Interviews

Christina Clancy The Sandwich Generation and Families of Choice By Laura Anne Bird In Christina Clancy’s debut novel, The Second Home, a charming little beach house in Cape Cod assumes an enormous role: it serves as a magnet—both geographical and emotional—that tugs relentlessly on the three adult Gordon children. "Houses are containers of memories,” says Clancy. “The spaces and the objects inside of them have lives.” Indeed, the Gordons’ Wellfleet, Massachusetts home has been in the family for generations, which means that every creaky floorboard, scruffy chair, and mote of dust has the power to stir up nostalgia [...]

Lisl Detlefsen’s Five Book Recommendations for AGvocates of All Ages By Laura Anne Bird How many authors do you know who live on a cranberry farm? I have one answer for you: Lisl Detlefsen. This writer of six children’s books is based in Cranmoor, Wisconsin on 1400 acres of rural land, 140 of which are dedicated to the cranberries themselves. (Detlefsen beautifully describes the booming, corralling, cleaning, and eating of this dark-red fruit in her aptly named Time for Cranberries.) While earning her degree in art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Detlefsen envisioned moving to a big city, but when she [...]

An Interview with Steven Rowley and Byron Lane By Laura Anne Bird Despite sheltering at home in Palm Springs, CA for most of 2020, Steven Rowley and Byron Lane have had a very eventful year. Rowley’s second novel, The Editor, was released in paperback in June, and Lane’s debut novel, A Star Is Bored, was published in July. But even more: “We got engaged when Byron proposed to me in the acknowledgements of his book,” says Rowley. (Their rescue terrier, Tilda, was especially excited about the news.) Rowley and Lane’s sheltering-in-place hasn’t been all warm fuzzies, though. In April, Lane—who [...]