Sourcing Inspiration from the Neighborhood

As an author, Andrew Wingfield is beholden to his own requirements in telling a compelling story. Though his latest work is based on a real place, he says he didn’t let it limit him. There had to be room for invention.

In his collection of short stories entitled “Right of Way,” Wingfield does in fact craft interesting tales concerning a diverse neighborhood facing transition and change. But what could be equally compelling to some readers is that the neighborhood, named Cleave Springs, is a place inspired by Del Ray.

Those who pick up the book will quickly find the similarities: A cramped neighborhood close to the nation’s capital with green spaces built on old rail yards. Cleave Springs even has a community coffee hub (named the Lily Pad) much like St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub, right down to the single-serving cans of Red Bull.

“There can be a kernel, an event or place that interests me,” said Wingfield, a professor at George Mason University who moved to Del Ray in the mid-1990s. “But I have to create a story with its own requirements. I have to bow down to the fiction gods first and foremost.”

The result is a string of tales touching on everything from young love at the Lily Pad, transplants adjusting to the area, a longtime resident dealing with the pronouncements of stroller-pushing citizens association members and the reality of and proximity of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

“It has an urban feel,” Wingfield said of Del Ray. “It’s old fashioned with a real main street and side streets. There’s not one company either. There’s a real diversity. There are longtime residents, new arrivals that are very progressive and creative people. … It attracts people who have never had a true neighborhood experience.”

Wingfield was one of Del Ray’s early gentrifiers. He moved into a place on Dewitt Avenue when the neighborhood was not the safest place. His wife, the painter Tania Karpowitz, worked out of a studio above St. Elmo’s.

“[St. Elmo’s] was the first place I came through,” Wingfield said. “We met [owner] Nora [Partlow], and she was clearly an inclusive community person. She understood the role of a cafe to transform a neighborhood. It’s an important space. Most suburbs don’t have the potential for a real community and Nora has done a lot to really create that. It’s a place for people to meet, to create opportunities.”

Partlow, who once posed for Karpowitz, said that the fact her place has become an inspiration for Wingfield and other authors (St. Elmo's has appeared in other written works) is something that validates an early aim.

“It goes back to when we started [the coffee shop],” Partlow said. “Fulfillment was one of my main goals, but you never know the impact you’ll have someone. You just never know.”

The route Del Ray has taken is drawn throughout “Right of Way,” something that longtime residents or even just admirers of Del Ray will find interesting.

And the tales themselves have a far-reaching appeal. As Wingfield says, "every city has places like Del Ray."

“Right of Way” won the Washington Writers' Publishing House 2010 fiction prize. The book can be purchased here. To visit Wingfield’s website, click here.

Wingfield will be reading excerpts from "Right of Way" on Monday night at Sherwood Regional Library. For event details, .