Joanna Scott
Joanna Scott
Joanna Scottis an American author and Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English at the University of Rochester...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
literary spent
In the early 1980s, I spent a year working as an assistant at the Elaine Markson Literary Agency.
asked ourselves
In the ongoing celebration that is literature, we are asked to imagine ourselves as other selves, for better or worse.
against arranging belongs bump curse fiction furniture guess stumble toe trying wrong
I'm really such a bumbler! Writing fiction is like arranging furniture in a dark room. I can't see what I'm doing. I grope for the right words. I bump against the wrong words and stumble and stub my toe and curse and keep trying to guess what belongs in the space.
confusing donald essays minded subject
I don't think Donald Barthelme would have minded being called a confusing writer. Confusion was a favorite subject for him in his essays and reviews, and it's enacted in his fiction in a mishmash of dizzying incongruities.
behind connect continue conversation hiding however looking maybe novelist stories ways
The novelist in me is probably hiding behind all the stories I write, looking for ways to connect them and continue the conversation with readers. Maybe I'm writing one long narrative, and each book, however different from the last, is just a chapter.
best liars might rather writers
The best liars lie with their eyes rather than with their words. This might put writers at a disadvantage.
arbitrary matter point
There's a point I set for myself, and it's an arbitrary point, when I think no matter happens, I'm going to finish that book. And that's when I get to page 100. I have to see it out.
amount certain click commitment gathering involves means project starting time work
I feel there has to be a certain amount of improvisation as I'm writing, which means any idea or any commitment to a project is risky. It involves time; it involves gathering of material, and sometimes it just doesn't work. Sometimes it does. As I'm starting out on a project, I can't tell if it will click or not.
art defined demands engagement intense response whether
Whether art is defined as a representation of or response to reality, it demands an intense engagement with things we haven't managed to understand fully.
along jim passing
Jim Longenbach, poet, critic, and my husband, is always passing along life-changing books for me to read.