Hi all! I'm late to the party (just found the blog invite in my spam!) but I am so very excited to meet you all and clock some intimate hours with your words + ideas!
Picture of me sandwiched by wolves:
Do you have a nickname?
I use Eliza + Liza interchangeably.
What do you like to read?
I love big slabs of world building. Kim Stanley Robinson is the writer working now who stimulates / moves me the most. I'm definitely on team Jemisin (to join the chorus!) and recently I've been spending time with Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. The folks who got me into the SF game were Samuel Delaney, Octavia Butler and Ursula K Le Guin. I just finished Christopher Priest's Inverted World and found it lovely!
What kind of stories do you write?
I write SF, sometimes in worlds akin to our own, sometimes in extreme environments. My language is literary but sober, although lately I've been playing with more stylized prose. I use SF as a tool of critique, although I hope my stories are living, compassionate texts. I want to use Clarion as a chance to veer from my usual genre orientation and ventilate my hard SF with a breath of fantasy.
How would you describe your personality?
Cynical but curious and joyful (but very, very cynical).
What would you do this summer if you hadn't been accepted to Clarion?
I live in LA but am moving back to NY to teach right after Clarion, so I would have been writing my dissertation (I'm nearing the end of a PhD program) and working my three jobs in LA to save up for New York's inhumane cost of living.
Have you participated in an intensive writing workshop before?
Not for SO long! I went to the Iowa Young Writers' Studio as a bratty little teenager and haven't stepped into a creative writing class since.
What scares you most about Clarion?
Writer's block! I tend to seesaw between prolific phases where I feel naturally stimulated and passive phases where I just read & absorb. I can only hope Clarion coincides with the former, and I'm counting on the environment to coax me into that mode.
What do you do to relax or for recreation?
I moved to LA for the nearby nature. The city is nested between so many different landscapes, and I love foraying into them with friends.
Who will miss you most while you're in San Diego (cats, kids, partner, boss, coworkers)?
All of the above (except: no kids)! Everyone in my LA extended fam is sore at me for making myself scarce right before moving away.
What 1-2 essential things will you bring to Clarion besides your laptop, watergun, and espresso maker?
My car. I've fallen prone to American car culture and I'm very attached to this bubble on wheels that is my only zone for privacy.
What is your ideal career?
I'm too social to be able to imagine a career that consists only of writing. I will probably teach in some capacity, since I'm currently on the academic track. I also work as a translator and will probably do so forever.
What else do you want us to know about you?
I translate from Polish to English and I've lived in Poland for long stretches of time. In LA I work at a sensory deprivation therapy center and a bookstore and do research and writing for a virtual reality production company. I learn through work so at any moment, I'll have multiple jobs in disparate environments.
Picture of me sandwiched by wolves:
Do you have a nickname?
I use Eliza + Liza interchangeably.
What do you like to read?
I love big slabs of world building. Kim Stanley Robinson is the writer working now who stimulates / moves me the most. I'm definitely on team Jemisin (to join the chorus!) and recently I've been spending time with Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. The folks who got me into the SF game were Samuel Delaney, Octavia Butler and Ursula K Le Guin. I just finished Christopher Priest's Inverted World and found it lovely!
What kind of stories do you write?
I write SF, sometimes in worlds akin to our own, sometimes in extreme environments. My language is literary but sober, although lately I've been playing with more stylized prose. I use SF as a tool of critique, although I hope my stories are living, compassionate texts. I want to use Clarion as a chance to veer from my usual genre orientation and ventilate my hard SF with a breath of fantasy.
How would you describe your personality?
Cynical but curious and joyful (but very, very cynical).
What would you do this summer if you hadn't been accepted to Clarion?
I live in LA but am moving back to NY to teach right after Clarion, so I would have been writing my dissertation (I'm nearing the end of a PhD program) and working my three jobs in LA to save up for New York's inhumane cost of living.
Have you participated in an intensive writing workshop before?
Not for SO long! I went to the Iowa Young Writers' Studio as a bratty little teenager and haven't stepped into a creative writing class since.
What scares you most about Clarion?
Writer's block! I tend to seesaw between prolific phases where I feel naturally stimulated and passive phases where I just read & absorb. I can only hope Clarion coincides with the former, and I'm counting on the environment to coax me into that mode.
What do you do to relax or for recreation?
I moved to LA for the nearby nature. The city is nested between so many different landscapes, and I love foraying into them with friends.
Who will miss you most while you're in San Diego (cats, kids, partner, boss, coworkers)?
All of the above (except: no kids)! Everyone in my LA extended fam is sore at me for making myself scarce right before moving away.
What 1-2 essential things will you bring to Clarion besides your laptop, watergun, and espresso maker?
My car. I've fallen prone to American car culture and I'm very attached to this bubble on wheels that is my only zone for privacy.
What is your ideal career?
I'm too social to be able to imagine a career that consists only of writing. I will probably teach in some capacity, since I'm currently on the academic track. I also work as a translator and will probably do so forever.
What else do you want us to know about you?
I translate from Polish to English and I've lived in Poland for long stretches of time. In LA I work at a sensory deprivation therapy center and a bookstore and do research and writing for a virtual reality production company. I learn through work so at any moment, I'll have multiple jobs in disparate environments.
Congrats on your PHD!
ReplyDeleteI second that! Also, really excited to read your work and am rooting for you to achieve your Clarion goals! :)
DeleteSo psyched we've got a hard SF writer on board! Did you dig KS Robinson's new one? I haven't started it yet, but it's sitting by my bed. (Metaphorically, anyway: the audio book is waiting in its queue on my phone). I look forward to reading your stuff!
ReplyDeleteI'm saving New York 2140 for motivational reading before I move back to NYC :) I'll probably listen to the audiobook on the long drive back east after Clarion. Looking forward to reading your stuff too!
DeleteI absolutely adored KSR's Aurora! It was my introduction to hard SF, and I'm very much looking forward to hearing any other recommendations you have, as well as seeing any fantasy you come up with as well!
ReplyDeleteKSR was my intro to hard SF too -- KSR and Dan Simmons. I came to Le Guin much later in my reading life.
ReplyDeleteAlso: "I translate from Polish to English and I've lived in Poland for long stretches of time. In LA I work at a sensory deprivation therapy center and a bookstore and do research and writing for a virtual reality production company." --This might be the coolest thing I've ever heard.
Yup, sounds absolutely fantastic.
DeleteYes @ Dan Simmons! The Hyperion books are my favorite sprawling saga
DeleteI love the idea of trying to write into compassion, and it's something I'm trying to be more thoughtful of in my own work too. (Baby Ahmad, who exclusively wrote gritty noiry stuff, would be so disappointed.)
ReplyDeleteAlso: the wolves. Need to know more about the how/what/where/why of the wolves photo.