When he selected her to win the 1999 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Charles Johnson said that Lucy Honig’s fiction “brim(s) over with memorable characters” and has “a heart big enough to embrace the world in all its complexity and ambiguity.” Her new novel Waiting for Rescue, about a Boston writing teacher haunted by the events of 9/11, has found its share of admirers, too – check out reviews in Boston Globe’s Short Takes and the North Shore Art Throb.
Want to hear her read from the novel, in person? Events are upcoming in Cambridge and Gloucester. Want to read her snappy, economical answers to a handful of light-hearted questions? Read on.
ArtSake: What writer do you most admire but write nothing like?
Lucy: Colette.
ArtSake: Computer, longhand, or typewriter?
Lucy: Computer. For first drafting, the faster the better; my gut sense speaks to the keyboard with relatively little interference from brain or fingers.
ArtSake: How many revisions does your work typically go through?
Lucy: 4.5.
ArtSake: What’s the worst day job you’ve ever had?
Lucy: Typist in the basement of a Paris perfume shop.
Lucy will read from her novel at Porter Square Books in Cambridge on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:00 PM, and at The Bookstore of Gloucester on Thursday, October 29 at 7 PM.
Lucy Honig is the author of the novel Picking Up and the story collections Open Season and The Truly Needy and Other Stories. Her work has been published widely, featured in two O. Henry Prize collections and in The Best American Short Stories. She is the recipient of the 1999 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and lives in Massachusetts.
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