Interview with ​Jill Alexander Essbaum

Meet NUNUM's Contributor: Jill Alexander Essbaum

4/25/2023

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Jill Alexander Essbaum

What was the first book you remember picking and reading by yourself?

I don't have a memory of the first book I read by myself, but the first “books” that charmed me were the Archie Comics Digests my parents bought me at the grocery store. I still love them. I still buy them.

What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer?

I wrote Beverly Cleary two fan letters when I was in elementary school. She wrote back—twice!

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers?

Hawthorne on Painting. It’s a little book of instruction and advice compiled from the notes of the artist Charles Hawthorne’s students. “Be careful in drawing the shapes of your shadows.” “That frying pan hanging against the wall has a solemn beauty.”

“Things pattern on a gray day a little differently than in sunlight, but they pattern nonetheless.” It doesn’t matter that he’s speaking about painting, not writing. The wisdom is immutable.

Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style?

Joyce Carol Oates for bite, Barbara Pym for wickedly commonplace detail.

Why write flash fiction?

There’s much sport in making every single word work its ass off.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

Drink a whisky drink, then drink a vodka drink. That is, take the approach of a tubthumper: when you get knocked down, get up again.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I always wear lipstick when I write. Shoes, too. I wouldn't go to a day job without either, and this is my work.

What’s on your writing playlist?

I’ve been writing to various iterations of the same music for years which mostly consists of the Norwegian band Madrugada and its lead singer Sivert Høyem, P.J. Harvey, and smatterings of other artists’ songs to fill the gaps. For the book I’m writing now, I’ve added Duran Duran’s “The Chauffeur”, Agnes Obel’s “Fuel to Fire”, and a few covers including Sylvie Vartan’s French version of “Sweet Dreams are Made of This” (“Déprime”) “Nothing Else Matters” as interpreted by the Vienna Boys’ Choir.

Do you have a favorite writing quote?

“Do not hurry; do not rest.” Goethe.

Jill Alexander Essbaum is the author of several collections of poetry including, most recently, Would-Land (Cooper Dillon Books), and a novel, Hausfrau (Random House). She lives and writes in Austin, Texas.