Q&A with James H. Lewis

 

 

 

James H. Lewis is the author of the new novel The Dead of Winter. His other books include the Chief Novak series. A former journalist, he lives in Pittsburgh.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write a novel featuring your character Lydia Barnwell?

 

A: Several of my friends have read all the Novak books. From the start of that series, a few told me what a fascinating character Lydia is. (She’s introduced on the first page of the initial Novak book.) As I neared the end of the Novak trilogy, two asked what would happen to her. I was working on a standalone mystery at the time and instead made it Lydia’s first story.

 

Q: Did you feel you discovered anything new about Lydia in making her the main character of this story?

 

A: In the last Novak book, Lydia’s estranged boyfriend, David Kimrey, dies while trying to quell a domestic disturbance. Lydia is guilt-stricken over this, because on the preceding evening he’d stopped by her apartment seeking a reconciliation. When she insisted things were over between them, he asked for “one last hug,” and she refused.

 

At the end of this book, she and the deputy chief, Calvin Mayfield, have what she thinks is a one-night stand. In The Dead of Winter, they continue the affair, and she invites him to move in. Since Calvin is Black, this gives me the chance to explore different aspects of racism, something that’s an undercurrent in all my stories.

 

Through this story, Lydia is also learning to think for herself and not allow her male colleagues to direct the course of her investigations. She’s standing up for herself and becoming more independent. (Can you tell I’m a man with two daughters?)

Q: Did you conduct much research to write this book, and if so, what did you learn?

 

A: Mandy Tinkey, who directs the crime lab in the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office, spent an afternoon taking me through their facility and explaining their procedures. This office includes not only the coroner, but crime scene examiners and technicians. She improved the accuracy with which I portray crime scenes, and I’m grateful to her.

 

I also researched the mechanics of death by hanging, learning a bit more than I care to know. I’m always trying to learn new things. 

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: First, I hope they enjoy a good story and will come back for more. As a relative newcomer to Pittsburgh, I also hope they’ll come to share my affection for this great city. It has a fascinating history, the people are warm and welcoming, and they’ve overcome a lot since the collapse of the steel industry. Except for The Quadrant Conspiracy, a World War II novel, all my recent books represent a love story to “the Burgh.”

 

Q: What are you working on now? Will there be more novels about Lydia?

 

A: I’m working on the second Lydia novel now and hope to have it finished by fall. I designed the Novak series as a trilogy, but Lydia’s is open-ended. I’m also researching life in postwar Europe that may become a different sort of novel in the future.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I store ideas as a squirrel hides nuts for winter. A cross-platform app allows me to collect and organize clippings and other ideas, whether I’m at my desk or at dinner with friends. I have more potential projects than I’ll ever have time to turn into novels, but some have become short stories. In a sense, I’m never not writing.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with James H. Lewis.

Q&A with Maxim D. Shrayer

 

Photo by Lee Pelligrini

 

Maxim D. Shrayer is the author of the new collection Kinship. His many other books include Immigrant Baggage: Morticians, Purloined Diaries, and Other Theatrics of Exile. He grew up in Moscow and emigrated to the United States in 1987. He is Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College.

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the poems in your new collection?

 

A: I started working on the poems collected in Kinship after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022. I remember waking up to the news of the war in Ukraine and thinking: this is just so unbelievable, so unfair, so devastating. I have deep roots in Ukraine, family graves, and I, too, have a stake in this war. That outrage gave the collection its initial impetus.

 

And I was putting the finishing touches on the poems in the collection when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2024. I was even able to make a few changes in “Eretz Israel,” a cycle of seven poems about visiting Israel with my then nine-year old daughter Tatiana Rebecca (now herself a published poet), and my post-October 7th changes were a form of grieving through verse and in verse.

 

Q: The writer Elizabeth Poliner said of the book, “In Kinship the poet Maxim D. Shrayer takes on our troubled times—including COVID-19, January 6th, the Russian invasion of Ukraine—as well as troubled past times, gracing these events with his honesty, sorrow, and multi-cultural perspective.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I greatly admire Elizabeth Poliner’s work, both prose and poetry, and I’m grateful for her eloquently concise description of the book.

