Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
Name: Jill Kolongowski
Title of Piece published in Sweet: Drought, Tuesday Afternoon
Issue: 9.1
Find her:
Twitter
Instagram
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Jill can be found “on my couch, commenting on terrific essays for my teaching gig at College of San Mateo, reading the next book in the Expanse series, or watching the Great British Baking Show.” Us too! Love that show.
You can find out more about Jill on her website www.jillkwrites.com – which is super cool, by the way.
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
I published my first book, a collection of essays (part personal essay, part literary criticism) called Life Lessons Harry Potter Taught Me. Each essay treats a theme in the series (like friendship, food, or feminism) both as a writing professor and as a Hufflepuff who’s loved the series since childhood.
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
I’m doing research for my second book, tentatively called Tiny Disasters, a collection of essays about how we respond to disasters both large and small.
Who is your favorite author?
That’s always changing! But I come back to two for their sentences over and over: Jo Ann Beard and Joan Didion.
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
This, too, is always changing! I refuse to pick just one: Eula Biss’s essay “Notes from No Man’s Land,” Brian Doyle’s essay “Joyas Voladoras,” and Jo Ann Beard’s book The Boys of My Youth.
What inspires you to write?
Truthfully, I rarely feel inspired to write. The act of writing itself inspires me–I write to find those moments of discovery and connection, when something new and unexpected arises and the piece starts to tell me what it’s about. Failing that, only reading can inspire me.
What is your favorite sweet?
I rarely eat sweets because I have no self-control, but I love the Secret Breakfast ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe in San Francisco (bourbon ice cream with cornflake cookies), and the raspberry rosemary old-fashioned doughnut at Blue Star Donuts in Portland, Oregon.
Thank you, Jill, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
