Rosa Lowinger
Author Interview - Rosa Lowinger
Author of Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair
Dwell Time entwines the details of conserving historic buildings and works of art with the story of the author's family's double exile as Jews from Eastern Europe in the 1920s and then Cuba in early 1961. Inspired by and structured similarly to Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table, Dwell Time draws upon the methods and materials of art conservation to tell a personal story of love and sacrifice that often centers on Lowinger’s efforts to deal with a charismatic and mercurial mother. With a title that refers both to a process that measures the time it takes for a chemical to act upon a surface, and how long someone spends in a location, Dwell Time is also an insider's account of a much beloved profession that no other practitioner has ever written about for a general audience.
Dwell Time is an immigrant’s story seen through an entirely new lens, that which connects the material to the personal and helps us see what is possible when one opens one’s heart to another person’s wounds.
Author Interview - Rosa Lowinger
Author I draw inspiration from:
Primo Levi
Author Interview - Rosa Lowinger | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
Draped across my sofa.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Rachel K from Rachel Kushner’s Telex from Cuba
Author Interview - Rosa Lowinger | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
In my late 20s, when I sat in a playwriting class I took because I was bored to death living in Charleston, SC, and Spanglish dialogue started pouring out of me.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardback, unless it’s too big to hold comfortably. Anything over 500 pages- ebook
The last book I read:
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Author Interview - Rosa Lowinger | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Computer
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Sam Raymond, heroine of Dana Spiotta’s Wayward
Author Interview - Rosa Lowinger | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Comedy Club owner
Favorite decade in fashion history:
The 60s, hands down
Place I’d most like to travel:
Japan
My signature drink:
My own concoction, developed in 2020, called “Fever Dream” – rye whiskey, fresh squeeze of lemon & orange, bitters, and a splash of good dry vermouth
Favorite artist:
Alexandre Arrechea
Number one on my bucket list:
Finishing my next book- a novel that takes place in a 50s Havana nightclub
Anything else you'd like to add:
I’m a big believer in supporting women visual artists, especially those who have been ignored for decades and are now, finally, starting to be recognized as the powerhouse visionaries they are. Go to galleries, look for them in LA, Miami, New Jersey, Chicago… (they tend not to be in New York, cause it’s too expensive).
Find more from the author:
https://www.instagram.com/rosa_lowinger/
https://www.facebook.com/rosa.lowinger
Who is Rosa Lowinger?
Rosa Lowinger is a Cuban-born American writer and art conservator. The author of Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub (Harcourt, 2005) and Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure American Seduction (Wolfsonian Museum, 2016), she is the founder and current vice-president of RLA Conservation, LLC, the U.S.’s largest woman-owned materials conservation practice, based in Miami and Los Angeles. A fellow of the American Institute for Conservation, the Association for Preservation Technology, and the American Academy in Rome, Rosa writes regularly for popular and academic media about conservation, the arts, and Cuba. She holds an M.A. in art history and conservation from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and divides her time between Los Angeles and Miami. For more information, visit https://rosalowinger.com/.
