Jasmin Darznik
Author Interview - Jasmin Darznik
Author of The Bohemians
A dazzling novel of one of America’s most celebrated photographers, Dorothea Lange, exploring the wild years in San Francisco that awakened her career-defining grit, compassion, and daring. In 1918, a young and bright-eyed Dorothea Lange steps off the train in San Francisco, where a disaster kick-starts a new life. Her friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, gives Dorothea entrée into Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. Dorothea and Caroline eventually create a flourishing portrait studio, but a devastating betrayal pushes their friendship to the breaking point and alters the course of their lives.
Author Interview - Jasmin Darznik
Author I draw inspiration from: I so admire Maxine Hong Kingston. She’s a total renegade. I’ve read The Woman Warrior at least half a dozen times, and each time it reveals a different facet. I also adore Mary Karr. She’s just fearless—and an incredible writer.
Author Interview - Jasmin Darznik | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: On my couch, lost in a sea of pillows and draped in my coziest blanket. Add a fire, a gentle rain, and a purring cat and I’m in heaven.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Can I choose Dorothy Parker? She’s not a character but she was a character. Such a deliciously tart sense of humor.
Author Interview - Jasmin Darznik | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I have a vivid memory of sitting in the front row of my hometown bookstore when I was a teenager, listening to Isabel Allende reading from one of her early novels. She had (and still has) such charisma and such a sharp wit. I wouldn’t have dared confessed it to anyone, but that was it. I wanted to be what she was: a storyteller.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: E-books for novels, memoir, and nonfiction, but only because it’s so much easier on my eyes. I do love a big, heavy, sumptuously illustrated art book, which must be in book form.
The last book I read: I recently saw the excellent new documentary about Rita Moreno, Just a Girl Who Decided To Go For It. I was so taken by her candor that I had to read her memoir. Well, it was fabulous. This woman really does not hold back. And what a life she’s lived. At one point she was dating both Elvis and Marlon Brando, and that’s not even the most interesting story in the book!
Author Interview - Jasmin Darznik | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Pen and paper work best for getting me out of my head, especially during the first draft or two or seventeen of a book. I am a compulsive editor and I love fussing with word choice and punctuation. The computer really invites that kind of attention. That’s probably my biggest procrastination tool, but I also think ultimately all that fussing makes my prose better.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Arthur Less from Andrew Sean Greer’s novel Less. What a sweet, hapless guy. And so funny! I just love him.
Author Interview - Jasmin Darznik | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: An English professor. I have a PhD in American literature, and if I weren’t writing novels, I would’ve been very happy teaching and writing scholarly books.
Favorite decade in fashion history: Finally, an easy question! The 1930s, no contest or question. I love the flowing, feminine lines of that period. There’s still a bit of the flapper in a woman of that decade, but she’s grown up and got herself a tailored suit and splendid evening gown.
Place I’d most like to travel: Paris, in a heartbeat! I’ve been dreaming of Paris since I read Anais Nin’s diaries at sixteen. I just sent one of my characters there, and I’m hoping to follow her this year.
My signature drink: I don’t drink alcohol, but I mix up my own version of a Moscow mule—always in a proper copper mug and with lots of ice. During Covid, I had one in hand for every single Zoom reading and event for The Bohemians!
Favorite artist: Georgia O’Keefe, as much for how she lived her life as for her art. I visited her home at Abiquiu a while back and was utterly transfixed by the environment she created for herself there. There’s this picture of her riding on the back of a motorcycle. She’s at least sixty but she’s holding tight to some handsome young man, blazing through the desert with a huge smile on her face.
Number one on my bucket list: A trip through Europe aboard one of the insanely beautiful Belmond trains. They’ve restored the coaches so that it looks like you’re right back in 1920s and1930s. For someone who spends her days time-traveling (albeit imaginatively), this would be the ultimate adventure.
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Author Bio: Jasmin Darznik’s debut novel, “Song of a Captive Bird,” was a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice,” a Los Angeles Times bestseller, longlisted for the Center for Fiction Prize, and awarded the Writers’ Center’s First Novel Prize. Darznik is also the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life.” Her books have been published in seventeen countries. She was born in Tehran, Iran, and came to America when she was five years old. She holds an MFA in fiction from Bennington College, a JD from the University of California, and a PhD in English from Princeton University. Now a professor of English and creative writing at California College of the Arts, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. To learn more, visit https://jasmindarznik.com/.
