Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura van den Berg.
Laura, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Born and raised in Florida, I’m a writer based in Cambridge and a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction in the English Department at Harvard University. I’m the author of two collections of stories, The Isle of Youth (2013) and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (2009) and the novel Find Me (2015). Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish my next novel, The Third Hotel, in August 2018. I live near Harvard Square with my husband and dog. I started writing in college and never stopped. Now, I do most of my writing at the Cambridge Public Library or at the Writers’ Room of Boston.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A creative life makes its home in uncertainty. I never feel like I know if a book will “work” until it’s done — and the process of that doing can take years. Every time I sit down to work on something new, I face the blank page yet again and meeting the blank page is the great equalizer among writers, no matter where one is in their practice or career.
Writer & Lecturer at Harvard – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Since I fell in love with reading and writing fiction in college, I have a special enthusiasm for teaching undergraduates — regardless of whether they are serious writers or just looking to experiment in a new and different direction. In terms of my own work, honors include the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters; the Bard Fiction Prize; a MacDowell Colony Fellowship; and an O. Henry Award. My short fiction has also been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Finishing my first novel, Find Me, which was published in 2015. I worked on the book for six years and there were so many moments along the way where I really thought, I would never finish — but I did!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://lauravandenberg.com/
- Instagram: @lauramvandenberg
- Twitter: @lvandenberg
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