I have been a freelance journalist for over 20 years and have been writing fiction seriously for around five. My short stories have been published in The Baltimore Review and Inkwell, and my rejection-slip file includes a growing number of hand-written notes aaying "Really liked this! Please try us again!" which, at the moment, is what keeps me going... I am currently completing a Gurfein Family Foundation Fellowship in Fiction Writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and am working on a novel. I'm married with kids, and live in the 'burbs.
What fuels my creativity? Evesdropping. Reading off-beat stories in the newspaper. Walking around a neighborhood I don't know very well. Practicing the piano helps me write better... but writing does not help me play the piano better.
I write because inventing people, deciding what they're going to do today and putting words in their mouths is the closest a 46-year-old can get to playing with Barbie Dolls without freaking out my relatives.
Favorite authors: Brian Morton, Meg Wolitzer, Amy Bloom, Jhumpa Lahiri. Books I've loved reading or re-reading recently include Lauren Grodstein's "A Friend of the Family"; Andrea Lee's short stories, Melissa Bank's "Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing," Aryeh Lev Stollman's "The Far Euphrates," and Wallace Stegner's "Crossing to Safety."
Susan, so happy you're here. Big YES to your Barbies; looking forward to reading more -
Susan, so happy you're here. Big YES to your Barbies; looking forward to reading more -