Hawthorne Books

NOLA StudiolaWhat makes you laugh?

Lidia YuknavitchMy son makes me laugh, because his heart is still filled with the purity of children and his way of seeing and feeling the world is better than the word “joy.” But I also often bust a gut laughing when our human vulnerabilities are exposed without anyone suffering … little daily occurrences where our bofusness slips through … like when I walked around an entire day with my skirt on inside out, mistaking the attention for “damn, I still got it.”  Or when I get home from an important lunch with an important person and realize I’m wearing half of my lunch on my rack. Alison Bechdel, Kristen Wiig, and Monica Drake make me laugh in their writing all the time.

NOLA Studiola How do you feel when you start a new project?

Lidia YuknavitchLike the world just started and I get to be alive.

NOLA Studiola When are you afraid?

Lidia YuknavitchYou mean in writing?  I’m afraid when I write into territory of psychic or emotional mega pain – the far end – the psychosis end.  I’m also quite dangerous in such a moment.

To read the entire interview go to NOLA Studiola.