Home | About Us | Events | Newsletter | Benefits | Join | Blog
Bookworm Talks To Lucille Lang Day, author of God of the Jellyfish
Lucille Lang Day's poetry collections are vast and impressive. Her writing has been selected by Robert Pinsky, David Littlejohn, and Michael Rubin for the Joseph Henry Jackson Award in Literature. She is also a co-author of How to Encourage Girls in Math and Science: Strategies for Parents and Educators (Dale Seymour), and the author of the libretto for Eighteen Months to Earth, a science fiction opera with music by John Niec. Lucy received her M.A. and M.F.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University, and her M.A. in zoology and Ph.D. in science and mathematics education from the University of California at Berkeley. Click here for more information highlighting Lucy's past and present endeavors. (Interview questions posed by Sara Cassella, WNBA-SF Newsletter Editor to author, Lucille Lang Day.) When did you start writing? One way of answering is to say I started in 1971, during my senior year of college, when I started taking myself seriously enough as a writer to enter my poetry in contests. Another is to say I started writing at age 6, when I first wrote a poem spontaneously, simply because I felt like it. Why did you choose your particular genre? I would say that poetry chose me. Poems have always arrived, invited or not, on the doorstep of my brain, and when this happens, I invite them in to see what they have to say. I’ve been a goner for poetry since I was in fifth grade, when I first read Emily Dickinson, but I also enjoy reading and writing in other genres. In addition to poetry, I’ve published science journalism, feature articles, essays and book reviews, a short story, a children’s book, a textbook, and several personal essays, some of which are from a book-length memoir for which I’m now seeking an agent. Poetry, of course, keeps sticking its nose in the door, no matter what else I’m doing. What inspired you to choose your subject matter? A lot of my writing, both poetry and prose, is concerned with science. My academic background is in science as well as English and creative writing, and I’m interested in bridging the gap between science and literature. What can poetry reveal about science? What does science reveal about human nature? How does spirituality fit into a universe driven by the laws of science? These are some of the questions I explore in my poetry. I’m also drawn to autobiography, both in poetry and prose. Everyone has an interesting life story. Mine includes having gotten married at 14 and having given birth to my first child at 15. How difficult/easy has your experience been as a published writer? I feel that I’ve received a warm welcome in the world of literary magazines and small presses, although I certainly have received my share of rejections too. My eighth poetry collection will be published in 2009 by Cervena Barva Press. I’ve also found that there is a market for science journalism and feature articles. The difficulty lies in getting an agent and a commercial publisher for a literary book, and I am still working my way up that hill. What advice would you give other aspiring authors? Never give up either on creating your work or on trying to publish it. Don’t let rejections get you down. Someone facing 500 manuscripts overlooked your work of genius. This is no more personal than the rain. Anything else you would like to share with the WNBA? WNBA is a source of friendship, support, and inspiration. It’s great to be affiliated with so many talented writers!
**********************
Would like to be featured as our Author Spotlight? Please email Sara at newsletter@wnba-sfchapter.org. |
askmepc-webdesign.com