Long Island Lit Fest Features Local NY Authors Isaacs And Trigiani

BY AMANDA OLSEN aolsen@antonmediagroup.com

e in-person interviews of Long Island LitFest pair authors of note for intimate evenings that allow the audience to be part of the conversation. Two of this summer’s featured authors, Susan Isaacs and Adriana Trigiani, were kind enough to answer questions about their past, their work, and their writing life.

On becoming a writer

Susan Isaacs: I became a writer because I flunked an aptitude test for computer programming. And this was the only other job open at the time, which was at 17 magazine...I said, “Well, how come you hired me now?” And they said, “Well, we’re desperate.”

The woman who said that turned out to be a great mentor, so it worked out well. I worked there and eventually became a senior editor. I quit to have my first child and they had no real concept of maternity leave; I think they gave you three weeks. I just decided I would stay home and give up the job. I mean, the job was great, but by that time I was tired of adolescence. Because you know, I was about what 25 or 26; I’ve been through it recently enough that you know, I didn’t have the delight of perspective.

(Then) I decided to volunteer for a political campaign. I said, “Look, I work at 17 magazine. And this candidate was running for mayor. But they said, “Well, you can write.” I became his second speechwriter;

Susan Isaacs:

Susan Isaacs is the author of fourteen novels, including Takes One to Know One, As Husbands Go, Long Time No See, Any Place I Hang My Hat and Compromising Positions. A recipient of the Writers for Writers Award and the John Steinbeck Award, Isaacs serves as chairman of that led to other work and pretty soon I also had a gig, freelancing speech writer for politicians. And I loved it because I was kind of a political junkie and I had minored in economics. I had a pretty good sense of the issues. I could, when I said can you explain them, I couldn’t understand them, and then turn that into language that any audience would understand. So anyway, so that was the beginning.

Adriana Trigiani: the board of Poets & Writers, and is a past president of Mystery Writers of America. Her fiction has been translated into 30 languages. She lives on Long Island with her husband.

I loved writing. I just loved the process of it. And I’d say I really became a writer, when I said I would like to do this forever. When I was about 13, I was writing poetry, that started it. And then, my teachers noticed that I could really write dialogue. So when I went to St. Mary, I became a theater major at the St. Mary’s Theatre department and then I moved to New York. I came here to be a playwright. At a very young age I made my Broadway debut writing a show for Camille Saviola. And then from there, I worked in my comedy troupe and then I went to Los Angeles to work on a Different World.

Adriana Trigiani:

Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times best- selling author of twenty books in

On That First Novel

Isaacs: I was reading three or four mysteries a week. And you know, there’s that “I can do that moment. I can write a mystery.” I knew at that moment, it was at home, who my narrator would be, and she was a housewife with two kids.

Trigiani: I decided at the prompting and urging of a close friend to write a novel. And then I fell in love with the novel form. I’ve been writing my novels and adapting them ever since.

On the Writing Process fiction and non-fiction, published in 38 languages around the world. She is also an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer and filmmaker, with screen credits that include writer/director of the major motion picture of her debut novel Big Stone Gap, the adaptation of her novel, Very Valentine, and director of

Isaacs: (When writing her first novel, after her daughter went to preschool) I set my alarm clock for three hours. And when it rang, I went upstairs and that was it. And it took me a little over a year to write the novel. Trigiani: I have talked to many, many writers, and they’re all different, but there are two categories. Those that really walk around thinking about it for years on end, and then boom, write something, or those who are seven days a week at it. Some people work in bursts and some people work straight, you know, straight shifts every day until they don’t do it anymore. I have to have those guardrails. I really do. And if you get them and you use them oh my god, what you can accomplish in a day will stun and amaze you.

Outside The Box Book Recommendations from Susan Isaacs and Adriana Trigiani

Susan Isaacs

Samantha Irby- “So she writes nonfiction. And she is just hilarious. Her vision of what people want is universal and her eyes for the specific is great.”

N.K. Jemisin- “Her book...The City We Became...I can’t wait for her next one.”

Adriana Trigiani

Edna Ferber- An early to mid-twentieth century Pulitzer-prize winning writer. Her work was adapted into plays and films, including the 1956 classic Giant starring Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson.

“Reflections and Shadows,” by Saul Steinberg with Aldo Buzzi. “Whenever anyone says “have you read? ... I tell them, okay, go read that.”

Trigiani also seeks out unusual cookbooks. “I even have how to cook a wolf from Rome from you know, B.C. It’s insane.”

Then Came You. Adriana grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she co-founded the Origin Project, an in-school, year-round writing program that serves more than 2,700 students in Appalachia. Adriana is proud to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in New York City with her family.