Louise Marburg
Author Interview - Louise Marburg
Author of You Have Reached Your Destination
Within the stories that comprise You Have Reached Your Destination, Marburg captures turning points in the lives of twelve disparate women. Her crisp, clear-eyed prose, infused with dark humor, reveals the inevitable collapse of pretension beneath the struggles of loneliness, death, and the all too human need to be seen. From a pre-teen attempting to understand her father’s suicide to a ninety-year-old caught in shadows of past marital abuse, the women in this collection must confront the reality that change is the only certainty and that while life may not always bring what we want, it often shows us what we need. This collection, Marburg’s finest yet, invites us to face ourselves and our own life journeys with sympathy, humor, and courage.
Author Interview - Louise Marburg
Author I draw inspiration from: Alice Munro among so many others. She is the queen of short fiction.
Author Interview - Louise Marburg | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: In bed, at the beach, by a pool, at the breakfast table, in the car, on a train or airplane...
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Dill from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. He wouldn't be scared, he'd have a lot of stories to tell—true or not—and since he's a kid he wouldn't try to "take charge."
Author Interview - Louise Marburg | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I was at an old fashioned hotel on the beach in Rhode Island perusing a shelf of paperbacks left behind by former guests. The weather was bad and I'd finished my own book. I picked out The Moons of Jupiter by the master story author Alice Munro and after reading that book I knew I wanted to write short stories.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Hardback! So luxurious. Though I read paperbacks and ebooks, too. Never audio.
The last book I read: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson (non-fiction) A history of racism in America that every single person in this country should read.
Author Interview - Louise Marburg | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Computer always. I've never used pen and paper.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Eve Mozell in Hanging Up by Delia Ephron. One of the funniest characters I've ever read. I could never be friends with a character who wasn't funny!
Author Interview - Louise Marburg | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Visual artist, which I was for many years before becoming a writer. Art is art, no matter what the medium.
Favorite decade in fashion history: It's always the decade I'm in at the moment! That's true of my books, as well: the book I'm writing is always more interesting to me than any I've published, I always think it's the best one...until the next one. I'm a now person.
Place I’d most like to travel: Israel
My signature drink: Bombay Sapphire gin and diet tonic. MUST be Bombay Sapphire and the tonic must be diet.
Favorite artist: My husband, the painter Charles Marburg.
Number one on my bucket list: Number one? Hard to choose. I'll say swim in the Dead Sea.
Find more from the author:
Facebook: Louise Marburg
Instagram: Louise Marburg
Twitter: @louisemarburg
Author Bio: Louise Marburg is the author of two previous collections of stories, The Truth About Me, which was winner of the Independent Press Book Award for Short Stories, and No Diving Allowed, which was named a Distinguished Favorite by the Independent Press Book Awards. Her stories have appeared such journals as Narrative, Ploughshares, STORY, The Hudson Review, and many others. Her work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Kenyon Writers Workshops, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives in New York City with her husband, the artist Charles Marburg.
