Poets & Writers – July-August 2019

I

’ve long believed that there isn’t

enough fiction about friendships

being published these days. Which

means, of course, that there’s an even

shorter supply of books about friend-

ships among women and girls. Fortu-

nately Ruchika Tomar’s debut novel, A

Prayer for Travelers, is one such book.

It is the profound story of a haunting,

complicated, life-changing friendship

between two young women: Cale Lam-

bert, a bookish loner who waits tables

at a local diner in the Nevada desert,

where she reconnects with Penny

Reyes, a friend from high school. They

become close—until Penny goes miss-

ing after an act of violence, and Cale

sets off to find her friend. After read-

ing A Prayer for Travelers, I was excited

to learn more about the woman behind

the book. Raised in Southern Califor-

nia, Ruchika attended the University of

California in Irvine and the M FA pro-

gram at Columbia University. A recent

Wallace Stegner Fellow, she is currently

a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University.

Can you take us through your book’s

journey to publication? When did you

start it, and did the novel change a lot

along the way?

From inception to publication, it will

be ten years. I spent four years prior

trying—and failing—to write another

novel, which was followed by a terri-

fying dormancy. When I had the first

inklings of what would become A Prayer

for Travelers, my expectations were low,

and the process was cautious and ex-

ploratory. The story changed many

times, but the friendship between the

girls was the consistent through line.

What was the first idea, or group of

ideas, that led to A Prayer for Travelers?

I wanted to write about the West that I

had grown up in and the kind of friends

you make in your hometown—that en-

during bond that forms before either of

you even know who you’re going to be.

I had an image of two girls waitressing

in a dusty town off the highway, and I

wanted to explore that unique tension

of late adolescence, when some aspects

of your personality are al-

ready set, but the shape your

adult life will take is still a

mystery. For women, this age

is pressurized by society’s

obsession with female youth

and sexuality. These years

are intensely formative, for

better or worse.

Can you talk about the intrigu-

ing back-and-forth structure

of the novel?

I thought a lot about the way

Cale would tell her story, and I believe

this is the only way she could. I con-

sidered the way my friends and I tell

stories—elliptically, episodically. When

you’re telling a story out loud, it’s very

hard to remember every detail in order.

You might begin by saying, “Oh, let me

tell you about”—but then remember

something else the listener ought to

know, too. The nature of grief is frac-

turing. I was employed by a psychiatrist

for several years and became familiar

with various psychiatric approaches for

confronting trauma. Therapists might

ask about your experience in general

terms, but they’re trained to spend a lot

of time not talking about the event. It’s

weeks or months of talking around it,

of working up to it and away from it, of

preparing the person to confront it and

creating coping techniques for return-

ing to the moment. Though traditional

therapy is out of socioeconomic or cul-

tural reach for many, women have al-

ways talked to each other and held space

for each other. I wanted to create this

oratory structure, in a physical record,

for these girls.

Has anything surprised you—or de-

lighted you, or unsettled you—about

the process of publishing A Prayer for

Tr a v e l e r s?

I’m incredibly grateful that my book will

be published with Riverhead. I admire

what they do. I despaired many times

in the process, and as the book became

stranger over the years, I wasn’t sure

it would ever find a home. As a writer

all I want is to continue to experiment

boldly and grow in new and

exciting ways and have that

artistic journey respected.

If you could go back in time

to the you who was starting

to write this novel, what ad-

vice might you give her?

I would tell her to listen to

the girls [of the novel]. The

work has its own rich life and

is indifferent to any autho-

rial desires to control. The

only way out is through.

JULY AUGUST 2019 40

R. O. Kwon

author of the

novel The

Incendiaries,

published by

Riverhead Books

in 2018.

INTRODUCED BY

Ruchika Tomar

whose debut novel, A Prayer for

Tr a v e l e r s, will be published by

Riverhead Books in July.

Agent: Joy Harris

Editor: Cal Morgan

Publicist: Ashley Garland

FIRST FICTION 2019

tomar: dan doperalski; kwon: smeeta mahanti; books: david hamsley