This Is Home
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In your guest post for She Reads, you mention that you went back to school for writing at age thirty-four. Can you talk more about that experience and what drove you to pursue your dreams?
I always wanted to be a writer. I attempted my first novel when I was nineteen. I got the chicken pox and had to stay inside for two weeks so I wrote every day. Then, about ninety pages in, I realized it was awful. I kept writing, but it was always something I did in my spare time. And even then, it was sporadic. Then suddenly I was thirty-four and my third child started preschool, and I sort of looked up from life and realized that I wasn’t ever going to be a writer in the sense that I wanted to be if I didn’t put my energy in that direction.
I had an unfinished bachelor’s degree, so I went back to school part-time. I took some creative writing classes and when I completed my BA, I was accepted into the MFA program as a fiction candidate.
My kids were school age by then and I was working, so the whole process took me about six years, from my first day on campus to my last, but I enjoyed it. It was a gift, really, to be in that learning environment. I’d do it over again in a heartbeat.
You are the founding editor of ROAR, a literary magazine supporting women in the arts. What inspired you to found ROAR? How has it helped you to connect the larger writing community—and, in turn, how do you think that has helped you?
ROAR magazine started in a publishing class at UMass Boston. I was working as a grad assistant, living an hour away from campus, raising my three children when I took the class. On a personal level, I was very aware of protecting my creative time while trying to balance the other roles in my life.
ROAR was a response to that. A desire to create a physical space where emerging women writers could publish their work. VIDA had just come out with their count, and the conversation about gender and publishing informed that decision.
The experience was really valuable within the context of the literary community as ROAR was really a team effort—a labor of love for our group of editors. It allowed me the opportunity to work with some extremely talented and inspiring people. We published four issues that we were very proud of, as well as an online component.
It was also enormously helpful to be on the other side of that table. I wasn’t a writer in that role but an editor working within a team of editors, having to accept or reject the work of other writers. I learned how subjective the selection process is and how editors really need to fall in love with a story to get behind it. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with a story, it’s just not a good fit. That was helpful to keep in mind when I was sending out my own work and piling up a stack of rejections.
How do you deal with writer’s block? What drives you to keep going when you figuratively “hit a wall” while writing?
I try not to think of it as writer’s block. That’s such a negative phrase. Words are important, especially the ones we tell ourselves. So that’s not something that’s in my vocabulary. When I’m at a difficult point in the writing process—say, starting a new story, which is always tough for me—I try to just show up every day and see what I can do. It’s too easy to let the demons of the blank page get in your head. Part of the job is to accept all parts of the creative process. Some days I’m going to write easily, and other days I might need to do a little digging. The trick is to just keep going. Stay the course.
What are some of your favorite novels or authors? If you had to pick one that you think has inspired you the most, who or what would it be?
If I had to pick one, I’d say Anne Tyler. Breathing Lessons is a novel I’ve read over and over and I still go back to it to see how it’s put together, how it moves through time. Even as I’m writing this I’m thinking of a handful of favorites that I reference often. But in terms of a favorite author with a body of work that I cherish, absolutely Anne Tyler.
What do you like to do in your spare time other than writing?
I tend to be a homebody, so I’m fortunate that my home is my favorite place. We spend a lot of our spare time at home, with family and friends. My husband and I have six kids, from teenagers to adults. The older ones have spouses. We have a tidal river in the backyard, a gorgeous view. There’s always something going on. Boating and cookouts in the summer. Dinners and game nights. Everyone loves to cook and eat. We call it the last frontier because everyone brings their dogs and we have two labs, so it gets noisy and crowded and pretty chaotic, but we love it.
Are you working on anything now that you’d like to share with us?
I’m working on a novel set on an island off the coast of New England about people who are brought together after an accident leaves a young girl orphaned. It explores the concept of insiders and outsiders and how these labels are formed and perpetuated.
What do you most want readers to take away from This Is Home? What emotion do you hope lingers when they close the book?
I hope readers take away from it that they were happy to spend time with these characters and in this story. That’s the most I could ever hope for as an author.
And, of course, what does home mean to you?
Home to me is the place where I’m most comfortable in my own skin. Where I can just be, and that’s enough.
More from the Author
The Salt House
About the Author
Lisa Duffy is the author of The Salt House, named by Real Simple as a Best Book of the Month upon its release in June 2017, one of Bustle’s Best Debut Novels by Women in 2017, and one of Refinery 29’s Best Beach Reads of 2017, as well as a She Reads Book Club selection.
Lisa received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts. Her short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her writing can be found in numerous publications, including Writer’s Digest. She is the founding editor of Roar, a literary journal supporting women in the arts. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and three children.
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The Salt House
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Copyright © 2019 by Lisa Duffy
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Cover design by Lucky Kim
Cover photographs by Getty Images
Author photograph © Tom Wheble
/> Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Duffy, Lisa, 1970– author.
Title: This is home / Lisa Duffy.
Description: New York : Atria, 2019. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038412 (print) | LCCN 2018040360 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501189265 (eBook) | ISBN 9781501189258 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781982115753 (library hardcover)
Classification: LCC PS3604.U3784 (ebook) | LCC PS3604.U3784 T48 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038412
ISBN 978-1-5011-8925-8
ISBN 978-1-5011-8926-5 (ebook)