Jeffrey Dale Lofton
Author Interview - Jeffrey Dale Lofton
Author of RED CLAY SUZIE
Inspired by events in my own life, RED CLAY SUZIE is a coming-of-age story about Philbet, a gay, physically misshapen boy struggling to figure out life and love in a deeply conservative family and community in 1960s and '70s rural Georgia. Philbet faces casual indifference, fear-based rejection, conscious and unconscious homophobia, body-shaming, and isolation, ultimately finding acceptance and safe harbors in unexpected ways and in unexpected places.
Author Interview - Jeffrey Dale Lofton
Author I draw inspiration from: Harper Lee
Author Interview - Jeffrey Dale Lofton | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: In my secret garden.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Frankie from Carson McCullers inimitable THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING
Author Interview - Jeffrey Dale Lofton | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I knew I wanted to write a fictionalized memoir after rereading Lee's incandescent TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and reading for the first time Aciman's poignant CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. They somehow broke me open--the power of the written word. I unboxed long secreted journals in which I had recorded years of frustration, shame, and anger and began writing my debut novel.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Long walks, commuting, washing dishes, sweeping the patio, cradling Petunia (our toy poodle) in my lap . . . I am invariably listening to audiobooks. If one isn't available, I turn to print, always enjoying the tactile sensation of turning a page or admiring the beauty of a graceful font.
The last book I read: HEAVY: AN AMERICAN MEMOIR by Kiese Laymon
Author Interview - Jeffrey Dale Lofton | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: First choice: Mobile telephone, enabling writing whenever a line of dialogue or even an entire scene enters my head. Close second choice: Laptop, easier on the thumbs!
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Christopher Robin from A.A. Milne's delightful Winnie-the-Pooh books.
Author Interview - Jeffrey Dale Lofton | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: I don't have to make that choice, because I am fortunate to do two things I love: writing fiction and my role as senior advisor at the Library of Congress, there surrounded by books and people who love books--an Eden of sorts.
Favorite decade in fashion history: The Edwardian Era, a sartorial standard I aspire to today, but usually end up looking like a 1950s actuary (no disrespect to that much-needed profession!). "No offense taken," my inner actuary responds.
Place I’d most like to travel: South Asia and North Africa
My signature drink: Sparkling water flavored with just a touch of juice, apple cider being a favorite.
Favorite artist: Foster daughter of Mark Twain, Mary Foote (1872-1968) was for a time one of the most celebrated portrait painters in the United States. Her portraits captured not just surface likenesses, but famously explored the insides, the feeling hearts of her subjects. When she abandoned painting after a love affair gone terribly wrong, she became a dear friend of Carl Jung and produced meticulous, in-depth notes from his celebrated seminars before spending the last years of her life in Connecticut. Her John Singer Sargent-influenced works are a revelation.
Number one on my bucket list: An unhurried, river-boat journey down the Nile.
Anything else you'd like to add: A portion of my proceeds from RED CLAY SUZIE go to support the important work of the Born This Way Foundation and The Trevor Project--both improving the lives of at-risk outsiders every day.
Find more from the author:
Twitter: @JeffreyDLofton (https://twitter.com/JeffreyDLofton)
Instagram: @jeffreydlofton (https://www.instagram.com/jeffreydlofton/)
Facebook: @JeffreyDLofton (https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyDLofton/)
LinkedIn: @jeffreydlofton (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreydlofton/)
Mastodon: @JeffreyDLofton (https://writing.exchange/@JeffreyDLofton)
TikTok: @jeffreydlofton (https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffreydlofton?lang=en
Author Bio: Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia, best known as the home of Roosevelt’s Little White House. He calls the nation’s capital home now and has for over three decades. During those early years he spent many a night trodding the boards of DC’s theaters and performing arts centers, including the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and Studio Theatre. He even scored a few television screen appearances, including a residuals-rich Super Bowl halftime commercial, which his accountant quipped “is the finest work of your career.”
Ultimately he stepped away from acting, keen to use his stage- and screen-performer’s deep understanding of the art of storytelling in a different way. To that end, he provided communications counsel to some of the nation's leading landscape architects, after which he worked closely with war veterans, helping them tell their stories, which add richness and nuance to historical accounts of major conflicts. Today, he is a senior advisor at the Library of Congress.
RED CLAY SUZIE is his first work of fiction, written through his personal lens growing up gay with a significant skeletal deformity in a conservative family and community in the Deep South.