 

I think she is correct that the book’s main themes—ancestry in Eastern Europe, the Shoah, antisemitism both old and new, the refusenik experience and the Jewish national liberation movement behind the Iron Curtain, displacement and immigration, Zionism and Israel—reflect both my personal history as an immigrant and my literary and academic interests as a student of exile.

 

As I worked on these poems, I thought of poetry’s  unique ability to possess both the urgency of a public safety announcement and the passion of the ancient Hebrew psalmists.

Q: How was the collection's title—also the title of the first poem—chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: Kinship as a collection records my changed relationship, on the one hand, with my roots in the former Soviet Union, in Ukraine, Lithuania, and Russia, and on the other hand, with my first language, still one of the two languages in which I write, Russian.

 

The title poem, “Kinship,” is in many ways about that—about my relationship with Russia and Ukraine, and various conflicted feelings that this relationship brings to the forefront. And it's about this new demarcation line separating me from Russia’s present and future. For as long as Putin is in power, I could not go back to Russia—either physically or metaphysically.

 

Q: How did you decide on the order in which the poems would appear in the book?

 

A: Back in 1989, when I was assembling my first collection of Russian-language poetry, which came out in New York, my father, the writer David Shrayer-Petrov, who is my principal literary mentor, gave me fabulous advice. His advice was not to get fixated on the deliberateness of the poems’ order in a collection. Readers will find their own way of reading the book—if they like the poetry.

 

I also appreciate what Boris Pasternak, a great Russian poet although not a very good Jew or novelist, said about the way he chose his rhymes: as the Lord disposes. So a certain reliance on randomness or on divine intervention is not a bad strategy in trying to arrange one’s poems inside a collection.

 

The only thing I did do deliberately in Kinship was the placement of the first poem and the final poem. I knew that I wanted Kinship to open with the title poem, an antiwar, anti-Putin text, which captures my combined feelings of anger, shame, and despair.

 

And I also decided that “Homecoming,” the collection’s longest poem, might be well suited as the closing text. “Homecoming” envisions an émigré Russian artist who left many, many decades ago, foreswears ever going back, and yet returns because he realizes that the only way he can punish Putin's regime is by miraculously taking all his words out of his books in Russia’s libraries.

 

The opening poem is closer to my own personal story, the second one, to a collective history of exile. Both the personal story and the collective history have to do with the impossibility of return—for as long as a dictatorial regime, a bloody regime, rules Russia.

 

Almost every dictatorship likes to lie and present itself to the world as a place where culture is valued. So if, of course, by some miracle, all writers would extract all their works from the Russian libraries, Putin’s regime would be left with empty pages.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am putting together a new collection of poems, all of them written over the past eight months, and most of them in response to what happened on and after October 7.

 

Some of the poems have appeared over the past several months, and I’m grateful to the magazines and web portals that have responded to the current anti-Israel literary bacchanalia by opening their spaces to poems in support of Israel and in opposition to antisemitism.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Deborah, thanks so much for your questions. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you. One of my hopes for Kinship is that it would help Anglo-American readers connect a lot of the political and cultural dots. We talk about the war in Ukraine and the war in Israel. Who is fighting with whom and for what? What is at stake?

 

There is room in our culture for more poetry that deals with the roots of some of today's biggest conflicts. Among the people who can shed light on these conflicts are translingual Jewish poets who are between worlds, who are rooted in two worlds. Poets who, like myself, came from the former Soviet empire and have made a life here in America—and also in the English language.

 

Some of the poems in Kinship have a political dimension, a historical dimension that probably would require thinking, reflecting, perhaps even additional reading. And yet I don't want this book to be thought of as primarily a political document or a pamphlet. It's a book of lyrical poems; they are confessional and self-denuding, and that's the best hope I have for any poem.

