Cornelia Spelman
Author Interview - Cornelia Spelman
Author of SOLACE: A Memoir
"With compelling frankness and consistent intimacy, Spelman explores a rich tapestry of generations of lives, considering so many facets of what makes a life difficult as well as profound-alcoholism, recovery, loss, illness and death, the raising of children, presence and absence, mixed feelings about parents and ancestors, a devotion to art, and marriage-both when it's comfortable and when it isn't. This book is a gem." --Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Everything Comes Next and Voices in the Air
How do we become the persons we are? Solace seeks to answer that question. A portrait of the emotional legacies and psychological landscapes that shaped the author's life, Solace unfurls in a series of vignettes drawn from diaries and personal stories about her relationship to others as daughter, mother, friend, wife, therapist, and grandmother. These are stories of compassion and attention bringing about healing from grief and brokenness and the necessity of our deep and caring connection to others: the comfort offered to us and the comfort we offer to others.
Author Interview - Cornelia Spelman
Author I draw inspiration from:
Willa Cather. Obscure Destinies–because it is about ordinary people’s lives, in a different time and place yet of universal interest.
Author Interview - Cornelia Spelman | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
My lounge chair that has an attached table-arm.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Elena of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. We would talk easily, the way women talk and connect with each other.
Author Interview - Cornelia Spelman | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
When I was twelve and in love with books and so the only way my twelve-year-old self could conceive of a life with books was as a writer. Later, I realized I was not a fiction writer but someone who likes to write nonfiction and read about people’s lives.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
All except audiobook. E book is easy to carry on the bus and train, and it’s so great to know that I always have something good with me to read; but real books are more satisfying to look at and touch. I don’t like audiobooks because I like to hear an author’s voice in my mind.
The last book I read:
Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope. I so enjoy Trollope’s psychological acumen and dry humor (although he does reflect prejudices of his time) so maybe readers might try another of his 47 novels.
Author Interview - Cornelia Spelman | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I write with fountain pens which give me huge enjoyment. For me, a Pelikan fountain pen is the absolute top - always flows beautifully and feels so nice in the hand. I write daily each morning in a paper diary (Clairefontaine large notebook wire-bound) with a fountain pen (I am on Volume 270!.) I read over those diaries and find the jewels that I may want to write more about. It is amazing how you forget, unless you can look back in a diary, all that goes through your mind and in your world and the larger world in one day!
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
I don’t really have one. In general, a good friend to me is curious, accepting, perceptive, has a great sense of humor, and is open about herself.
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
A film maker. I like putting stories and visuals together and producing something that will move and inform others.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
Probably Art Deco period. Elegant.
Place I’d most like to travel:
To my and other people’s interior lives. I write diaries and memoirs, and our interior lives interest me greatly.
My signature drink:
Fresh fruit juice with a bit of soda water and a lime.
Favorite artist:
Edouard Vuilliard and Claude Bonnard - sometimes called “The Intimates” Also Henri Matisse.
Number one on my bucket list:
Would love to travel to Europe to see artists’ museum-homes.
Anything else you'd like to add:
I read quite a bit of nonfiction, to find things out, but for relaxation I want to read a story - preferably a long story as in a novel - to be taken away to a time and place not my own.
Find more from the author:
About Cornelia Spelman:
Author Interview - Cornelia Spelman
Cornelia Spelman M.S.W., is a writer, an artist, and former therapist. She is the author of picture books for children, including a series called "The Way I Feel," and "Your Foot Is Not a Fish." Her work has been translated into ten languages and sold over four million copies worldwide.
