How Lydia Kiesling Fled to Write Her Next Book
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I first met Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, at the Portland Book Festival in November 2018. We were two ships passing, headed to different panels, but that didn’t stop me from running across the parking garage to give her a hug. The year before, we had both found ourselves in a small (virtual) pod of women writers; all of us were publishing our first books in the summer and fall of 2018. Our group was an invaluable source of information and support—there was always someone to vent to, celebrate with, or ask for a gut check, and the entire publication process was made less terrifying and more fun because we were all going through it together.
By the time I met Lydia at the festival, we had been cheering each other on and trading advice for over a year, so our chance run-in was also a meeting between friends. I’m so glad that I have been able to keep in since then. A few weeks ago, she spoke with me over Zoom about her approach to freelancing versus fiction, the challenges of writing while parenting through the pandemic, why she relies on her creative community, and how she literally fled her home to finish a draft of her next book.