 

P.S. The photo on the cover is from Monomoy Wildlife Refuge on Cape Cod. My wife and I were walking there on a December morning, and I saw this uprooted tree lying on the shore and snapped a picture.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Maxim D. Shrayer.

Q&A with Beth Kurland

 

 

 

Beth Kurland is the author of the new book You Don't Have to Change to Change Everything: Six Ways to Shift Your Vantage Point, Stop Striving for Happy, and Find True Well-Being. Her other books include Dancing on the Tightrope. A psychologist and mind-body coach, she lives in the Boston area.

 

Q: What inspired you to write You Don’t Have to Change Everything?

 

A: This book emerged from many different threads that wove themselves together somewhat organically.

 

For several years after writing my previous book Dancing on the Tightrope, I kept a file on my computer that I titled “tools for life.” In it, I began to write down things I found most helpful in working with my patients, what I had learned from others in the field that had been most beneficial, and what I found most transformative in my own life in working with the range of emotions I experience and finding ways to cultivate well-being. 

 

Around this time, I was taking writing workshops where I was given writing prompts and simply wrote stream of consciousness, whatever wanted to come out onto the page (often autobiographical vignettes). I had no specific plan to turn any of this into a book. 

 

Also at this time, I took a deep dive in mindfulness through a yearlong certificate class that helped me deepen my mindfulness practice.

 

When the early stages of the pandemic hit, I sat with so many patients virtually as we all shared collective fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. What struck me at this time was that even though so many difficult emotions were present for people, and happiness was often elusive, well-being could nonetheless be found to support people through their challenges. 

 

All of these threads came together as I felt a deep calling to start writing. Like pieces of a puzzle that fit together and form a picture, as I began writing I started to see how each of these things fit together, and through that process this book was birthed.  

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The title of this book came to me one day when I had dozens of sticky notes spread before me on my kitchen table, each representing different ideas and themes from the book. 

 

When I stood back and looked at all of them, I realized that a core message I wanted to give people was that they don’t need to fix or change themselves to find deep well-being and to experience change in profound ways. 

 

So many patients have come into my office through the years feeling that something is wrong with them, or wrong with how they are feeling (often judging more difficult emotions as “bad” or feeling weak for feeling these more unpleasant emotions).  

 

I think most of us experience this to some degree—a sense of “not enough” and a natural tendency to push away our unpleasant emotions (or alternatively, we get swallowed up in them). We often struggle, thinking we need to change how we feel. 

 

I wanted to give a different message right from the get-go, to let people know that when we accept our inner experiences as they are, yet change where we are looking from, natural ease, compassion, connection, self-compassion, clarity, perspective, and possibilities emerge. 

 

Instead of disconnecting from ourselves (as we do when we push away our inner experiences), we can find a wholeness when we learn to meet ourselves right where we are from this new viewing point.

 

There is much emphasis in the “self-help” genre on improving ourselves in order to become some bigger, better version of ourselves. I wanted to turn that notion a bit on its head.  

 

I don’t believe I am in the business of fixing people. I believe that I help them see their strengths that are already here and help them meet their inner experiences with greater compassion, awareness, and presence.

 

By learning to shift their vantage point, I help people tap into innate qualities of well-being that are already here, that can support them through the ups and downs of their life.  I also give people tools that they can use to access this innate well-being.

 

In terms of the subtitle, looking back over my years as a psychologist and fellow traveler on this planet, I have come to see that when we learn to shift our vantage point in six particular ways, each of these six vantage points become portals into a deep “well” of well-being that is available to us.

Q: The author Kristen Lee said of the book, “In her true signature form, Dr. Beth Kurland offers a rich tapestry of practical, accessible strategies that help us rethink change and live with greater presence and compassion.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I am so touched by those words and so honored that Kristen reviewed my book. I have deep respect for her work. I think her words capture the essence of how I see this book. 

