"I would have loved to have read these stories when I was young" - Virag Dombay

Virag Dombay is a young author of just 22 who has recently published her first collection of short stories, ‘Seasons of Love’. The collection was written across a span of 12 months, neatly encapsulating 2020, with writing commencing on 31 December 2019. The vision was of a collection of stories that flowed, not a series but intrinsically connected in form. Scoping out the seasons, the four ‘chapters’ each explore love in all its manifestations, from the heady days of summer to the encroaching grief of autumn, and the darkness of winter that nonetheless has a wink of spring in its eye. Nadia Jade catches up with her to talk about love in al its myriad forms.

Virag (centre) picture with Harry Fritsch (editor) and Ingrid Bartkowiak (illustrator). Image credits including cover image: Susan Hetherington and Mark Calleja

“I’ve always been a storyteller, it’s just who I am, and as all storytellers and aspiring writers, there comes a point where we all want to write a book. Last year I found myself in lockdown writing a lot more, writing bits and pieces, things and characters that didn’t really flow together in a narrative but were connected in shape and form. I ended up with all these stories saved on my computer and I didn’t really know what to do with it. Because I felt quite proud of my work, I wanted to publish it or put it on some kind of platform, and actually my partner had the idea, well why don’t you put it all together?”

Pulling the stories together a congruence of theme emerged. Although there are many protagonists, from different ages, genders and life experience, all the stories were exploring love. The majority of the stories were written before the collection was envisioned, and then as the thematic link emerged the construction became in earnest.

“I am a very visual person. A lot of the time my writing is very prose heavy and image driven. I have one of those cliched 365-day journals, and every night I write something in it, but it’s not necessarily a dear diary, what did I do today. A lot of the times its like, what emotions did am I feeling, or I listen to music and write what comes to me. In my writing process I will start with an image or an emotion, and then I’ll work from there and the prose kind of come along.

“On the cover, you will see a bunch of butterflies, and throughout the book there are butterflies everywhere. So that metaphor came along as I was writing, like being in love, butterflies coming out of your mouth when you speak. And the opposite when you experience tragedy is moths in your stomach, and then when you’re healing, they turn into caterpillars, and they are squirming inside you, and then its back to butterflies again. And that metaphor subconsciously came.”

The stories read like little leaves, just tiny tastes of a feeling, a moment, a protagonist’s impulse, a quick dash to the finish. Some of them are very literal, others are steeped in metaphor.

“As writers, as creators we always put a bit of ourselves in what we create. In every story there are bits of me. Some of the bits are easier to see than others. Bilingual is quite literal, because I wanted to create a story in which children like me felt represented. So that was very literal, which was definitely an artistic choice, what do I want people to feel. Love is a very abstract emotion though, metaphors help with that, to convey that feeling.”

The process of independent publishing can be tricky. A range of publishers responded positively but with the consensus that there is no market for short stories.

“It is a financial risk and I knew that going into it, however I am very pleased that already it has covered all costs. And three weeks ago a publisher reached out and was like hey, we just read your manuscript and we like it, well, you’re too late! I’ll send you the next one.”

Do you think that’s true then, that there is no market for short stories?

“Well it depends, it’s really hard because you don’t really know what people are consuming. I love consuming poetry and short stories, and there is a huge market for poetry. And my work is quite prose based so I always saw my book as sitting in the poetry section, I didn’t see it with the contemporary lit section. I am very lucky that a lot of independent bookstores all said yes, across Brisbane, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast. And look some of them have sold out of my stock already so yeah.”

Where did the names in the stories come from?

“There are lots of names that originate from Europe, from Asia, from all around the world. I am a straight white woman and I am very aware of my privilege and I wanted to make sure that people felt included. Names are such an easy way to pay attention. I wanted to make sure there are LGBTIQ perspectives in the stories as well, so that it wasn’t just heteronormative love. Cause that’s important too. And there is a little girl in one of the stories who is autistic, and I am not autistic but I did work in a special school for three years and I have witnessed that story over and over again. I’ve tried my best to be as authentic and diverse as I could be.”

Was it a cathartic experience?

“Writing those stories was so cathartic. Especially the grief stories, as all across the world we were grieving last year. And some stories are very much about my high school experiences. But even then you have to know me very very well to know its about me. Like even to the point where there was one that even my mum didn’t now was about me. And there is a story, I won’t say what it is called, but there is a story in autumn which is very heavy, and it was the hardest for me to writer but very cathartic.”

“One thing I’d like to share is that there a lot of stories that are from the child’s point of view. And while this is not a book that I would advertise for children, so its still kind of an adult book, so to speak. I’ve had a lot of my students aged 10 to 13 read it, and just skip over the stories that were not age appropriate to them. In each section there are at least two stories from the child’s perspective that links in with that particular emotion. And that was so important to me, because there are not really many books for young people available to consume about grief or despair that aren’t Disneyfied. And that’s important for adults to consume as well, that this child’s story is in the grief section, and that this kid experiences so much. There are quite a few stories about divorce, and my parents divorced quite young, so those stories are very much a part of me, and I would have loved to have read these stories when I was young.”

Virag is fascinated and inspired by the bittersweet nature of love, which she describes as caprtured so perfectly by the old Greek poets.

“The idea that this friendship or relationship could fissure, and it doesn’t mean that there is anger or resentment, you could look on this relationship or partnership and still feel love for that loss, love for those memories. And I know when I experienced my first big break up that was really hard there were hardly any narratives and books available that captured that feeling and I felt like very much like an outlier. And that’s my so many of my stories are bittersweet, that you’ve been through this emotion and you are in a better place, and because you can look back and go that was amazing, and at that time that was exactly what I needed, it was what got me to where I am today.

“We constantly go through this cycle of love, that is so abstract yet can be applied to everyone and everything, and I wanted people to feel like, you know what, I’ve come out of all these experiences and I made my way to the start again and that’s just who we are. And that’s why the book starts with summer, and finishes with summer.”

Seasons of Love: A Collection of Short Stories is now available at your local bookstore or purchase it online through InHouse Bookshop, Amazon and Book Depository. Follow Virag on Facebook here.