Lisa Mann has been a member of WLT since March of this year and will be attending the 2014 Summer Writing Retreat in Alpine this week. She lives in Richmond, TX.
Scribe: In what genre(s) do you write?
Lisa Mann:I am currently at work on my first novel, and would like to write nonfiction as well. Although, I wrote a lot as a high school and college student, it took being a teacher and teaching middle school students to write, to finally nudge me back into writing with the most recent National Novel Writing Month.
Scribe: What authors would you like to have coffee or a beer with and which beverage?
LM: At the risk of getting myself voted off the writers’ island, I must admit that I have never liked coffee or alcohol, so the authors I’d want to meet could have the beverage of their choice, but I’d be sticking with a diet soda or tea! In my best dream, I’d have sweet tea and a long talk with John Steinbeck, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Maya Angelou, Horton Foote, Ernest Gaines, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
LM: Just having to pick one book would be likely to drive me insane, but if it’s one and one only, and the idea is to find comfort in a desperate situation, I’d go with the collected works of Walt Whitman in one handy volume. I love novels, but I rarely read them more than once.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers’ League?
LM: I have learned that Texas writers are a generous, encouraging bunch. The supportive attitude of the members of the Writers’ League makes me want to write more, to read more, and to take more artistic risks. For this reason, I am driving across Texas in the dead heat of summer to work on my novel in Alpine, and cannot wait to do so!
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
LM: I hope that my writing will resonate with people who share some of my interests and enthusiasms (social justice, animal rescue, history, teaching), and that it will inspire some of my students to follow their own writing ambitions, as well. In a perfect world, I’d sell a ton of books and be able to dive into philanthropy in a big way.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world? An opportunity for blatant self-promotion!
LM: I am one of those teachers who can’t stop talking about “her” kids and all the amazing, amusing, frustrating, enriching, perplexing events of every school day– ad nauseam, if you ask my family. I spent much of my youth working with young children who had multiple challenges including blindness, deafness, and intellectual disabilities, and that changed my outlook on life tremendously– I try to take nothing for granted, and I know that even people who cannot speak have a lot to “say” if you know how to listen. I love animals of all kinds, but am a dog person at heart. Animal rescue is a great passion of mine. I was raised by members of “The Greatest Generation” and hope to live up to their example both in my writing and in my living.
If you’d like to learn more about our Summer Writing Retreat in Alpine or register for one of our workshops, you can find more information here:
https://writersleague.org/37/Summer-Writing-Retreat
