Erica Boyce
Author Interview - Erica Boyce
Author I draw inspiration from: Too many to count! I love Celeste Ng for her ability to turn the domestic thriller on its head—you know from the beginning of her books that a girl has drowned and/or a house has caught fire, and the fun is in figuring out how they got there. J Courtney Sullivan, too, for how skillfully she creates complex families full of secrets. And Colum McCann for the poetry of every single sentence he writes.
Author Interview - Erica Boyce
Favorite place to read a book: At home on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and our corgi, Finn, begging for a spot on the cushion next to me.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: The entire family from Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You. It would be so entertaining to watch them trapped in an elevator together…but once we were out, I’d probably never want to see them again!
Author Interview - Erica Boyce
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: It feels sort of cringey to say it, but second grade? That’s when I wrote my first “short story” (heavy on the illustrations, less so on the words) and really caught the bug.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Paperback—easier to carry, easier to hold in one hand, and I can fit more of them in my suitcase when I’m traveling. But my collection is mostly hardcover because I’m usually too impatient to wait for the paperback edition…!
The last book I read: Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin. This was an interesting one: not quite your typical “missing girl” thriller, a little bit literary.
Author Interview - Erica Boyce
Pen & paper or computer: I write all my first drafts with pen and paper because it gives me more time to think before writing things down. Typing everything up on my computer after that is a pain, though!
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Anne of Green Gables—or, more accurately, Anne of Ingleside. Anne Shirley was my soul mate as a kid, but childhood Anne would likely get on my nerves as a thirty-something year-old.
Author Interview - Erica Boyce
If I wasn’t an author, I’d be a: Probably sticking with my day job, working with fishing organizations across the country to help them organize and empower their communities. And maybe walking dogs on the side…
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1950s. Social justice-wise, it was not a great time to be alive, but man, I love those New Look silhouettes.
Place I’d most like to travel: I would go back to Italy in a heartbeat and eat all the pasta and prosciutto in sight.
My signature drink: As I write this, I’m very pregnant, so my go-to has been hot chocolate. But by the time this comes out, I’ll be back to sipping Moscow mules!
Favorite artist: Embarrassingly, I’m not much one for the visual arts—most of the framed pieces around our house are by family and friends. I do, however, think anything written by Frank O’Hara or Langston Hughes is a genuine work of art.
Number one on my bucket list: The glow-worm caves in New Zealand and/or LM Montgomery’s Prince Edward Island.
Anything else you'd like to add: What a fun list of questions! Thanks so much for the interview!
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Erica Boyce is the author of LOST AT SEA (March 3, 2020; Sourcebooks) and the author of THE FIFTEEN WONDERS OF DANIEL GREEN (2019; Sourcebooks). She is a native New Englander who lives outside Boston and works with fishermen and community organizers across the country to help keep small-boat fishing fleets in business. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, she is also an Associate Fiction Editor at Pangyrus literary magazine.
Author Interview - Erica Boyce
