Kirsten Dodge has been a member of the Writers’ League for a year. She lives in Elgin, Texas.
Scribe: In what genre(s) do you write?
Kirsten Dodge: Literary Fiction.
Scribe: What authors would you like to have coffee or a beer with and which beverage?
KD: I’d travel to Italy to meet the illusive novelist Elena Ferrante for a glass of wine; there’s nothing like her four-volume Neapolitan trilogy, and I’ve read a lot of books since I learned to read in 1945. For sure I’d like to meet the Australian novelist Tim Winton–I’d even go back to Australia to have a beer with him and tell him Cloudstreet is a work of genius. I’d go to Istanbul to have a coffee with Orhan Pamuk. I’d meet Piper Kerman (who wrote the memoir Orange is the New Black) for coffee wherever she wants.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
KD: Yikes! One book would not keep me sane. I’d start writing in the sand.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers’ League?
KD: You’re never too old to learn.
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
KD: I’m learning from others who reflect my truth back to me to go deeper and be grateful when they catch me on my bullshit.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world? An opportunity for blatant self-promotion!
KD: I’ve spent a good deal of my private life in blatant self-promotion: I’m a Leo! That explains a lot. But at this age, after reading writers like Ferrante and Winton, I’m learning to get in touch with other lost selves and give them a voice too, even though they don’t do a whole lot for my public persona.
