Author: Shyla Ann Shehan

This week’s Author Q&A features Lauren Davenport, a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Lauren writes fiction, nonfiction, and more, and has been a New York Public School Educator of high school students for over twenty years. Her short nonfiction essay, Failure, is all about her profession and teaching experiences. We asked Lauren to share a little more about her writing life including some unique detail related to the writing of the story and what she learned from it.

This piece is seven years old! It haunted me just like the ghosts and I kept fiddling with it.

Time is a magical gift to writers. The simmer and slow cook method seem to work for me anyway.

We then asked what part of the artistic process she considered to be the most difficult, as well as most satisfying, and why.

Starting is the worst part for me, I procrastinate out of paralysis and talk myself into anything except actually writing-–it’s pathetic honestly.

[However], I think when I’m in the thick of it and writing away–time just dissolves and I’m not worrying about anything except trying to have my fingers keep up with my thoughts.

We asked her to describe her biggest fear as a writer.

Reading my work when it is out in the world and wishing I could change this or that. It happens every time and I guess it always will but it is scary to let anything go.

We asked Lauren what fuels her desire to write.

Boiling over with observations about the world that I fear no one wants to hear yet I need to share.

We wrapped the Q&A with the question of what comes to her mind when she hears the phrase, ‘The Good Life’.

I think of pasta. I have no idea why but I truly see spaghetti twirling on a fork.

That’s certainly one we haven’t heard before, but a great answer! Thank you Lauren, for sharing your story with us and for spending a little extra time on this Q&A. We wish you the best with your students and all your writing endeavors!

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team

This week’s Author Q&A features Noelle Nori. Noelle holds an MFA in Writing from the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. Her fiction has appeared in Crack the Spine and The Write Launch and she was longlisted for The Masters Review 2021 Novel Excerpt contest.

Her short fiction, “Let it Burn,” appears in our autumn issue and invites the reader into the intimate space of an exercise studio where one participant works through an intense class that conjures thoughts of loss and longing–heavy lifting that is as much mental as it is physical.

As we do with all authors, we took the opportunity to ask Noelle a few questions about her writing and writing life. She elected to share what the most difficult part of the artistic process is for her.

Letting myself sit with the discomfort and ambiguity of not knowing what comes next and trusting that I will eventually figure it out. This usually happens somewhere in the middle of a piece and is actually something I’ve been experiencing more and more lately, but I’m trying to take it as a good sign that I’m pushing myself to improve. If I knew exactly where a piece was going and how to get there, then I would know exactly how to write it, and where is the challenge or growth in that? Part of the magic of writing is figuring things out as you go along. You have to pull that rabbit out of the hat for yourself before you can do it for your reader!

In contrast, she also shared the part of the process is the most satisfying.

When I write the ending or last line of a piece and have a sense of ‘Yes, that’s it.’ It’s kind of like slotting the last puzzle piece into place – so satisfying! It doesn’t necessarily mean the piece is totally done (I likely still have editing to do), but it’s exciting to see that north star that I’ve been writing towards finally shining on the page.

That is a satisfying moment indeed! And we love the analogy of the North Star, as a navigation point that is leading the story (or writer) to its destination.

Of course, we always want to know what people think of when they hear the phrase “The Good Life.” Here’s how Noelle responded to the question…

The following words come to mind: comfort, meaning, ease, expansiveness, abundance, joy, family, friends, flow, purpose, fun, creativity, and love. The tangible representation or fulfillment of those words might look different at any given time. (‘Comfort’ can mean a hug when I’m feeling down or lounge pants after a long day!) But they all add up to that ‘good life’ feeling.

Thank you, Noelle, for being open to a little Q&A and for allowing us to publish your story. We wish you the best!

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team

This week’s Author Q&A is with Alex Sese. Alex is a native of the Philippines who currently lives in Illinois as a full-time copy editor in medical communications and freelance fiction and nonfiction editor for Subtle Script Editing. Her story, “Love, Dad,” was this year’s winner of the Honeybee Prize in Fiction selected by guest judge Mary Kurlya. Here’s what Mary said about her story:

“Love, Dad” is a cleverly told story that employs misapprehension to brisk dramatic effect. As this short epistolary story reveals through masterful use of form, Dad and his legacy are far more nuanced and adoring than his earlier characterization portends, as is the medium through which he demonstrated his love, storytelling. 

As we do with many of our contributing authors, we asked Alex to share a little more about her writing and her writing life. We began by asking her which part of the writing process she found most difficult.

Her response: “To me, it’s finding that one line that anchors the whole story. Every piece starts with that one line that I’d really like to write and the rest kind of builds itself around it. It takes some time, reflection, and sometimes just luck to come up with it.”

