"You can't go wrong having a pig as a hero," Haigh said. "That's advice I should follow in my own work."

On Nov. 22, Haigh, a critically acclaimed author, will be at the VFW Dilboy Post for the sixth annual Somerville News Writers Festival.

Haigh will come to Somerville from Hull, where she now lives. Hull is an isolated community on the South Shore. The seclusion may explain why Haigh creates such vivid characters.

"I really write from my imagination," Haigh said. "So it's all pretty much made up right out of my head."

Her third and most recent novel, The Condition, came out in July. It takes place on Cape Cod and is the first of Haigh's books to be set in Massachusetts. The title refers to a condition called Turner syndrome, which Gwen, the middle child of the McKotch family, is diagnosed with. Although there is no memoir component to the story, Haigh can relate.

"This idea first germinated when I was a kid. I went to junior high with a girl who had Turner syndrome," Haigh said. "It wasn't until years later, I was doing medical research for a different novel and I came across an article in a medical journal and recognized her condition."

Turner syndrome is a genetic glitch found in females that doesn't allow them to mature physically. The Condition follows the McKotches for 20 years after Gwen is diagnosed.

"She never goes through puberty," Haigh said. "Mentally, emotionally she matures but physically she stays very small."

The novel centers on the condition, but it encompasses all of the McKotches, who are products of their New England environment. Similarly, the characters in her second novel, Baker Towers, are embedded in the culture surrounding Bakerton, a coal mining Pennsylvania town like the one Haigh grew up in.

"The place itself is familiar to me," Haigh said. "In a certain way, we're all shaped by the place we come from."

Baker Towers won the 2006 PEN/L.L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Haigh's first novel, Mrs. Kimble, won the 2004 PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. Along with these novels, Haigh writes short fiction, which has been featured in Granta, Ploughshares, Five Points and Good Housekeeping.

Haigh isn't a serious athlete, calling herself a lazy runner, but she relates these writing styles to running.

"Writing short stories is like sprinting and writing novels is like training for a marathon," Haigh said, adding that writing novels is a more complicated process. "The hardest part of writing novels is making something out of nothing. It's a very intimidating prospect and I think the enemy is despair."

Whenever Haigh loses motivation, the thing that gets her back on track is reading.

"For me it's essential that I read everyday and read something really good," Haigh said. "Reading good writing is like taking vitamins. It only benefits you."

The author's that Haigh admires are Richard Yates, author of Revolutionary Road, and James Salter.

"[Salter's] one of these great living writers nobodies ever heard of. He's really a wonderful stylist and also writes these very clean disciplined sentences," Haigh said. "I'm not saying my work is anything like that, more that I wish it were."

Haigh got where she is today by writing persistently, taking pen to pad first thing in the morning everyday.

"In some ways it's the most boring occupation imaginable," Haigh said. "You need a tolerance for monotony, which I suppose I have."

In the future, Haigh plans to write another novel, the form she's most comfortable with, but she won't disclose any concrete details.

"Perhaps, I will write a heroic pig novel one day," Haigh said.