Did you purposely misspell “liturary” in the title of your blog? Yes. I wanted to emphasize the “u” (you) in being literary. When we insert ourselves into fiction, we can use it to answer life’s questions. We can try out different lives and scenarios without having to wreck our own lives. And it’s easier to see truths about yourself when you see them in a neutral character. Also, fiction creates empathy. When we know someone—even if it’s a fictional someone—it helps us understand their life, their feelings, their situation.
Why write if you’re not famous? I think there’s a stigma with writing that you should only be a writer if you can get published. You should only call yourself a writer if you get paid for your craft. It’s wonderful getting published, and that goal keeps me honing my work, striving to get better. But writing should be for anyone who needs it.
Fiction belongs everywhere and to everyone. My high school geometry teacher used it in her classroom. She created a fictional character who was always baking raisin pies that needed dividing. Parents use it when they personify the carton of milk that’s begging to go back into the fridge after their children leave it out. We all use it to invent dreams for ourselves that we then work to make true.
Places I’ve lived: Minnesota (born and raised), Iowa City (college years), Bronx/New York City (publishing years), Boston (child-rearing years), Los Angeles (now).
Jobs I’ve had: frozen yogurt server, furniture store cleaner, nanny, waitress, standardized test scorer.
My career: Always in books. I worked in-house as a managing editor and then as a freelance copy editor, mostly for cookbooks.
Publishers I worked at: Knopf, FSG, Martha Stewart, Random House/Modern Library, Houghton Mifflin.
People/Creatures I live with: 1 husband (my high school sweetheart), 2 kids, 1 guinea pig, 1 ball python.
My writing: My stories and essays have been published in The Coachella Review Pif Magazine, Confrontation, Every Day Fiction, The Carolina Quarterly, Passages North, and Phoebe.
Contact Shelley
shelley@shelleybergbooks.com