KAREN KARBO recently directed a workshop titled "Writing About Relationships" at the University of Oregon's Literary Nonfiction Writing Program. She is the author of two nonfiction books, Big Girl in the Middle (with Gabrielle Reece) and Notes from Exile, a book about the relationships between ex husbands and wives. She writes magazine features about adventure, travel and women's sports and is a frequent contributor to Outside Magazine and Conde Nast Women's Sport and Fitness. Karbo's 1989 debut novel, Trespassers Welcome Here, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Karbo lives in Portland, Ore.

Q: A lot of your recent writing focuses on relationships. Has this always been a focus of your writing?
A: All writing is about relationships--they are basic and crucial to all forms. I think I've always focused on them in my writing, like most people, but I came to think about them recently, especially with the book I'm working on about the relationships between ex husbands and wives. I've been calling the book Exes, and it explores the anti-relationship between two people who are no longer together. The relationship is based on what it isn't. Exes have relationships that don't end, especially if there are kids involved, but I struggled with how to define a relationship by its absence.

Q: You write parts of your story drafts longhand on yellow pads. How does
this technique help your writing?
A: I'm always looking for ways to make writing seem less intimidating. You can access a part of your brain that's not so concerned about performing if you dial down your preconceptions of what a piece should be and scribble on a yellow pad. When I sit down and do a draft, I don't do three hundred pages on yellow. I break things down more into chunks, and if I'm having trouble with a scene or a portion of a story, I'll go away from the computer with a yellow pad and pretend like I'm taking notes. I trick myself to get back into the piece. Sitting at the computer with my writers hat on, it sometimes starts feeling too serious, and that's when I write by hand.

Q: What do you read?
A: I depends a lot on what I'm going to write. When I'm deeply in something, I really don't read much. Once I've got the voice, I've found it pretty distracting to read anything else of any substance. When I'm getting prepared to write something, I try to read similar things, but I don't read them to deconstruct them or to look for technique. It's more that I'm trying to join the club and get a little support group of like minded pieces together.

Q: What don't you read?
A: In a lot of profiles, it seems like part of the writer's agenda is showing how close they got to the interview subject, who is inevitably Cameron Diaz. I hate that. Also, there's a lot of over angsty novels, youngish novels about how difficult it is to be in your twenties that I don't seem to have much tolerance for anymore. That kind of chronic self absorption isn't interesting to me. Enough staring at your navel.