The Work Room Interview: Nicole Dennis-Benn on The Untold Story

Interview by Cheyenne Paterson

CP: As readers, we often get so wrapped up in the content within the pages that we neglect that which is not present. What inspired your interest in the Untold Story? 

NDB: I’ve always been more curious about the stories people shy away from—the ones we’re inclined to look the other way. I was born and raised in a culture where we were socialized to respect our silences and shame for the sake of respectability. But what we end up losing out on is an essential understanding that we’re not alone. As a storyteller, I want to give readers that understanding by documenting these stories. 

CP: How has mastery of the Untold Story's implementation shaped your work? 

NDB: I’m usually drawn to characters who are othered in some way or exist on the hem of societal fabric—in my case, black Jamaican working-class women. I like exploring their interior worlds and giving them a voice as the main protagonists. In that way, we—I—get to own our narratives. 

CP: The class description specifically speaks to the personification and unapologetic characterization of setting. Do you think setting is always a callous player? Or can it take a back seat in shaping a character when factoring in matters such as genetics? 

NDB: In the world of storytelling, setting is critical. Toni Morrison once said that we have to build a world for our characters to move around in. How else would we be able to understand them and their motives if we don’t first understand their setting? Like us, characters ought to be considered humans. And humans are not created in a vacuum. Who we are, what we want, and our understanding of the world, are first shaped by our immediate surroundings and the society in which we live. 

CP: Finally, what type of writer will be best served by this class?

NDB: Any writer who wants to hone their ability to go deeper, face their fears, and tell the stories they want to tell—the stories they were too afraid of telling.