Fiction writer Fedosy Santaella describes his urge to write as "an incurable disease," one that causes his hands to itch and ignites a fire in his head when he strings words together.

Santaella, of Venezuela, will hold a guest reading and take questions at 7:30 p.m. today in the Fine Arts Center Recital Hall at Viterbo University.

Joining him will be poet Millicent Graham of Jamaica and Alice Pung, a writer and playwright from Australia.

The free event is part of Viterbo's hosting of distinguished writers-in-residence from the University of Iowa's Interna-tional Writing Program.

The three writers share their ideas on what makes a good writer and the writing process.

Fedosy Santaella

Q: What motivates you to write?

A: You have no idea how difficult it is for me to answer this question. I think I have a disease. I have an incurable disease, but somewhere in my body or my mind I think that this disease can be cured. And so I write, looking for a cure to something that is within me and will not leave me alone. The disease manifests as itchy hands, as a concern in the chest, and as a constant fire in your head that goes off momentarily when you write. I think I write because I do not like people, and because I'm better in the world where I live. I also write because I'm not good at math, and am not good at telling stories orally. But I like telling stories (and because those stories do not leave me alone), I write.

Q: When people read or listen to your work, what do you hope they take away?

A: I want people to spend a good time reading my texts, and, in the end, feel they entered another world, another place, another time. I wish these people, when they get out of that world, feel a little out of place and longing for this world they left behind, which I think of for them.

Q: What do you think makes a good writer?

A: For me, the best writer is the one who finds the balance "almost" perfectly between language, the storytelling and the great themes of existence.

Q: How do you think your culture/life in your home country has influenced your writing?

A: Everything influences me, the real country, the imaginary country, and even the great country of globalization. I have a lot of things inside my mind, things that are stirring constantly, and whenever I write, I put those things on paper, and there is everything: life, literature, politics, cinema, comics and who knows what else. Everything comes together in writing.

Millicent Graham

Q: What motivates you to write?

A: Everything, but especially words. In that, there is an excitement in laying a poem out on paper. But I suppose the poem seeds before that, as some idea or emotion, an image or experience. Eventually it makes itself more graspable with sounds and words.

Q: When people read or listen to your work, what do you hope they take away?

A: I hope the reader gets that sensation of not being alone, of knowing that a poem is their poem in a very present way. Someone told me that they found the poem "On Birth Nights" haunting. I want an image or idea to be so residual that it will present itself in odd spaces, each time revealing more of itself; an ankle, a shoulder, a tooth. Like the poem "After Kingdom Hall," which ends "her body growing sweet as ripe grapes/ I still remember her purpling feet …"

Q: What do you think makes a good writer?

A: Reading good writers, pursuing what you believe - regardless of how popular it may or may not be. Spoken word is becoming quite popular in my country, but I found striking that balance between good writing and good performance difficult - often Dionysus trumping Apollo. So for me, the page is a great mediator. I was listening to a local radio station, and Anthony Winkler was being interviewed on his recent memoirs. He referenced its title, "Trust the Darkness," and said this is how he starts a novel. That idea resonated with me; I think a writer has to lunge wittingly into darkness and use sensibilities and craft to navigate it.

Q: How do you think your culture/life in your home country has influenced your writing?

A: My life and home identify my voice and provide context for meaning in my work. I use imagery, landscape and colloquialism in a way which is synonymous with traditional Caribbean poetry. It's a challenge - writing about a place and writing from it are often different things. One wants to balance that and still be accessible. The poems in my book, "The Damp In Things," tries to do this while exploring a number of complex issues such as relationships in family, religion, conversations about getting old, not having children, or losing in love. As women in the Caribbean, we are taught not to show feelings of powerlessness or the fear of being alone, but who does it profit to be thanklessly invincible, hurt-proof? The result is a society full of paradox that triggers the emotions and experiences of which I write.

Alice Pung

Q: What motivates you to write?

A: I write to discover other people and, in doing so, I discover myself. Also to understand that it's the small things that bear greatest significance and not necessarily the large, sweeping allegorical narratives. And, finally, to find the humor in life.

Q: When people read or listen to your work, what do you hope they take away?

A: I hope that people feel hopeful and quietly optimistic when they read my work. A lot of what I write is about families, and the different forms of love - not necessarily spoken - that runs through families and communities.

Q: What do you think makes a good writer?

A: I believe a good writer must have a keen sense of empathy and an ability to see beyond their own intellect. The strength of the heartbeat and pulse of a piece of a writing depends on this.

Q: How do you think your culture/life in your home country has influenced your writing?

A: I was born in Australia to Chinese parents who were both born in Cambodia, and I grew up in the period immediately preceeding the abolition of the White Australia Policies. So even though my country is very multicultural in many respects, in other ways it is still far behind America in integrating and accepting non-white Australians into the national psyche. People are still surprised when I open my mouth and have an Australian accent; whereas I have found in America - where many of the television advertisements show non-white families - people don't find that as much of a shock. My writing is very Australian, being born and bred in that country; but it is about Chinese Cambodian culture, of which I am also a part. My father survived the "killing fields" and my mother was in Vietnam during the war. If they could find humor in the horror, I figure that sometimes life shouldn't be taken dead seriously, especially in a First World, wealthy country like Australia.