CYNTHIA ROGERSON
About Cynthia Rogerson
Cynthia Rogerson is a Californian living in Ross-shire. Her first novel, Upstairs in the Tent, was published in 2001; her short stories and poems have been short-listed for competitions, anthologised, published in literary magazines and broadcast on BBC radio. In 2008 she won the VS Pritchett short story award.
She has four children, an ex-husband in her extension, and some hens.
Praise for Cynthia Rogerson
‘Witty, wise and on occasions laugh-aloud funny. A tonic for all those concerned with living more fully while we can.’ Andrew Greig
‘Rogerson’s prose has a wonderful energy and rhythm. She is a master storyteller whose love of language and black humour envelops the reader within the strange and strangely familiar, sometimes reminiscent of early John Irving. A delightfully funny and often deeply touching book.’
Laura Hird, Scottish Review of Books
‘A comedy of manners, a contemporary romp focused on death and love in a chaotic, cynical world. Rogerson’s deft prose laces each scene with light.’ Anne Macleod, Northwords Now
An interview with Cynthia Rogerson
When did you first begin writing, and what inspired you to do so? Have any specific books/authors served as inspiration for you?
I kept a journal for 20 years, then began writing in earnest when I was in my mid-thirties. Inspiration has come from whatever current favourite author I am reading, including: Anne Tyler, Mark Haddon, Alice Hoffman, Hemingway, Grace Paley, Andrew Greig, Sue Mott, Checkov, Katherine Mansfield, Carson McCullers.
Can you tell us something about the inspiration behind Love Letters
from my Death-Bed? And about what you were trying to achieve, what
ideas you were trying to convey?
I wanted to explore the choices we make when we feel mortal. How we tend to love things that are transitory, more intensely. I wanted the reader to wake up to his or her life.
How do you go about creating your voice on the page?
I daydream. Then I cut out photos from the newspaper and pin them to the wall, and write my character’s history, till I feel I know them quite well. Then I daydream some more. I try to love them, no matter how unlovable they are.
How and when do you write?
Mornings, mostly, in short fast bursts, followed by endless displacement activities. Ideas strike often when I am thinking of something totally different, and I have to scrabble around for a bit of paper to write them down. Later, I transfer them to the story.
What do you enjoy reading? What are you reading that you can recommend at the moment?
Anything that is well written. I am reading Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam. Read it!
