depends on what I’m working on. Generally, I avoid pop music with words because I find that distracting. Usually, I go to jazz and classical. I will listen to opera if it’s appropriate and it’s not in English. For my debut novel, I kind of had two soundtracks – one jazz and one classical. Each represents a different group of characters and finding this music really helped me access a lot of the emotion in the novel. I also got the inspiration for the pivotal turning point in this novel directly from a piece of music. I was really stuck on how I was going to get to the end that I had envisioned. You know that problem of the messy middle. I was away on a writing retreat, staring at my laptop and for some reason “Der Erlkönig” by Schubert (with a text by Goethe) popped into my head. This gave me the idea for the turning point in the novel and I thought, this will either be great or terrible. I guess we’ll find out!
Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?
So many comfort foods! I’m more of a savory person, although I also really like the salty and sweet together, so it’s a bit of an issue. I am a pretty decent cook and love Mediterranean dishes. Before I finished my MFA and started teaching, I worked in restaurants off and on for 25 years. Mostly I worked the front of the house as a waiter and bartender, but I did do a few stints in the back of the house. For a short time, a friend and I considered starting a catering company, so cooking and food is deeply ingrained in me. During that time, I taught myself how to make some pretty “fancy” items, like galantine of chicken and opera cake. There are significant restaurant scenes in every book I’ve ever written, and that’s certainly true of More Strange Than True. Bobby Fellowes is a well-known Philadelphia restauranteur whose newest restaurant, Puck’s Place, figures prominently in this book. Fortunately or unfortunately, most of my characters love food as much as I do!
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
There is nothing like seeing a painting that you’ve admired in a book live and in person. It almost feels like meeting a celebrity or something, at least to me. I didn’t really have a favorite painting or work, just a deep abiding appreciation of art in general. My husband is a fine artist and he’s taught me a lot. I would say I was a generalist until I went to Sicily in 2017 and saw “The Burial of St. Lucy” by Caravaggio. This has sparked in me a fairly intense obsession with Caravaggio. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to see Caravaggio paintings in Valletta (Malta), Rome, Naples, and Detroit. There are only 10 in the US, one of which is in a private collection, but my goal is to see them all. Caravaggio was a fascinating person full of contradictions and violent inclinations. His work changed art forever. He could end up as a character in a future novel, you never know.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
It’s becoming clear from my answers that I kind of like everything. When traveling, which I love to do almost as much as anything else in this life, I’m equally happy in a city and in the country. I even like to camp, but I don’t do that very often. There’s an energy and excitement about being in a city that can’t really be replicated anywhere else, but there’s something special about spending time in a small town or village. In a small town, you can get a good feel for how the people live and spend their time. It’s also usually more relaxing. My husband and love to cycle and we ride our bikes a lot when on vacation in Michigan. There are so many spectacular trails along the lakeshore. I never get tired of doing that.
Do you collect anything? If so, what, why, and for how long?
I collect cameos. I don’t even remember how it started, but I’ve been collecting them for a long time now, maybe 30 years? People give them to me too, which is nice. I like to wear more than one at a time pinned to the lapel of blazer or suit jacket.
