Ashley Hope Pérez is an IU graduate student who recently published her second novel, “The Knife and the Butterfly.”
It was published in February 2012, barely a year after the publication of her first novel, “What Can’t Wait,” in 2011.
Pérez, who is currently working on obtaining her Ph.D. in comparative literature, shared her inspirations for “What Can’t Wait” and “The Knife and the Butterfly,” as well as her advice for young writers from her temporary home in Paris.
INDIANA DAILY STUDENT Both of your novels, “What Can’t Wait” and “The Knife and the Butterfly,” are set in Houston. Have you spent a lot of time there?
PÉREZ I taught high school there for three years. Before that, I lived in a small town in East Texas.
IDS Did something occur in your life or in lives around you to inspire you to begin writing your novels?
PÉREZ Yes, actually. For my first novel, “What Can’t Wait,” I was inspired by my high-school students in Houston and the stories they shared with me.
In particular, I drew from the daily hardships that some of my students faced in their daily lives outside of school. Many struggled to beat the odds, graduate, and make it to college.
IDS Do you try to repeat that theme in the “The Knife and the Butterfly?”
PÉREZ “The Knife and the Butterfly” focuses more on the experiences of the students I never had, the ones who slipped out of the system. The de facto dropout rate in many Houston high schools is near 50 percent. For example, when I was teaching, what was a group of 1,200 kids at freshman year was by senior year a group of barely 700.
The main character in “The Knife and the Butterfly,” Azael, came in part from my efforts to imagine one answer to the question of what happened to all these kids.
What readers have really responded to in “The Knife and the Butterfly” is how their view of the characters changes as they read. In the beginning, they may view Azael as “just” a gang member and dropout, perhaps not a very likeable person. But they come to see that it is more complicated than that. In the end, once you get to know Azael and learn about his past, you see many of the stereotypes come undone.
Readers come to understand factors that have influenced Azael’s choices and to sympathize with his efforts to change.
There’s no safety net for a teen like Azael. which is part of what I’m trying to explore in this novel. Many of us have been blessed with circumstances where, when we mess up, we are given a second chance. The characters in “The Knife and the Butterfly” have to steal their second chances because nobody in their world is giving them away for free.
IDS How did you manage to write so persuasively from these viewpoints without actually having experienced living in a gang world yourself?
PÉREZ I get asked that a lot, and my answer is that it is part of being an author to imagine others’ experiences.
Also, “The Knife and the Butterfly” is based on a major gang fight that occurred in Houston in 2006, so I did research on the gangs involved and other aspects of Azael’s experience, like his love for street art, which most people would call graffiti. The rest came from writing in the character’s voice.
IDS Was your writing in any way affected by IU when you were here?
PÉREZ Yes, it definitely was. First of all, I wrote most of “The Knife and the Butterfly” while I was living in Bloomington. The distance from Houston helped give me the perspective I needed to write the novel.
Secondly, IU has a fantastic writers’ conference. I actually took manuscripts of both novels to the conference.
I received feedback and support that helped me as I worked to get my books published, and I am extremely grateful to IU for that.
IDS After considering your experiences with writing, what advice would you give to young writers?
PÉREZ To writers, I would say, actually do it. Write, I mean. You have to sit down every day and put pen to paper or fingers to keys.
I know it’s easy for a writer to say, “just sit down and write,” but I honestly still get scared when I’m working on a project. I don’t want to sit down and write sometimes, but I make myself do it.
Writers have to find a way to make writing a part of their lives every day.
This is the revised version of the original article. Hope Pérez was misquoted in the original version. The IDS regrets this error.
