I had retired the literary Would You Rather interview series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!
Today, Juditha Dowd joins us. Juditha's fifth book, Audubon’s
Sparrow, is a lyric biography in the voice of Lucy Bakewell Audubon (Rose
Metal Press). Her poems and stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Beloit
Poetry Journal,, Poetry Daily, Presence, Rock & Sling, Poet Lore, Florida
Review, Streetlight and elsewhere. Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
and Vermont Studio Center have provided support for her work via their
residency programs. More at www.judithadowd.org
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Why do you write?
To better understand what I already know/perceive, to capture ideas or explore
the many things that interest me, and—at a basic level—because I have to. For
me, it’s part of being fully myself. This has been true since elementary
school.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
Walk, cook, garden, read, practice yoga, knit, sing, spend time with
family & friends, volunteer. I am lucky to have good health and free time
(finally) to do what I most enjoy.
Would you and your main character(s) get
along?
I hope so. We have many of the same interests, and like them I’m
independent, persistent, curious. Also sometimes impetuous, “out of my depth.”
I think we’d understand each other.
What is your favorite way to waste time?
Stroking a long-haired cat in a sunny window.
What’s on your literary bucket list?
I recently finished “Gotham: A History of New York to 1898”, by Edwin
Burrows & Mike Wallace, a Pulitzer-prize-winning tome that I’d been trying
to find time for since 1999. The pandemic gave me the solitude needed to fully
immerse. It’s educated me in so many ways—much of what is right and wrong with
our country today had its beginnings here. There are sequels now by one of the
authors, which extend through the 1940s. I hope to read them this year.
Do you read the reviews of your books or
do you stay far far away from them, and why?
Reviews contain valuable information for the writer, but you do have to
develop a thick skin. What did the reviewer notice and choose to highlight? How
does that compare with other reviews? Learn from them and don’t obsess; it’s mostly
just opinion.
If you could time travel, would you go
back to the past or forward into the future?
I’m future-oriented, a planner, generally
thinking ahead. But I’d likely opt for travel to the past. Among the many people
who become fascinated with history only later in life, I’m astonished to find
how little I really know. And while I’d happily skip bubonic plague, all wars,
etc., I’d love to explore firsthand some of the many skills we’ve lost over
time, as well as experience our physical world before we destroyed so much of
it.
What’s the one thing you wish you knew
when you were younger?
That you are young for a long time. Thought I was old at 30, again at 40,
and so on. But oddly, as I actually approached old age I began to feel younger.
And since I retired from paid work and can concentrate on the interests there’s
seldom been enough time for, I’ve never been happier.
What are your bookish pet peeves?
I used to read novels constantly but am often disappointed these days. Books
that are widely acclaimed, even prize-winners, can seem “half-baked,” not yet ready
for publication. So many cry out for a good editor. I suspect the current fragility
of the publishing industry encourages pushing quantity and speed over quality;
an author’s popularity may be fleeting.
Are you a book hoarder or a book
unhauler?
Both! When my husband and I downsized we had to confront the book vs space situation, so we established criteria for what we’d keep and what we’d pass along. While we continue to buy books, we don’t keep many. In addition to sharing with friends, we supply the “little libraries” https://littlefreelibrary.org that pop up on street corners and front lawns of towns and cities like our own. No matter what we donate—poetry, non-fiction, novels, kids’ books, etc.—they’re gone in a few days. That’s super gratifying.
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A Biography-in-Poems By Juditha Dowd
What does it mean to sacrifice for someone else’s art? Audubon’s
Sparrow answers this question by way of a verse biography of Lucy
Bakewell, the intrepid and largely unsung wife of the artist and naturalist
John James Audubon. Set in the early decades of the 19th century, an era of
dramatic growth and expansion in America, the book follows Lucy and John James
as they fall in love, marry, and set off to make a life on the western
frontier. Juditha Dowd weaves together lyric poems, imagined letters, and diary
entries in Lucy’s voice with excerpts from Audubon’s journals and published
works (which many believe Lucy helped to write and edit) to offer an intimate
exploration of the thoughts of a young wife and mother. Moving from port to
port along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Lucy struggles to square the
family’s poverty with her husband’s desire to abandon business and pursue his
passion for nature. In a time when women are rarely permitted to work outside
the home, Lucy draws on her education and musical talents to become a teacher,
freeing Audubon to travel abroad seeking a publisher for The Birds of
America. As she wards off financial ruin, Lucy’s natural confidence and
independence emerge, along with a very different life from the one she
expected. Nimbly written and sympathetically rendered, Audubon’s
Sparrow is an enchanting blend of research and imagination—an
indelible portrait of an American woman in need of rediscovery.
Buy a copy here:
https://rosemetalpress.com/books/audubons-sparrow/
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