The 40 But 10 Interview Series: Jane Rosenberg LaForge

 

As you know, 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 we are joined by Jane Rosenberg LaForge. Jane is a poet, fiction writer and occasional essayist living in New York. Her 2021 novel, Sisterhood of the Infamous (New Meridian Arts Press), was a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Award in regional fiction (west); and her 2018 novel, The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War (Amberjack Publishing), was a finalist in two categories in the Eric Hoffer Awards. She is also the author of three full-length collections of poetry; four chapbooks of poetry; and an experimental memoir, An Unsuitable Princess (Jaded Ibis Press 2014). Her latest collection of poetry, with essays, is My Aunt's Abortion from BlazeVOX [books]. Jane reads poetry submissions for COUNTERCLOCK literary magazine and reviews books for American Book Review. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize for poetry and fiction, and for the Best of the Net multiple times. She was most recently nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net for her 2022 poem, "For a Friend Going Deaf.”

Why do you write?

 These days, at my age, I write because it’s really the only thing I can do. It’s something I can do physically—I can’t lift anything, or carry anything, or stand on my feet long—and it’s something I can do mentally. I’m not talking about ability, or even quality, mind you. But it’s like the exercises that you do every day. It’s something I can accomplish. I worked as a journalist after college; and taught at the college level after graduate school. Let’s just say those two careers didn’t work out as I’d planned. Writing is all that is left.

  

Describe your book in three words.

 Keep abortion legal.

  

If you could spend the day with another author, who would you choose and why?

 I’d like to spend a day with Kate Braverman, with whom I studied writing in the early 1990’s. She wrote poetry, novels, short stories, and essays, and her workshops were a combination of critique, performance, and a look into the world of writers and the writing life. She selected students from the classes she taught as a professor at California State University Los Angeles and as a guest lecturer at UCLA Extension. Sometimes people would write to her, asking if they could study with her, and some people came in through that route. There was some drama, and a lot of tearing down and pulling up, and it was not always easy to be there. But some great books were written in that workshop, and it was a marvel to watch her in action.

  

What is your favorite book from childhood?

 “The Story of Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf. I love that book. I cried the first few times I read it to my daughter. I read it to her so much that she began to dread it, like a hit song that’s played too many times on the radio. After that I was allowed to read it—or recite it—to her only on Mother’s Day and my birthday. Now that she’s an adult, even those opportunities have dried up.

 

What are you currently reading?

 I’m currently reading pretty much any novel I can get a hold of that mentions or is about abortion. I will be moderating a panel on writing about abortion so I’m trying to bone up on what is out there. So far, it’s been “Red Clocks” by Leni Zumas and Joyce Carol Oates’ “A Book of American Martyrs;” “My Notorious Life” by Kate Manning, “Jayne of Battery Park” by Jaye Viner, “The Future of Another Timeline” by Annalee Newitz, and “Gabi, a Girl in Pieces” by Isabel Quintero. I originally read Britt Bennett’s “The Mothers” when it was first published, but because it’s so good, I read it again. I’ve got a lot more to go.

  

Do you think you’d live long in a zombie apocalypse?

 No. Not a chance. I have no survival skills, absolutely none. I like to whine and complain, and I don’t think anyone would take me in (besides family). I couldn’t watch “The Walking Dead” because it was too violent. I tried multiple times, but it always ended in bloodshed.

 

If you were stuck on a deserted island, what’s the one book you wish you had with you?

 I’d take A.S. Byatt’s “The Children’s Book” with me on a deserted island. There is so much in that book, and there’s a character that reminds me of my sister (she died in 2010). It’s about the founding of the Fabians and the London School of Economics, among other things; and one character is based on children’s author E. Nesbit. The entire pre-World War I world is in that book and then there’s a very sobering coda afterward. I also haven’t read it as many times as I have read some other favorites—Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon” or Nikos Kazantzakis’s “The Last Temptation of the Christ.”

  

What is under your bed?

 There is nothing under my bed because it’s a captain’s bed, with drawers underneath the mattress. You can’t put anything under it. You could say that my clothes and jewelry are under the bed, if you must.

 

Do you DNF books?

 Not often, but I’ve quit books without finishing them, and for many reasons. I couldn’t finish Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” because it was too scary. If I can’t figure out what’s going on with a book, because it’s not clear in its intentions or I’m too thick to get it, I won’t finish it. Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” made me angry, so I didn’t finish it (I thought it was sexist).

  

Are you a book hoarder or a book unhauler?

 I’m a hoarder. My mother was a serious collector, fishing out first editions and rare books from the thrift shop where she worked. She also went on serious book-buying trips to find certain treasures. I kept only a handful of those books but I’m like her, I buy too many books. And I hang onto them. I review books occasionally and I have many, many books…….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Aunt's Abortion is a collection of poetry and essays illustrating the effect an illegal abortion in the 1960's had on the author's family. The author's aunt, a divorced woman in her late 20s, sought an abortion in California while the procedure was available, but only in limited circumstances. Her aunt endured years of serious illness and never quite recovered from the shame and physical toll exacted on her body. The author's mother descended into mental illness and her parents struggled unsuccessfully to repair their marriage after arguing over what they could and couldn't do for the aunt.   

buy a copy here: 

http://wp.blazevox.org/product/my-aunts-abortion-by-jane-rosenberg-laforge/