Alumni SpotlightMay 2011Maria Dahvana Headley,1996 YA Winner in Writing

We recently caught up with Maria and asked her to share some insights about the YoungArts program and the life of a writer:

1) How has YoungArts prepared/affected your life?

YYoungArts Week 1996 was a major, life-changing experience for me. It was the thing that made me move to NYC - I'm from rural Idaho, and I knew almost nothing about the East Coast nor about the idea that there were fabulous young artists all over the place. I arrived in Miami, and was floored. A few months later, I was at the Sundance Playwrights Lab in Utah (also due to YoungArts), and then I was in NYC, starting my career. The reason I moved to NY, however, had nothing to do with art, and everything to do with being a teenage girl at YoungArts Week! I met an actor there who was really, really good-looking. He told me about NYU - he was applying to school there, andand he told me I should too. I never saw the guy again - I think he went to Carnegie Mellon - but I was launched into a new world, one that I hadn't imagined. I think YoungArts made me open to friendships and collaborations with people in all areas of the arts world. I ended up making a lot of friends, all people whose work I admired. This has continued in the years since, and it's made my life as an artist a lot richer. Lately, as I prepare for the release of my new novel, creating marketing for this project, with a bunch of other artists - filmmakers, songwriters, etcet-era - I've been thinking about YoungArts a lot. My recent life has been reminding me of that magical week in Miami when I realized that maybe I could actually make a living doing what I loved.

2) What is your biggest work accomplishment and personal accomplishment?

I keep reinventing myself, so it's hard to say. (The reinvention is also part of the reason I have so much fun!) Back in my YoungArts & NYU days, I was a playwright, then I wrote a memoir, and now I have a novel coming out. The best thing about all of it is that I've been able to have a career sharing stories with other people. That's a very fun thing to do for a living. Queen of Kings, the novel that's coming out in May from Dutton, is a historical fantasy, involving Cleopatra, Egyptian gods, classical monsters, and the Roman Army, and it's pretty wild and crazy. When I had that idea, I was midway through writing another book, and I put it aside, which was terrifying, but it paid off. SoSo far, writing and selling Queen of Kings has been a huge accomplishment, because, unlike my memoir, this came out of my imagination, so it really feels like I worked to make it. That makes me incredibly happy. As for my biggest personal accomplishment, same as the above, pretty much. I keep reinventing, but the parts of me that have stayed the same have been the ones that have made my life really happy. I'm a social person, and I've been very lucky in my friends. I've got tons of love in my life, and some of it has been hard won. It was worth it.

3) What is the number one piece of advice you would like to give to our new YoungArts members?

Be brave. If you have an utterly crazy idea, it may well be exactly the right one. Follow your instincts, and follow them ferociously. Having a career as an artist is as much - or more - about perseverance and drive as it is about talent. It's also about making your own luck. Put yourself out there. Give as much as you get. Be generous when you can be, even when you think you don't have much to give. It's basic, but it pays off.

4) Please finish this sentence… “I would not be where I am now, if it was not for (insert word or phrase here).”

……reaching out to people I admire, and making them into my friends. I have an amazing group of collaborators and supporters, and it's mainly because I found the people whose work I adored, and chased them down to tell them so. A great deal of my success has been due to people I love.

http://www.mariadahvanaheadley.com/

information, please visit www.mariadahvanaheadley.com

What do historical fantasies involving Cleopatra, Egyptian gods, classical monsters and Roman armies have all in common? One writer: Maria Dahvana Headley. A 1996 YoungArts Winner in Writing, Maria is one of the brightest and most promising writers to have emerged frfrom the YoungArts Week experience. Her upcoming historical fantasy, Queen of Kings, will soon be released by Dutton in May 2011 as the first volume of an entire trilogy. Maria is also the author of The Year of Yes: A Memoir, which has been translated into nine languages and adaptedadapted for television and film by 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures, respectively. Maria has appeared as a featured author and speaker at various venues including The Texas Book Festi-val and Wordstock. She has also been interviewed on a variety of national and international television and radio programs, including The Today Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. A MacDowell Colony Fellow, her writings have appeared in a number of literary anthologies, including The New York Times, Elle, The Washington Post,Post, among others. Maria lives in Seattle with her husband playwright and screenwriter Robert Schenkkan and their two warlike Bengal cats. For more