Molly Gloss Interview

Our most recent Portland Author Profile, Molly Gloss, was gracious enough to take the time out of her busy schedule to respond to questions sent via email.  Her responses (in bold) are below.  Support this talented Portland writer by buying one of her books.

RL) You write about Northeast Oregon, being from La Grande myself I wondered what has inspired this?

MG) I don’t live in NE Oregon, never have, but it’s a landscape that speaks to me.  I get over there as often as I can, and writing books with that setting gives me plenty of reason to spend time there.   And of course it’s also a landscape well-suited to the books I’m drawn to write, books that seek to retell (or tell fresh) the stories of the American West.

RL) Are you currently working on any future publications?

MG) I’ve begun a new work set in 1938 partly in Los Angeles and partly along the Umpqua River in Oregon.

RL) Being a stay at home dad, I wondered what tips you had for parents who stay at home with their children while also still trying to pursue professional goals and be a husband or wife at the same time?

MG) The first years of my son’s life were both the impetus that started me writing, and the roadblock to finding time to write. I struggled along, not really finishing anything I wrote, but practicing craft, until my son was in kindergarten; and then from that point I was able to find good quality time for writing on most days while he was in school. It was tricky, though, and took me a while to get over the impulse to spend those free hours while my son was in school, cleaning house or catching up the laundry!  You have to discipline yourself to set priorities (writing first!  housework later!) and of course find within yourself the motivation to stick to the work–not be distracted by a sale at Nordstrom or a lunch invitation with a friend!  And I feel very fortunate that I didn’t have to juggle writing with mothering AND with a full-time job outside the house.  I was lucky enough to have a husband willing to support all of us;  and we were both willing to get by on his blue-collar salary while I was still unpublished and unpaid!

RL) Lastly, who are some other local (Portland) authors you would recommend?

MG) Well, I could give you the usual list of my friends and colleagues, but what about a couple of writers who are less well known, and maybe aren’t Portlanders but certainly Oregonians, and that makes them “local” in some sense, doesn’t it?  There’s the Eugene writer, Leslie What, whose story collection Crazy Love was published this past summer by Wordcraft of Oregon (over in La Grande, the indomitable David Memmott, editor).  And the Pendleton writer, Bette Husted, whose memoir Above The Clearwater was published a couple of years ago by Oregon State University Press.  I love both books–they deserve to be more widely read!

Reading Local would like to thank Ms. Gloss for her time, and thoughtful responses to the questions posed.