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10 Questions for Lorraine Boissoneault


“Emma has only ever seen him in dreams, which is strange because she read somewhere that the human brain can’t create new faces; it just pulls from the features of strangers. But she would’ve remembered his face if she’d ever seen it on a human: eyes that pro­trude from their sockets; thick eyebrows that meet above his painfully crooked nose; curly, mussed hair that cascades around his cheeks; skin so grimy she’s not sure of its native color; and a shiny scar that bisects his lips, starting to the left of his nose and ending at his chin.”
—from “Hit and Run”, Spring 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 1)

 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
If we’re going way back, I wrote one of my first stories around age 7, starring Sly the Fox. He went on a camping adventure and was first scared by, then befriended, a hungry raccoon. The whole thing was inspired by my favorite Beanie Babies. Oh, the ‘90s.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
A lot of the stories I read as a kid seeped into my brain, and those authors certainly affected my voice for a long time. I was a serial re-reader, which meant returning to books by Jean Craighead George, Lois Lowry, Robin McKinley, Gail Carson Levine, and Madeleine L’Engle dozens of times. Those stories shaped and encouraged my love of adventures, the fantastic, and complicated heroines. As I’ve become more purposeful in my writing, I’ve looked everywhere for models to emulate. Karen Russell, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, N.K. Jemisin, Edwidge Danticat, Hilary Mantel, David Mitchell, and Carmen Maria Machado are some current favorites.

What other professions have you worked in?
I’ve waitressed, worked at a farmer’s market, taught swimming, coached a youth sailing team, spent a summer in an independent bookstore, and worked as a consultant at a university writing center.

What inspired you to write this piece?
A couple things came together at the same time for this piece. I’d been reading about the number of animals killed by traffic in a given year—millions—and considering the apparent insolvability of the problem. Why did we decide our transportation needs outweigh an animal’s life? And plenty of wildlife accidents also cause human harm. I grew up in a rural area and knew people who’d been hurt when they hit deer; I remember being extremely careful to avoid them when I learned to drive. That caution sticks with me today. Whenever I see one of those deer crossing signs, my attention immediately leaps into high gear.

While thinking about all these issues and trying to figure out how to work them into a story, my grandmother died. That’s when the piece morphed into something that also had to do with more individual, personal grief. I wanted the characters to work through loss on many different levels.

Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
Everywhere I’ve ever lived has influenced my writing to some extent: rural northern Ohio and the Great Lakes; western France; New York City; Chicago; Washington, D.C. All of those places live inside me. I can instantly recall their weather and sounds and smells, the way I felt when I was living in them, the people who were with me.

I’ve also written about places I’ve never traveled to, or only spent short periods of time in. I’m always on the lookout for places of discomfort, liminal spaces, anywhere that the unexpected can occur.

Is there any specific music that aids you through the writing or editing process?
When writing, I can’t listen to anything with lyrics. I really like movie scores and instrumental music. I try to find albums whose mood and tempo matches the tone of whatever section I’m working on. Some favorite standbys include Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings score; Ramin Djawadi’s Game of Thrones score (season 6 is my favorite); anything by Zoe Keating; Explosions in the Sky; and Max Richter. For editing, I go for bands I know really well that won’t distract me too much—the Decemberists, the Shins, Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, alt-J.

Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to write?
I like to have tea while I write—loose leaf if I can get it, because I’m a tea snob—and always use noise-cancelling headphones, even if I’m not listening to music. Sounds from the street or the café distract me too much if I’m writing. I generally write first drafts by hand. I find the flow of the work more easily when I’m holding a pen. I then go back over everything and make small edits when I type it up. 

If you could work in another art form what would it be?
Definitely music. I’ve always loved learning new instruments and can easily sink into the world of a song. Getting swept up like that is the closest sensation to the headlong rush of writing that I’ve ever found.

What are you working on currently?
I have a problem of taking on too many projects at once, so I’m working on final edits for a co-written novel, the first draft of a new novel, and a nonfiction book proposal. They’re all dramatically different in terms of content, but each of the projects explores the question of identity in some way.

What are you reading right now?
Same as with writing, I like to read a handful of books at once. Right now it’s Barkskins (Annie Proulx), Geek Love (Katherine Dunn), The Library Book (Susan Orlean), and Draft No. 4 (John McPhee). In a month when I’ve finished them all, I’ll have a new rotation of three or four books going again.

 

LORRAINE BOISSONEAULT is the author of the narrative nonfiction book The Last Voyageurs, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Chicago Book of the Year Award. She works as a journalist in Chicago, writing for Smithsonian Magazine, The Atlantic, Chicago Magazine, Playboy, and others. Her short fiction has also appeared in Literary Laundry.


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