 

One thing that I view as a strength of mine is the way that I pull together a lot that is out there in the field of psychology, mindfulness, neuroscience, etc., and translate it into teachings, stories, and experiential practices that people can access and bring into their daily lives. 

 

I tried to make this book very practical, with questions for reflection, mind-body practices, and even accompanying audio meditations so that readers can have a direct felt experience of shifting their vantage point and finding well-being. 

 

This is certainly a book that is meant to be experienced as well as read. It helps readers think about change in a new way that leads to living one’s life with greater presence and compassion.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book? 

 

A: I hope that readers take away the idea that who they are is enough, just as they are, and that they are not alone in this human journey, but part of a common humanity that at its core is wired to thrive. I want them to have an experience of themselves as the “Whole Self” rather than the “hole self” that I explain in the book. 

 

I hope they learn ways to meet and greet their more difficult or unpleasant daily emotions (the ones we all experience in the ups and downs of life) from a place that allows them to hold their inner experiences with greater self-compassion, stability, ease, and presence. 

 

I want to empower people to understand more about the role their autonomic nervous system plays in their well-being, and show them how, through this understanding, they can discover immense inner resources to support them wherever they are. 

 

I hope that people look at things in new ways after reading this book, including seeing their own strengths that they may have overlooked, and discovering how to access and turn up the volume on inner qualities they already have to support them. 

 

I hope that after reading this book, readers will be able to access a deep “well” of well-being to carry them through their life.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m really excited to be working on a companion online course to go along with this book (using this book and my previous book as its foundation). 

 

As much as I believe there is great power and learning in experiential exercises and practices, I know that people benefit most fully when they are part of a community of shared learners, having the opportunity to meet weekly to bring these practices more deeply into their lives.   

 

My vision is to grow a community of people who want to take a deeper dive into this material with me and incorporate it into their lives in lasting and meaningful ways. I think more than ever, we all need connection and support, and we can learn so much from one another. I am planning to launch this course sometime in the fall of 2024.

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: In terms of reading the book, it’s the kind of book where one can dip their toe in with small doses at a time or jump all in right from the start.

 

I like to think that this book has something for everyone (for those who like to understand the science behind things, for those who enjoy the stories, for those who have experience with meditation and those who don’t, for those more spiritually oriented and those who like practical and concrete tools). 

 

I believe, as a graduate professor once said to me, that we teach what we most need to learn ourselves. I had to read through the entire book at least four or more times during the editing process and each time I think I got a little something different out of it myself.

 

For those who like to listen to books on tape, there is also an audio version of this book. 

 

Because there is a lot of personal story in this book, it was really important for me to narrate it (and I am grateful I was given the opportunity to do so). Narrating the book was an intense and at times emotional experience for me. Given how much I love listening to books read by the author, I hope others will find listening to the book enriching.

 

I love to hear from people! Readers can find me on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook, and there are many free resources on my website. For anyone interested in taking a deeper dive, they can check out my 1:1 coaching or my online course coming in the fall.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Jonathan Fenske

 

Photo by Bonfire Visuals

 

 

Jonathan Fenske is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book A Unicorn, a Dinosaur, and a Shark Were Riding a Bicycle. His other books include A Unicorn, A Dinosaur, and a Shark Walk Into a Book. He lives in South Carolina.

 

Q: What inspired you to create A Unicorn, A Dinosaur, and a Shark Were Riding a Bicycle, and did you know when you created the first book about these characters that you'd be doing a second one?

 

A: I wrote the first book after going to a bookstore and noticing an abundance of children's books had a unicorn, a dinosaur, or a shark as the main character. I thought it might be fun to write a book that contained all three. One-stop shopping, I guess!

 

I did not know I would be doing a second one when I created the first. But I enjoyed the first so much I thought it would be fun to give a second one a try. The bicycle part came about by trying to imagine an activity common to children that would be ridiculous to consider a unicorn, a dinosaur, or a shark doing!

 

Q: Did you focus more on the text or the illustrations first--or both simultaneously?

