A Little Blurb About You
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the Poet Laureate of Kansas, and the author of 14 books, including a novel, The Divorce Girl (Ice Cube Books), a non-fiction book, Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and Polish Resistance Fighter Beat the Odds and Found Each Other (Potomac Books); The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community & Coming Home to the Body (Ice Cube Books); the anthologies An Endless Skyway: Poetry from the State Poets Laureate (co-editor, Ice Cube Books) and Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems (editor, Woodley Press); and four collections of poetry. Founder of Transformative Language Arts – a master's program in social and personal transformation through the written, spoken and sung word – at Goddard College where she teaches, Mirriam-Goldberg also leads writing workshops widely. With singer Kelley Hunt, she co-writes songs, offers collaborative performances, and leads writing and singing Brave Voice retreats. She blogs at www.CarynMirriamGoldberg.com
1. Who or what inspired you to become a writer?
I grew up drawing like a maniac, always needing to make something to feel alive and connected, but when I was 14, two things happened. One is that I watched a friend spend six hours on the corner of a pen-and-ink drawing and thought to myself, “If that's what being an artist is, I don't have the patience,” and the other is that my parents had a long, horrendous and dramatic divorce followed by equally dramatic and difficult years in different family configurations. I started writing at the start of my parents' divorce, and this novel is actually based on the story that turned me into a writer.
2. How long did it take you to write The Divorce Girl?
I began writing the novel in my mind when I was 14, narrating strange and quirky events to gain the distance necessary to get through big losses. I told myself that such moments were worth remembering and turning into part of a novel one day. I began the novel on paper when about 16 years ago, writing and revising extensively until the time was right to try to get it published. Then I spent many years looking for the right publisher, and eventually found Ice Cube Press.
3. While writing how many times do you go back and rewrite a plot?
That's hard for me to answer because I don't keep track, and I tend to work on books -- whether it's a book of poetry, fiction, memoir or non-fiction -- for years. I tend to write fast and sloppy, and then revise up one side and down the other until the cows come home and go back out again (to use a Kansas expression).
4. You run into a bookstore, where do you go first?
Usually, I look at fiction first, then self-help and spirituality, then memoir, and eventually poetry, but I tend to just wander also, waiting for something to catch me and call out, “Take me home!”
5. How many books in a month do you tend to read?
Because I read several books at once, it's hard for me to keep track, but probably between 3-6 any given month, depending on my teaching schedule (when I'm reading the work of my students, and if MA theses count, then a bunch of books that way!) and the workshops, readings and other events I participate in as I travel around. I read a lot of magazines too.
6. In all the books you've read. Who is your most favorite character and why?
I love the main character/narrator in Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone -- Delores Price. She's imaginative, courageous, visionary, down-to-earth, and willing to take powerful risks, and she also finds great healing through all her strength and vulnerability.
7. State 5 random facts about yourself.
a. I live with my family as well as a love cat named Miyako and two large dogs -- a very old labmation named Mariah, and a very young (read: energetic) chocolate labaraner (Weimraner/lab mix) named Shay.
b. I fell in love with yoga in my 40s and now teach it.
c. I play the cello badly and piano a little better, but I want to learn how to play jazz piano.
d. I love taking baths, and on a bad day, I might take three.
e. I love Kansas and find it outrageously beautiful.
8. Your favorite Genre?
Whatever I'm writing or reading at the moment.
9. What are you currently reading?
Anne Patchett's State of Wonder, Harriet Lerner's The Marriage Rules, and A God in the House, edited by Katherine Towler and Ilya Kaminsky
10. What is the best book you've read?
I have so many books that I love, kind of like my children, that I couldn't possibly choose a best, but I would say in the best category are Toni Morrison's Beloved, Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, Stephanie Kallos' Broken for You, The Collected Poems of William Stafford, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson and Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart.
11. Any new projects coming up?
I have another book I've been writing for some years -- a non-fiction book on the Holocaust -- coming out in November, and it's called Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and Polish Resistance Fighter Beat the Odds and Found Each Other. I'm also revising a novel about Miriam from the bible in contemporary times, and writing poetry for a collaborative book with photographer Stephen Locke (www.tempest.com) on tornadoes, storms and other wild weather.
About the Author:
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the Poet Laureate of Kansas, and the author of 14 books, including a forthcoming non-fiction book, Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and Polish Resistance Fighter Beat the Odds and Found Each Other (Potomac Books); The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community & Coming Home to the Body (Ice Cube Books); the anthologies An Endless Skyway: Poetry from the State Poets Laureate (co-editor, Ice Cube Books) and Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems (editor, Woodley Press); and four collections of poetry. Founder of Transformative Language Arts – a master's program in social and personal transformation through the written, spoken and sung word – at Goddard College where she teaches, Mirriam-Goldberg also leads writing workshops widely. With singer Kelley Hunt, she co-writes songs, offers collaborative performances, and leads writing and singing Brave Voice retreats.
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