Mayra Calvani's Blog - Posts Tagged "creative-nonfiction"

Faye Rapoport DesPres is the author of the new memoir-in-essays, Message from a Blue Jay. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College. Her essays, fiction, poetry, and reviews have appeared in Ascent, International Gymnast Magazine, Platte Valley Review, Superstition Review, In the Arts, Fourth Genre, TheWhistling Fire, the Writer’s Chronicle, and other journals and magazines. Faye was born in New York City and has lived in England, Israel, and Colorado. She currently lives in the Boston area with her husband, Jean-Paul Des Pres, and their cats. Visit her website at www.fayerapoportdespres.com. 

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About the book

From an astonishing blue jay to a lone humpback whale, from the back roads of her hometown to the streets of Jerusalem and the Tower of London, debut author Faye Rapoport DesPres examines a modern life marked by a passion for the natural world, unexpected love, and shocking loss, and her search for a place she can finally call home in this beautifully crafted memoir-in-essays.

Three weeks before DesPres's fortieth birthday, nothing about her life fit the usual mold. She is single, living in a rented house in Boulder, Colorado, fitting dance classes and nature hikes between workdays at a software start-up that soon won't exist. While contemplating a sky still hazy from summer wildfires, she decides to take stock of her nomadic life and find the real reasons she never "settled down." The choices she makes from that moment on lead her to retrace her steps-in the States and abroad-as she attempts to understand her life. But instead of going back, she finds herself moving forward to new love, horrible loss, and finally, in a way that she never expected, to a place she can almost call home.

Readers who love the memoirs and personal essays of rising contemporary writers such as Cheryl Strayed, Joy Castro, and Kim Dana Kupperman will appreciate Faye's observational eye, her passion for the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it, and her search for the surprising truths behind the events of our daily lives.



INTERVIEW:

Q: What’s inside the mind of a Creative Nonfiction author?

A: Every creative nonfiction writer has his or her own inspiration, ideas, and goals when it comes to writing. If we have anything in common, it might be the desire to not simply record true stories, but to find meaning and revelation in the world around us and the events of our lives.

Q: Tell us why readers should buy MESSAGE FROM A BLUE JAY.

A: Message From a Blue Jay offers insight into one writer’s life, observations, and interpretations of the world, but it also provides fodder for thoughts about readers’ own lives. Readers who enjoy learning about different places, readers who enjoy observing and picking up cues from the natural world, and readers who enjoy self-searching and growth should all enjoy the book. I’ve been told that it’s a difficult book to put down because readers get drawn in very quickly. Writers who are interested in the personal essay genre and the craft of prose might enjoy the different approaches to creative nonfiction that appear in the book.

Q: What makes a good Memoir or Memoir-in-Essays?

A: Like any good book, a good memoir (or memoir-in-essays) contains an absorbing story that captures the reader’s attention and imagination, and takes readers on an interesting ride. It’s also thought-provoking, illuminating, and well-written.

Q: What is a regular writing day like for you?

A: This varies; when I’m involved in a particular project, I often write from 5 a.m. or 5:30 a.m. until 7 a.m. in the mornings. I have to work at other jobs to make a living, so if I don’t get my writing done early in the morning, before the rest of the world hits, I often don’t get to it later in the day. Sometimes this changes, however. If I have revisions to do for a deadline, I might work on them at any time of the day.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being an author?

A: It has been a life-long dream to publish a book-length manuscript, so it is fulfilling to know that I worked hard and stuck with that dream, and made it happen. Since the book was published, it has been most rewarding to hear from readers who have said that they couldn’t put the book down and that they related to many of the things I wrote about. Some readers have said the book really moved them or made them feel less alone in their own feelings or observations. That’s wonderful.

Sharon van Ivan lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her two cats, The Duke and Earl.  She was born in Brooklyn New York and couldn’t wait to move back to New York when she grew up.  Her parents divorced when she was a baby and she lived with her mother in Akron, Ohio, until she returned to New York in her early 20s.  There she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and was a working actress for many years.  But she was always writing.  Her debut as a playwright was when she was 10 years old and living in Sacramento, California.  She wrote about the hardships of a young girl in Mexico.  The play was so good, it was presented to the whole school.  Sharon was mortified and did not write again until high school.  Then when she had a writing assignment, she would dream about it the night before, and write it just before class.  She was an A student in English.  Not the most popular person in school, however.

Growing up with an alcoholic and, therefore, mentally ill mother and a mostly-absent father (plus a slew of stepfathers) was a challenge that Sharon met head-on – as she had no choice. Later in life when she did have a choice, the patterns had already been set and she followed a similarly disastrous road until she found show business, a great psychiatrist and the love of her life, the renowned realist painter, Charles Pfahl.

Purchase Juggle and Hide on Amazon.

Q: What’s inside the mind of a memoir author?

A: Memories – both good and bad – that have been with me throughout my life. The memories are like slides stuck in a corner of my brain that I need to sort out so that I can go on to write about other things.

Q: Tell us why readers should buy Juggle and Hide.

A: Juggle and Hide has a great cover.  It’s a photo of a painting – also entitled Juggle and Hide – that my husband worked on while I wrote the book. I also believe my story might help others who suffered by growing up in a parent’s alcoholic blackout and then going on to become alcoholics themselves -- even though they swore they never would. And how they came through it all. We are all survivors.

Q: What makes a good memoir?

A: People learning how do deal with their troubled lives. How to live with something horrible from childhood, or even later – even now – and then being able to see that they’re not alone.  We can survive even some of the darkest times, accept our losses and move on without fear if we can relate to others who have experienced the same horrors or similar horrors.

Q: What is a regular writing day like for you?

A: I always begin the day by writing in my journal.  Otherwise, I’m sad to say that I am not very disciplined as a writer and I am high-level procrastinator.  Every day is different for me writing-wise unless I’m really caught up in a project and then I’m writing all day every day. Very erratic way of writing.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being an author?

A: Completing a project. Being able to stay home and create something from nothing.  Well, not actually nothing.  And people.  I am one of those who who listens all the time to what people are saying: on their phones, in a restaurant, anywhere.  It often doesn’t mean anything at the time, but something important may come out of it later.