This is a common obstacle faced by many artists. It is said that beginning is the hardest part. Afterwards, the rest just flows. We then asked her what fuels her desire to write.

Her response: “Readers, to be honest. I know they tell you to write for yourself, to write what you’d like to read. And I do. But every piece I’ve written is also a sort of love letter to someone out there. I hope that my words find them.”

It’s interesting to consider who we are writing for, ourselves or someone else. Perhaps we should be writing for ourselves but most writers probably have some person or audience in mind when setting out to write something new. The fact that yours are love letters is endearing and we love that! We then asked her who her biggest writing influences were.

Her response: “Haruki Murakami is someone I admire and consider his work as comfort reading. I think the way he makes me feel like I’m eavesdropping on his characters in their more somber moments influences what I hope my writing to feel like – intimate and gentle.”

Making a reader feel connected to the characters you create is a great accomplishment and goal! Finally, we asked her what comes to mind when she hears the phrase “the good life.”

Her response: The good life is one where we feel at peace with who we are.

Thank you, Alex, for sharing your “love letter” with us and taking the time to answer our questions. We wish you the best with all your writing endeavors.

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team

This week’s author Q&A is with Adeline Lovell. Addie is a native of Brooklyn, New York. She attends Smith College where her focus is Women and Gender Studies with a concentration in Creative Writing. She is the author of the award-winning story “Burning” and the runner-up for the 2022 Honeybee Literature Prize in fiction. We had the privilege to ask Adeline about the creative process for her latest work, “The Children.”

We began by asking which aspects of the writing process stood out or surprised her most.

Her response: “This piece mostly started from stand-alone scenes that came from prompts in creative writing classes. I wrote the flashback scene with Brittany and Caroline as teenagers first, and then felt like there was more to their relationship, after they’ve grown and dealt/not dealt with their own dysfunction. I think the time that this is being published is the weirdest detail—I wrote this way before the Roe decision, certainly not expecting that if or when it was published, abortion rights would be in such a dire place. I feel happy that this is being published right now. I hope that now, this piece reads as another reminder of the many reasons that women make this choice, and that none of them should have to be justified.”

A very insightful and honest take on how this story relates to modern times! We then asked her what new discoveries she made about her craft and overall writing style in the making of this story.

Her response: “This piece didn’t feel complete for a long time—I wrote it non-chronologically, not even knowing if I could make it into a concise story. That’s pretty different from my usual process when I’m writing short fiction, so by the time I sat down and tried to consider it as a longer piece, a lot of it was already done. So that was a new experience for me, in terms of craft. I felt really tender towards my two main characters in this piece—I didn’t really favor one over the other—which was kind of new for me, given that they do a lot of unintentional hurting of each other. It was a really fun and interesting thing to explore

It’s always exciting to surprise yourself and learn more about yourself as a writer when drafting new work! We then asked Addie what she enjoys most about the artistic process.

Her response: I love the initial process of writing a story. Writing scenes for the first time, however much they end up changing, is so much fun for me. I feel like I’m often reminding myself that writing is supposed to be fun even as it’s also incredibly hard, frustrating, and occasionally infuriating. But I LOVE the feeling of getting into a zone where I know what I want to say and feel the urgency to write it.

The sense of urgency that she describes is felt by many writers out there, as is the ultimate reward that comes with writing new work. We finally asked her about her writing influences and what fuels her desire to write:

Her response: Reading good fiction, seeing something that I want to find an interesting way to describe, getting overwhelmed by an emotion that feels important enough to explore in some context other than my life…I think Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Elizabeth Strout are probably my biggest influences. I write a lot about family dynamics and dysfunction, and every time I read them, I’m just floored by how compelling and smart their work is. 

We asked Addie if there was anything else she wanted to share with potential readers?

Her response: I feel like now is as relevant a time as any to remind everyone who is able to donate to abortion funds and listen to and amplify the voices of the poor women and WOC in red states who are most affected by new laws, and to never let the lawmakers who were responsible for this have a moment of peace.

And finally, when we asked her what she thinks of when she hears the phrase, “The Good Life,” her response was as follows:

There are so, so, so many things, but right now, I’m answering these questions outside a coffee shop with live music, drinking an iced lavender latte and sitting next to my best friend. It feels very relevant.

Thanks Addie for sharing your words with us and being a part of our Summer issue. We appreciate you taking extra time with us on this Q&A and wish you the best!

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team

This week’s Author Q&A is with Katherine Kubarski. Katherine is a grant proposal writer from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She’s long had an affinity for creative writing and rediscovered her passion at a retreat on the sacred island of Molokai. Her poem “Another April,” appeared in our latest issue of The Good Life Review.