 

A: Typically text comes first for me. It's easier for me to conceptualize the illustrations once I feel I have the text dialed in. On occasion, especially when I create a manuscript for an early reader, the text and illustrations come at the same time, so I create little thumbnail doodles as I write. The first draft ends up being a sketch dummy, basically.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book said, “Fans of the trio’s earlier power struggle will find this one equally entertaining.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love the description of it as a "power struggle!" When I made the first book, I wanted it to be a book where the characters were able to control their narrative instead of having it enacted upon them. So "power struggle" is a great description. (Plus, it is always fun to get a nice review from Kirkus, because they don't pull any punches!)

 

Q: What first got you interested in creating books for kids?

 

A: I was a gallery artist (a painter) for the early part of my career, but when I started reading to my oldest daughter I loved it so much I wanted to turn my attention to creating my own books to bring parents and children together. I've always been a writer, so it was a natural progression. After many, many rejections, I sold a manuscript. And here we are, 12 years later! 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have several books either publishing later this year or in the pipeline for the next two years. I constantly churn out manuscripts, so I'm always grateful when a concept resonates with an editor. But I also have a lot of projects that don't make the cut!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I know I am very fortunate to be able to create children's books. I love my job, and I am grateful to the teachers, librarians, bloggers, fellow writers, and especially the readers for all the passion they bring to the genre. A kind word from them is my biggest motivation.

 

Oh, and I love to hike to recharge the creativity. During a hike is probably the most common time an idea comes to me. That, and the middle of the night, when I have to roll out of bed with a groan and write it down before I forget it!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

May 18

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
May 18, 1925: Lillian Hoban born.

Q&A with Anna Monardo

 

Photo by Chris Holtmeier Foton-Foto

 

Anna Monardo is the author of the new book After Italy: A Family Memoir of Arranged Marriage. Her other books include the novel Falling in Love with Natassia. She teaches in the Writer's Workshop of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and she lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

Q: What inspired you to write After Italy?

 

A: In various ways I’ve been telling this story all my life. After Italy is the story of my family’s immigration to the U.S. from Southern Italy.

 

My first novel, The Courtyard of Dreams (Doubleday 1993), was a fictionalized version of our story. The focus of my second novel, Falling In Love with Natassia (Doubleday 2006) was far from my family—that novel is about a dancer and her teenage daughter—but when I tried to move on to a third novel, the family story kept showing up in my notes, in my free-writes. I felt compelled to write the parts of our family story that I either fictionalized or didn’t include in Courtyard. 

 

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything about your family that especially surprised you?

 

A: I learned so much about our family! Actually, the “research” sort of fell into my lap. After our father died, my brother and I cleaned out his desk and found a thick folder of all his Italian documents, beginning with his grade-school report cards! His medical-school exam booklet was there, military papers, his whole paper trail.

 

He was born in 1922, so his childhood and young adulthood were lived under fascism. His father was an outspoken anti-Fascist, but my father was conscripted into the Italian army and had no choice but to serve.

 

My research began by reading and translating those documents. Then I did a lot of reading about WWII and learned how truly devastated Southern Italy was after the war.

 

My father, after his father died, became head of family for his six siblings and mother. That was his motivation to immigrate to the U.S., hoping to establish his medical career and send help back to his family. An arranged marriage to an American woman would make it easier for him to immigrate.

 

That woman was my mother. She was 18, he was 28; it was 1948. Their mothers were second cousins. This was how things were done in that place, at that time.

 

Everyone was familiar with how arranged marriage worked—except for the bride, who had grown up in America. She thought it was a love match—and to some degree it was; they gaze at each other in the courtship photos!—but ultimately, she was hurt that her husband’s priority was the pledge he’d made to his family, which he was not able to turn away from.

 

Meanwhile, it was not easy for a young Italian doctor to get hired in the U.S. in 1950; it was too soon after the war. He worked in various hospitals in different parts of the U.S., and he and my mother were separated for five years. She kept a diary during that time, and she left the diary for me, so that became a large part of my research, too.

