I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather 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 Leanne
Radojkovich. Leanne is the author of short story collections Hailman and First
Fox published by The Emma
Press. She has been a finalist for the Anton Chekhov Prize for Very
Short Fiction, longlisted for the Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize and
shortlisted for the Sargeson Prize. Leanne has a master's degree in creative
writing from AUT Auckland University of Technology. She has Dalmatian heritage
and was born in Aotearoa New Zealand, where she works as a librarian. @linedealer
Why do you write?
I like growing things from words. I also like gardening, I
find there’s a lot of crossover between gardening and storying – you never know
if a seed or a sentence will take, or how it will grow.
What made you start writing?
I always felt happiest reading stories and poems; and one
day it occurred to me that I could try making some, too.
What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as a writer?
Buying exercise books and coloured pens – I doodle and
write at the same time, it helps me to focus, and sometimes the doodles turn
into words.
Do you DNF books?
I read a book’s last page first. I like to know the
ending before I start reading towards it. This helps reduce anxiety and means I
can concentrate more deeply on how the story unfolds.
If you could spend the day with another author, who would
you choose and why?
I would spend the day with Lucia Berlin, just to be in
her company, not to ask for anything more than she has already given – stories
as immersive as jumping into the sea; rips and tides, wildness, calm.
What are some of your favorite books and/or authors?
If I had to live with only one book it would be Derek
Jarman’s Modern Nature, which I’ve read so often it feels like a companion
and also a guide. It’s an hypnotic meditation on Jarman’s life, his art and
politics, his celebration of gayness, and his diary of the garden he grew at
his home in Dungeness – a shingle beach and England’s only desert – after
discovering he was HIV positive.
What is your favorite book from childhood?
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis
Stevenson. How musical the language was when I read it aloud; and how magical these
stories made from ordinary things were – your shadow, your bedspread. It helped
me understand the importance of imagination to generate wonder, and populate
loneliness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hailman is a collection of
short stories by Leanne Radojkovich.
“All the rest home doors have
name tags. Mum’s has a typo: Irina. Although Irena isn’t her born
name – only she knows what that is, and she’s never told, never discussed the
war. Says she was born the day she reached Wellington harbour with papers
stating she was a ten-year-old Polish orphan. Dad said not to ask about the
European years, and my brother and I never did. Now they’ve both died and
there’s just me and Mum, and she’s in a rest home with a mis-spelled name on
her door.”
buy a copy here:
https://theemmapress.com/shop/prose/short-stories/hailman/
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