The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Zoe’s tale has a happy ending
Years of creative writing have finally paid off for Newport author Zoe Venditozzi, whose debut novel is out this week. Jennifer Cosgrove found out more . . .
IT WAS this time last year that mother-ofthree Zoe Venditozzi discovered her first novel had been accepted by a publisher – and she hadn’t even graduated from her creative writing practice and study MLitt course at Dundee University.
The same novel – Anywhere’s Better Than Here – had been shortlisted for last year’s Dundee International Book Prize, which gave her the boost she needed to take the next step.
Zoe’s book will be launched at an event this week that also heralds the beginning of this year’s Dundee Literary Festival. It means she will have come full circle, having been a creative writing student of Professor Kirsty Gunn at Dundee University.
Zoe was born in Lancashire and lived there until she was five. She then moved to Newport and has been based there since.
She studied English at Glasgow University and considered studying creative writing then.
After graduating, Zoe did a number of jobs including working as a nanny, then for BT and on to the People’s Friend magazine.
After she married husband Dominic, the couple moved to New Zealand for a while before returning to Scotland.
Zoe, who is mother to Luca (9), Lola-Ray (7) and Rocco (4), says she began writing seriously at the age of 30 and the catalyst was the death of her father.
She recalls: “He died when I was heavily pregnant with Lola-Ray. He was only in his mid-fifties.
“One of the themes in my book is not dealing with grief properly. But I did, and I was fine with it – but it was the combination of that and having children that made me think I shouldn’t put off writing any longer.”
After returning to Scotland Zoe began working as an English teacher in Dundee and continued to do this for eight years. She is now an education coordinator for the StAnza Poetry Festival in St Andrews.
It was there Zoe met Kirsty Gunn, who was to play a big part in the development of her writing career.
“Kirsty is very interested in reaching out beyond the university and giving you the opportunity to go along and meet people you usually would have no access to.”
Part of Zoe’s struggle to begin writing revolved around deciding where to set a story and what voice her character would have. Although she is very influenced by American literature, she didn’t feel this was an option for her writing.
“I had always had a problem because I wanted to write a novel but I didn’t know where to set it. Being in New Zealand made me realise I could set a book in Scotland without it being a gritty, Irvine Welsh-style novel. Being a foreigner made me think a lot more.”
Zoe came to realise that setting a book in Scotland didn’t mean she had to stay away from the middle classes.
“There was no point in trying to shoehorn myself into that if it’s not my voice. It’s better to be who you are.”
Anywhere’s Better Than Here started life as a short story about an unhappy relationship and Zoe discovered there was much more to her character than 1,000 words could tell.
In the book, Laurie’s life is going nowhere. She lives with a computer game obsessed boyfriend and has a meaningless job, so when she meets an older, mysterious man things suddenly veer out of control.
Zoe agrees her lead character is immature. “Although Laurie is in her 20s she is still teetering on the edge of being a grown-up. She’s not had any guidance and she has never had a relationship where there is someone she can aspire to be like.
“I think by the end of it you are hopeful that things are going to be OK.”
And it should be a happy ending for Zoe, who is already at work on two new books.
The launch of Dundee Literary Festival 2012 and Anywhere’s Better Than Here takes place at 6pm on Wednesday at the Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill.
Tickets are free and can be reserved by visiting dundee. ac.uk/literarydundee.
Anywhere’s Better Than Here is published by Sandstone Press. ISBN: 9781908737069.