The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire #34: Elisa Albert
"To tweak the Ephron line, everything is fertilizer."
Since 2010, in various publications, I’ve interviewed authors—mostly memoirists—about aspects of writing and publishing. Initially I did this for my own edification, as someone who was struggling to find the courage and support to write and publish my memoir. I’m still curious about other authors’ experiences, and I know many of you are, too. So, inspired by the popularity of The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire, I’ve launched The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire.
Here’s the thirty-fourth installment, featuring Elisa Albert, author of five books, most recently The Snarling Girl (and Other Essays). -Sari Botton
Elisa Albert is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories. The Snarling Girl (and other essays) represents the best of her widely published essays from over the past fifteen years. She has worked as a babysitter, bookseller, barista, executive assistant, copywriter, homemaker, full-spectrum doula, Hebrew school teacher, and professor of creative writing.
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How old are you, and for how long have you been writing?
Forty-six. Been writing in earnest since I was around fourteen.
What’s the title of your latest book, and when was it published?
The Snarling Girl (and other essays) came out August 27, 2024.
What number book is this for you?
My fifth book.
How do you categorize your book—as a memoir, memoir-in-essays, essay collection, creative nonfiction, graphic memoir, autofiction—and why?
It’s a collection of essays, because it’s… a collection of essays… written piece-by-piece over many years, without the imposition of a through-line. Maybe it’s my essayistic “greatest hits.” Or “best-of.” So far.
What is the “elevator pitch” for your book?
HI, sorry I pressed the emergency button, I see that you want to get to the fourteenth floor, but lemme real quick introduce myself, I have a lot of idiosyncratic obsessions and personal failings and I write my ass off, maybe you want to give this book a chance? It’s not too abstract or anything, and it might at the very least give you a window into a different consciousness, which they say is how we practice empathy and complex thinking, but whatever, just buy it and put it on your shelf or your feed and look cool, isn’t the cover great, CLASH Books is doing great stuff, and honestly, I’m a great writer, look at all these nice blurbs from all these other great writers, they really mean it, you can tell! Okay, no worries, sorry again, bye, have a nice day.
I became a writer because I grew up in a house of lies. And I guess I came to view the world in general as kind of a house of lies. I was really fortunate to be given a Jewish education, which gave me close reading and midrash and obsession and questioning and seeking and interpreting, much as I may have rebelled and chafed against the insularity of it at the time. Also, in terms of early development, I think it helped that I was sexually invisible until my twenties.
What’s the back story of this book including your origin story as a writer? How did you become a writer, and how did this book come to be?
These essays served as sort of palate cleansers, breaks and breathers while I was frustrated by a novel or between novels.
I became a writer because I grew up in a house of lies. And I guess I came to view the world in general as kind of a house of lies. I was really fortunate to be given a Jewish education, which gave me close reading and midrash and obsession and questioning and seeking and interpreting, much as I may have rebelled and chafed against the insularity of it at the time. Also, in terms of early development, I think it helped that I was sexually invisible until my twenties.
What were the hardest aspects of writing this book and getting it published?
This one was pretty simple and easy, which was nice. I live in the same neck of the woods as the CLASH Books folks, and the collaboration came to pass organically. I already had this neat little pile of essays laying around; they were into it.
How did you handle writing about real people in your life? Did you use real or changed names and identifying details? Did you run passages or the whole book by people who appear in the narrative? Did you make changes they requested?
My spouse reads everything I write before it’s published, and my son is always apprised. I certainly prioritize their feelings about anything I write, but I lack that impulse when it comes to most other people. I try to tell the truth as best I can. Truth is subjective, but yeah. Occasionally I can get mean, which is kind of a perverse defense mechanism slash survival instinct.
I didn’t change any names in these essays. Made up nicknames sometimes. But these essays are more about ideas and the past and encounters with the outside world than about the details of my current intimate relationships, so there was no need to protect the innocent. The innocent are protected as a matter of course, in my mind. The guilty, however…
Writing is like a well-worn shoe. I can touch bottom. I can lose time. I’m not dumb: I know there’s no ultimate sense to be made of our lives or the world or each other; but this sincere effort to articulate what I perceive and how it feels and what’s absurd and why I care… it’s all I got.
Who is another writer you took inspiration from in producing this book? Was it a specific book, or their whole body of work? (Can be more than one writer or book.)
I love Lucia Berlin stories, which read to me like essay hybrids. I love Emmanuel Carrere’s nonfiction, espescially Yoga. I love Jeanette Winterson essays. Helen Garner’s, too. I was obssessed with Didion essays in high school and learned a lot by rereading them. Jonathan Lethem’s “Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn” hugely influenced my essay “Currency.”
What advice would you give to aspiring writers looking to publish a book like yours, who are maybe afraid, or intimidated by the process?
Fear’s a bitch. Courage!
What do you love about writing?
It’s like a well-worn shoe. I can touch bottom. I can lose time. I’m not dumb: I know there’s no ultimate sense to be made of our lives or the world or each other; but this sincere effort to articulate what I perceive and how it feels and what’s absurd and why I care… it’s all I got.
What frustrates you about writing?
That I can lose time. That it’s like a well-worn shoe. That I am its servant, not the other way around. That I am supposed to then “sell” it.
What about writing surprises you?
The petulant angry child locked in the basement of the self.
Does your writing practice involve any kind of routine or writing at specific times?
No.
My spouse reads everything I write before it’s published, and my son is always apprised. I certainly prioritize their feelings about anything I write, but I lack that impulse when it comes to most other people. I try to tell the truth as best I can. Truth is subjective, but yeah. Occasionally I can get mean, which is kind of a perverse defense mechanism slash survival instinct.
Do you engage in any other creative pursuits, professionally or for fun? Are there non-writing activities do you consider to be “writing” or supportive of your process?
To tweak the Ephron line, everything is fertilizer. Every part of my life, seen and unseen, surface and depth, errands and yoga and gardening, relationships that last and those that don’t, teaching and studying and community work, all of it, everything, goes into the ol’ compost bin.
What’s next for you? Do you have another book planned, or in the works?
I’m sitting with a draft of a new novel that is reading more like a diary right now; trying to figure out whether I want to let it remain more diaristic or impose more of a traditional narrative flow. The hard part is that there’s no one right answer. So! Trusting the process, as ever.
what a perfect writer’s manifesto here: “I’m not dumb: I know there’s no ultimate sense to be made of our lives or the world or each other; but this sincere effort to articulate what I perceive and how it feels and what’s absurd and why I care… it’s all I got. “ Yep. That’s it.
Best "elevator pitch" ever.