1. Who are you reading right now?
I read David Bezmozgis's The Free World and Ta-Nehisi
Coates's Between the World and Me and this winter,
and was blown away by both of these very different books. Now I am
well into the second book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series,
having just finished Deborah Harkness's Discover of Witches trio.
Both of these historical novel series are fun romps featuring time-travel and
feel a bit like beach-reading training. Since I’m several years into a draft of
my first novel, I'm gobbling up fiction of all sorts to learn how it’s
done. As for poetry, I am carrying around and about to read Kay Ryan’s most
recent collection and, very happily, a first edition, signed copy of Judy
Grahn’s 1978 The Work of a Common Woman that I found in Northampton
last weekend at Gabriel Books.
Also, on the suggestion of
writer/dancer/teacher and new friend Megan Buchanan I am
reading A Woman’s Thing, “The Mothers and Grandmothers Issue,"
which is lovely and full of insightful writing. It's available in print and
online at awomensthing.org
2. Do you write on paper or use your
computer to generate a first draft?
Almost always I draft and revise
on my adored Macbook Air, which I take everywhere. I jot down
tidbits — ideas and quotes — on my phone's Notes app,
too, and, rarely, on paper if some is handy. The exception to this rule is when
I am actually on a beach or shoreline, and then I write longhand on
paper and enjoy it immensely. Last summer I kept a journal during a
vacation in Maine. It was the first journal-writing I have done in many
years, and it was a powerful reminder of how differently ideas and
words emerge in this mode. I even illustrated some of the
entries — not being a visual artist this was a leap and really
opened me up to creative receptivity.
3. What books/authors do you keep
coming back to?
Morrison’s Beloved, over and
over. And if you haven’t heard her read it, download it now!
4. Are you working on a larger project
right now?
Several. As mentioned above, a first
novel called After Thomas about a 40-year old, reclusive,
ex-history professor named Josephine who assumes responsibility for
raising her infant nephew when, at the
books’s opening, her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a
car accident. The book, which takes place over the course of one year, is about
Josephine’s process through grief, her reckoning with the haunting yet curative
presence of her dead sister, and how she reclaims a hold on life. I have also
been writing, off and on, a family history or memoir project. In the fall I
spent about a month obsessing on Ancestry.com and hunting down stories from
relatives. Lastly, having been a poet since girlhood, I keep an eye on
the life of my poems, organizing them into sections for possible books, sending
one or two out to journals every now and then, and occasionally writing a new
one.
5. What inspires you?
The sea. Loss and suffering. Joy and
adventure. Teaching. Reading. Sitting down and tapping out the words.
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