In 2008, Jersey City native Sergio de la Pava caused a stir in the literary world when his self-published debut novel, A Naked Singularity, which had been rejected by 88 agents, went on to win the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction.
In November, de la Pava, 53, a Rutgers alum who lives in Bogota and works as a public defender in New York City, published his fourth novel, Every Arc Bends Its Radian, a mind-bending detective story that is set in Cali, Colombia.
How would you describe your work? This new novel is a crime thriller that combines elements of sci-fi and horror.
I end up following where the novel takes me, and in the end, I hope to have something that works.
How do you balance a demanding full-time job as a public defender with novel writing?
The legal work is more urgent, so it always comes first. My life as a writer has no deadlines, but the legal profession loves deadlines, and that brings an urgency. Too bad if that chapter of the book was really flowing for you, because you’re starting a trial tomorrow and you’re not going to spend any time writing then. So the decisions are made for me every day.
Does it help to have parameters around your writing time?
It probably keeps me sane. If it’s not going well right now, so what? I’ll be back in three weeks. Maybe it’ll go better then. I don’t have bad days with writing, because there’s no way to have a bad day. If I don’t get what I wanted or envisioned, then it gets deleted, and I move on. So that is a benefit, at least for my mental life.
Your story is so interesting—having your first novel turned down by 88 agents and going on to win a big prize for it. How does it feel to be with a big publisher (Simon & Schuster) now?
[The rejections] definitely created a certain anger in me at the time, but I’m very fortunate now. Let’s be honest, my books are not the most commercial stuff in the world, and somehow, I get published. So it feels weird to complain about something that happened almost 20 years ago.
What’s your advice to people who have a difficult time getting published?
It has to be about making art, and you have to have a real passion for it, or else you’re just engaging in some kind of selling activity. I’m not somebody who’s really looking to sell things. If you want to talk about pursuing an artistic vision and devoting every fiber of yourself to that, we can talk. Sometimes the two will meet, and it’ll work for people—but it’s rare. I’m not cranking these things out, you know? They take time.
You attended Rutgers University undergrad?
Yes, Rutgers is big deal in my house. I graduated from Rutgers, and so did both of my sons. And one of my sons graduated from Rutgers Law School—we have three lawyers in my family.
Tell me about your influences.
I greatly admire Nathanael West and Virginia Woolf. They are touchstones for me. But when I sit down to write, I’m not looking to replicate something that’s been done before, because there’s limited interest in that.
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