We asked Katherine a number of questions and she elected to combine two of the questions to explain both how the pandemic affected her life and writing and how she came to finish a 14 year old poem. Her response was as follows: 

“The onset of the pandemic coincided with my father’s precipitous plunge into deep dementia that sadly altered the last 16 months of his life. As his primary caregiver, I became his human compass, orienting him when confused, redirecting him when agitated, and connecting him as best I could to the things that had lit up the length of his 94 years – jitterbugging to Sinatra, the memory of my mother, assembling a Polish casserole to share with family and friends. There is something miraculous about muscle memory, the spot-on execution of a dance step or the perfect slicing of thin rounds of potatoes and onions. Well-worn pathways lead to one’s former self, even when almost all is lost. 

“Well-meaning friends would encourage me to write about my pandemic caregiving as a possible path to my own catharsis and release.  But it was all too fresh and raw to handle. I had little strength to write about the storm while smack in the middle of it. 

“Instead, I took refuge in the toil of revision. Many nights, I’d dig up safe, familiar writing and tuck myself into the folds of the old work, often inhabiting a single poem for weeks at a time. Draft after draft, I’d burrow deep until on occasional mornings I’d wake up to a new image, wordplay, or insight that would take the poem in a new, truer direction. 

“’Another April’ is one of those poems. The bones of the piece were set 14 years ago as I emerged from another period of loss and exhaustion. As I revisited the poem during the pandemic I started by dwelling in its strata – of soft snow, frozen ground, fabric, epidermis – and gradually added new layers to convey the anticipated experience of surviving isolation, emerging from “cocoon-ment,” and unwinding the self to connect with the natural world and others once again. In the process, I have come to appreciate how in times when inspiration appears to be in short supply, taking a well-trodden path back to previous work can be a deeply rewarding experience.”

Katherine’s work has appeared in Mountain Gazette, Santa Fe Literary Review, Santa Fe Reporter (awarded first prize in the 2019 Poetry Contest), and Snow Poems Project.  In search of post-pandemic inspiration, she is headed with her laptop to a cabin in the forest of Chilean Patagonia where the world’s tiniest deer and other surprises await her.

Thanks, Katherine, for being a part of our 5th issue and for participating in this Q & A!

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team

This week’s Author Q&A is with Laurie Guerin. Laurie is a spoken word artist who has performed her original works on stage throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She has co-produced two live storytelling series, Word Up and Tell Me More in Santa Cruz,  California. Her flash essay, “The Code,” appeared in our latest issue of The Good Life Review.

We asked Laurie what fuels her desire to write?

Her response:  I’ve written ever since I was a kid. It was just in me. I’d disappear into my room at home or go sit by a lake on camping trips and return with a story. My mom would ask me to read them to her and sometimes, she’d cry. In high school, I wrote a story about a young woman who had found love just before discovering she was dying of cancer. It was awful, packed full of cheap romance novel tropes, but I had an audience of girlfriends who would gather around during lunch break to hear the latest installment. I’m sure the attention was heady, but so was pouring my unrequited romantic longing into bad prose and discovering it resonated. This remains a big factor in what fuels my writing. Connecting with people in an intimate way; a shared exploration into the heart of things.

We also asked her how the pandemic affected her writing?

Her response: “Much of what I’ve written over the past 10 years, I’ve presented at small storytelling venues. I love the collaboration with other performers as well as the immediacy of the reaction of the audience. The venues closed their doors and it felt as though anything I wanted to write was meaningless in the face of this catastrophe. But the beautiful community of writers to which I belong kept writing. We met over Zoom at first and later outside with six feet of space between us. Writing was a lifeline. We supported one another in delving deeply into the fear of what was happening, and we also found meaning in writing stories and poems where there was no mention of the pandemic. Stories that made us laugh and cry and reminded us we were still standing.”

And finally, as it is will all our artists, we asked what she thinks of when she hears the phrase “The Good Life?” 

Her response was touching and very true: “Initially I thought about The Good Life as a collection of simple, sweet moments: Watching my youngest grandson spar with waves at the beach; the warm body of the man I love snuggled next to mine; drinking wine with friends around a fire-pit during the quarantine. Then I reflected on hard moments- like my mother’s death last year. The circumstances were traumatic and tragic, yet in her final hours, there was healing and love. And I thought, it’s all of it. The good life is all of it.”

Laurie is a student of Roxan McDonald’s and she has also studied with Danusha Lameris, Ellen Bass and most recently Pam Houston. Her work has appeared in Literary Mama and more recently in Prometheus Dreaming. She is currently working on a collection of creative nonfiction essays.

Thanks, Laurie, for being a part of our 5th issue and for participating in this Q & A!

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team