Books and Booze: Boston Literary District’s Get Lit After Work series

For those who regularly find themselves curled up with a glass of pinot and a good book on a weeknight, the Boston Literary District’s Get Lit After Work series is a good excuse to get out of the house. Kicked off earlier this month, the “literary biergarten” at Faneuil Hall features drinks, eats and readings by local writers every Thursday through Aug. 18—with novelists Michelle Hoover and Jennifer Haigh taking the stage on July 28. Here, we talk their latest works, Boston and, most importantly, booze. / Brigitte Carreiro

 Jennifer HaighJennifer Haigh
Tell us about Heat & Light.Heat & Light is a story set in Pennsylvania, where I grew up, and it’s inspired by what’s happening in the news right now in that it deals with the controversy over fracking. You’ve got a little town, where the gas companies come to town, and they’re offering people a lot of money for their mineral rights. Some people in the town think it’s a great idea, and others are really concerned about the effects on the environment, so it’s a very divisive issue. That’s what’s happening in Pennsylvania, and that’s what led me to write the book.”
Do you find big differences in writing short stories versus novels? Any preference?
I prefer whichever form I’m not working in at the moment. If I’m writing a novel, I’d love to put it down and write a short story; if I’m struggling with a story, I wish I were in a novel. I think writing a short story is like dating, and the novel is like being in a long marriage. It’s like, you go on a date, and even if it’s terrible, you never have to see this person again. Whereas in a novel, there’s a level of commitment that forces you to stick with it and struggle through difficulty, and it’s enormously rewarding, but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of tolerance.

What do you love most about being a writer?

I love that I can write about what fascinates me. I never have to write about something that I don’t care about passionately. I think in most people’s work, there’s a certain amount of feeling like it’s a chore, and I never feel that way about writing. Even when it’s difficult, I’m always chasing down a strand of a story that really speaks to me.

What’s your favorite thing about working and living in the city?

Boston is a really rich setting. I’ve written two novels from here, The Condition and Faith, and I think I could easily write 10 more. It’s a complicated city, and all those complexities lead to a lot of good stories.

Most importantly, what’s your go-to drink?

Gin and tonic for the summer, definitely.

Michelle HooverMichelle Hoover
Tell us about Bottomland.Bottomland was inspired very loosely about a true family’s story, a rumor I heard that two of my great-aunts had disappeared from their family farm in Iowa. I really am a fiction writer, very strongly, so basically I just went off of that idea and then created a story off of it. I made the family a German-American family because I’ve been wanting to write about a lot of our anti-immigrant policies and ideas these days, so I wanted to go back in time to kind of show what had happened against the German-Americans at the time, just after World War I.”

You published an essay on this kind of anti-German hysteria. Is that where the idea stemmed from?
Yes. It was interesting, because I didn’t realize this before I started the book, but Iowa was kind of a hot bed for this. They had the most restrictive law passed against German-Americans in the country called the Babel Proclamation that banned all foreign languages in public and private places. I realized that I had my family and I knew what happened to them, but I also needed to understand what put them under a lot of pressure and what isolated them in a way that caused what happened, and so that’s how I found my setting.

What do you love most about being a writer?

I love that you can just kind of disappear into your own world. As a fiction writer, you’re making something from scratch, and that is pretty amazing.

What’s your favorite thing about working and living in the city?

There’s something about Boston—you can walk everywhere. I don’t have a car, and I just love that none of the roads are straight, which probably drives people crazy, and how everything is pushed up close together—I think it’s fantastic. And it’s such a smart city. For GrubStreet, that means we can draw in just the most talented, most hardworking people to be our students and make fantastic stuff. We want to really challenge our students to do their best. It’s this wonderful family that’s been created there, and I’ve been really just ecstatic to be a part of it. I love it.

Most importantly, what’s your go-to drink?

A glass of malbec.

 


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