Katey Schultz
Author Interview - Katey Schultz
Author I draw inspiration from: One writer I always carry close to my heart is Claire Davis, whose short story collection, Labors of the Heart accomplishes everything in one book that I could hope to accomplish in a lifetime. Also, Aimee Bender for her unassuming, whipsmart, witty worldviews. Louise Erdrich for her humor and unapologetic, wholesome, emotional beats. Stuart Dybek for his proof that people and place inherently make each other. Michael Cunningham for a few of his sentences that do cartwheels. And most recently, Peter Ho Davies for “telling it slant” in The Fortunes.
Favorite place to read a book: Home at the end of the day, feet up on the porch, the view of Mt. Mitchell in the clear distance, and--occasionally--a small, neat pour of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey in my hand.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: It’d be pretty great to talk to Ernest Hemingway (as himself) but I’d have some conditions. First, he’d have to have taken some sort of “truth pill” that made him incapable of being vague. Second, he’d have to say something kind about all the women in and around his life (ex. his own mother, his partners) whose identities were in fact, in part, sacrificed for the sake of his own success. Third, we’d have to share a drink together in silence, before either one of us could speak. How’s that for a set up? :-)
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: It didn’t work that way for me. I’ve always known where I was headed in life, or at least, that it was--for the most part--the direction I wanted to be pointing. That was true whether I was leading trail maintenance crews, teaching kids how to ride horseback, raising a child, or driving across the country in search of the next great whatever. And all those things, I mean every moment of them, were fuel for the writer I was, am, and am still becoming.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Hardback for fave authors; paperback for quick reads, classics, or when I’m on a budget; ebook for NEVER, and audiobooks only if the author themself does the reading.
The last book I read: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdich
Pen & paper or computer: For novels, pen and paper. For flash, computer.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Maybe that little boy in Where the Red Fern Grows…?
If I wasn’t an author, I’d be a: Forest Service Ranger (working in the field, not in the office).
Place I’d most like to travel: There are so many places, but surely I’d like to see the Irish village my maternal ancestors hail from, and the Sicilian village from my paternal side.
My signature drink: Eagle Rare 15 year Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. Or Blanton’s, if I can get it.
Number one on my bucket list: Backpacking in the Arctic during the great caribou migration.
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Website is www.kateyschultz.com