 

Eventually, they reconciled, but they were never able to heal the wounds of that separation. They were distant cousins, and yet this culture clash erupted between them.

Q: The writer Sue William Silverman said of the book, “After Italy is a kind of translation, taking big questions involving society and self and relating them in the universal language of deeply explored personal experience.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love that description. I’m grateful to Sue Silverman for seeing that in this narrative. From the start, I saw our family story as a microcosm within which I could explore the timeless, universal experience of migration. When people cross borders, change language, leave behind family, what is gained, what is lost?

 

These questions have been with me since I was a kid, and I hoped that, while digging deeply into my personal story, I’d also be exploring those larger questions. I’m not sure if I succeeded at that, but I do see the world differently after having written this book.

 

After I learned how much difficulty my parents survived in their respective lives and in their marriage, I was awed by their resilience. After everything, they still were able to give my brother and me so much love. In their way, they loved each other. I think that I previously had too narrow a vision of what love is.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write this memoir, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: I came away from this project thinking that, at various times in our lives, we’re all immigrants of a sort. Marriage is a kind of border crossing. So is having a child.

 

I recently retired from university teaching, and over the years I worked with many students who were the first in their family to go to college. That’s a huge border crossing, and again, as with my parents, I feel awe.

 

A lovely thing that has happened with After Italy is that readers often begin telling me their family story. It’s an honor to be trusted in that way.

 

There are some dark events in my family story, events I never learned about until I was in my 30s. It was hard to write those parts, but I think that many—if not most—families go through some dark patches.

 

Often, there’s more suffering from trying to tamp down that information than there would be if the difficulties were revealed and addressed. If my story leaves readers more comfortable thinking about or talking about their own family stories, that would be really good.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Two interconnected novellas set in the 1960s and early 1970s. I love that era.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Nothing I can think of. Thank you for these good questions and your interest in After Italy.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Lauren Claudare

 

 

 

Lauren Claudare is the author of the new novel Cover Stories. She lives in New York.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Cover Stories, and how did you create your character Annabelle?

 

A: Cover Stories is a work of fiction, but it is based on my experience working in a cable TV newsroom while I was in an emotionally abusive relationship with an undercover CIA officer.

 

That period of my life was very isolating, because there was no one I could talk to about was happening to me. I ended up writing down much of what I was feeling as a way to cope, and that ultimately led to this book.  While the events and characters in the novel are fictionalized, the story is very emotionally true. 

 

I wanted the Annabelle character to be someone for whom the stakes are very high. She is incredibly motivated to reach her goal of being a primetime news anchor. For TV journalists who want to be on-air, those coveted roles are very few and far between.

 

It takes a lot for someone like her to come undone, but at the same time she feels she cannot show any weakness or be anything other than perfect. 

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Annabelle and Ryan?

A: When they meet, they are incredibly (and unexpectedly) drawn to each other even though neither of them was looking for a relationship. The instant chemistry and strong connection is what makes it easy for Annabelle to overlook some of the red flags in Ryan’s behavior when things take a toxic turn.

 

Meanwhile, Ryan leverages that initial desire to his advantage when he wants to isolate her from her family and friends so that she can keep his cover story intact.  

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I always had a general sense of how it would end, though earlier drafts had a slightly different outcome for Annabelle and a very different ending for Ryan.  This version feels the most true to who they are.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story/

 

A: I hope anyone who can relate to what Annabelle experienced (even in a small way) can feel a bit more validated after reading this book. While what Annabelle went through is obviously an extreme example, it’s a reminder that sometimes you don’t realize you’re in a bad situation when it’s happening, and it’s only when you're looking back that you're able to make sense of it.  

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now my focus is on generating more publicity for Cover Stories but I’ve been feeling the itch to get back to writing, too. I have a running list of ideas that I’d like to explore and I’m looking forward to diving back into that this summer.   

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Cover Stories is available in digital format only for now. You can find it on Amazon & Kindle Unlimited! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb