Contributor Spotlight: Zoe Fowler

Zoe Fowler’s essay “Regarding the Possibility of Ever Going Home” is part of Issue 82 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 Bellingham Review?

My grandfather was the hero of my childhood and I believed every word of every story he ever told me. It is only now that I realize truth doesn’t necessarily reside in the details, and that facts are only a small part of our histories.

Tell us about your writing life.

For many years I focused on writing fiction, but more recently I’ve become fascinated by the lyric essay and how a narrative can braid together strands of what it means to be human.

Which non-writing aspect(s) of your life influence(s) your writing the most?

I live in Vermont and the landscape is a huge factor in my writing. The Green Mountains are among some of the oldest in the world, and I like to riff with the notion of their permanence shadowing the impermanence of our lives.

What writing advice has stayed with you?

Practice patience—when you’ve finished a piece of writing, put it out of sight for a few weeks or months. When you return to it, you’ll be able to improve it far more than you could in the moment of creation.

What is your favorite book (or essay, poem, short story)?

I’ve recently revisited Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own—I had forgotten how absurdly laugh-out-loud amusing it is. Love it!

What are you reading right now?

Olivia Laing’s To The River, Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, Jonathan Lethem’s The Feral Detective, and the Audubon Field Guide to New England.

What project(s) are you working on now, or next?

A manuscript which is partly a biographical account of the life of Lois Wilson, who founded Al-Anon, and partly a memoir of my own experiences of loving an alcoholic. (And quite a lot about getting lost on the sides of mountains!)

Anything else our readers might want to know about you?

Most days I work with people located across 7 different time zones—I know I probably need an Excel spreadsheet to keep organized, but sometimes I just wish I had a Tardis.

Where can our readers connect with you online?

www.linkedin.com/in/fowlercyberwriter

Zoe Fowler, originally from Lincolnshire, England, now lives and teaches English in Vermont. She is studying an MSt in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and feels as though she spends her time with one foot on either side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Featured Image: “Ocean Turbulence in the North Atlantic” by NASA