Several times a month we connect with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
Name: Lisa K. Buchanan
Title of Pieces Published in Sweet: “The Suicide Hotline Voice Says My Feelings Are Normal”
Issue: 13.3
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
Question Twenty-Eight won the CRAFT Short Fiction Prize, 2022 and was nominated for Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Also, an essay, One of Us and The Other, appeared in New Ohio Review.
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
Ongoing: I love writing letters to strangers. So far, my recipients have included a mermaid, a biblical figure, and a man whose suicide I’d witnessed. Since they’re unlikely to write back, I sometimes write letters from them as well.
Who is your favorite author?
Though I’ve long admired the work of Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Maurier, Muriel Spark, and Edith Wharton, my current favorites are Elizabeth Taylor and Karen Russell, both for their short stories.
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
Usually, it’s the one I’m reading, but since that question is answered below, I particularly admire the novella, Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, and these two flash pieces: “Still” by Casey Mulligan Walsh, in Split Lip Magazine; “The Final Girl as Middle-Aged Woman” by Amber Sparks, in CRAFT.
What inspires you to write?
In short, wide-angle reading, from a medieval riddle book to powerful litmag pieces to classic novels and poems. Keeping that level of language in my ears reliably sends me right to work.
What are you reading right now?
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson, edited by Ellen Datlow.
Best Small Fictions, edited by Nathan Leslie
Also, in an effort to understand the lunacy directed at librarians, I’m reading books that have been challenged or banned, currently, When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka.
What is your favorite sweet? We would love for you to share a recipe or link to place that serves it. Pictures are great, too!
Devil’s Teeth Bakery in San Francisco makes an orgasmic lemon bar.
Thank you, Lisa, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
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