Contributor Spotlight: E.A. Farro
E.A. Farro’s story “Gubbio” is part of Issue 76 of Bellingham Review. Subscribe or purchase a single issue through our Submittable page here.
What would you like to share with our readers about the work you contributed to the Bellingham Review?
My main character is walking the path between Assisi and Gubbio that St. Francis walked when he left home to start his life as a saint. I worked on a sheep farm that is along that path and fantasized about walking that path alone. But, I never did. When I left the farm and needed a way to get to a train station, I actually hitchhiked on a school bus.
Tell us about your writing life.
Two big changes when my writing evolved were when I rented a house and when I started working in politics as my day job. When we rented a full-size house, for the first time I had a huge amount of space to cut up stories and lay out all the pieces. I would walk from room to room, rearranging. That act of expanding from my brain to the entire footprint of a house really helped me organize my process.
When I left science as a day job to advise elected officials (on science related topics) it was another evolutionary jump. Writing in the voice of someone who will be scrutinized by the media and an entire organized party of enemies pushed me to be the best writer possible. I could never have written in their voices without my experience writing fiction. The scrutiny is not personal in politics, but I use that ruthlessness to edit my creative writing.
Which non-writing aspect(s) of your life most influences your writing?
I get inspiration from being outdoors, exercise, and any time where I am not trying to accomplish anything at all.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
I write freely and, then, when I go back to edit I remember that I probably wrote each thing three different ways and I need to pick just one.
What is your favorite book (or essay, poem, short story)? Favorite writer(s)?
I recently read Angela Pelster’s Limber and fell in love with it.
What are you reading right now?
Dare to Disappoint, it’s a graphic novel by Ozge Samanci. I highly recommend!
What project(s) are you working on now, or next?
A book of essays about being a scientist (in research, in politics, and as a mother) and a novel set in Providence, RI that involves a lot of ghosts.
Anything else our readers might want to know about you?
In my past life, I was a sled dog.
Where can our readers connect with you online?
E.A. FARRO is a scientist and artist. She has a PhD in field geology and has spent weeks and months of each year living in the wilderness. She recently started the indie press, Athyrium Travel. Her publications include The Kenyon Review, River Teeth, The Common, The Seneca Review, Water~Stone Review, Eckleburg Review, and a weekly series, Science Love Letters. She won a Loft Literary Center Mentor Series award in 2010.
Featured Image: “Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi inside” by primemundo