Elizabeth Brogden: Translating Your Dreams into Books
What did you use to do during recess?
Swing! (Literally nothing else.)
Did you think of yourself as a creative kid? What does creativity look like for you these days?
As a child growing up in the rural Midwest in the 80s and 90s, I think my tendency to live in books and daydreams was as prone to be considered “nerdy” or odd as it was to be valued as “creative.” But I definitely thought of myself as a reader and writer with an active imagination, and I was very lucky in that my mother, in particular, was always supportive of these proclivities. She was my first audience, enduring more than her fair share of juvenilia and never failing to take it seriously. I was also fortunate to have had a series of teachers in elementary and high school who encouraged me academically and helped to cultivate my literary interests. It wasn’t until college, though, where I concentrated in creative writing and had a professor who acted as a mentor, that I started to feel comfortable thinking of myself as an aspiring artist or intellectual. (And still today, in my mid-thirties, that is a work in progress.) These days, creativity looks like navigating a freelance career in which I am able to work with clients on manuscripts that I find compelling, while also carving out time and space for personal projects that are meaningful to me, from reviews to fiction.
How much time do you get to work on creative projects?
5-6 hours per weekday, thanks to heroic grandparents!
How did motherhood change your creative practice?
In many ways, I think motherhood made me more dedicated to the creative aspects of my professional life, while also empowering me to think a bit more creatively about what that life might look like. Around the time my daughter was born, I made the difficult decision to leave academia, in which I had spent over a decade, in favor of pursuing a freelance career as a writer, editor, and translator. I think in many ways she gave me the courage to make that transition, even if I may have come to it eventually independent of her. Motherhood gave me the perspective and purpose to envision a future for myself beyond the dream of a tenure-track position.
How does art enrich your life? How does being a mother enrich your art?
This is such a hard question, because of course the answer is: endlessly! At the same time, I think that framing it this way, in terms of enrichment, is already so helpful, because too often motherhood and art can feel antagonistic to one another, like a zero-sum game: time spent with one’s child is not spent on one’s art, and vice versa. I think it is true that one can give you more for the other; but it takes a certain mindset to stay committed to the idea that they are compatible.
When do you feel most creative?
Usually in the early afternoon, after my daughter has left for her grandparents’, and before the witching hour, when I begin fretting over not having been as “productive” as I would have liked.
What helps you make time and space for being creative? How do you avoid burn out?
Co-parenting! My husband is instrumental to helping me carve out creative and restorative space and time away from my daughter. For the past eight months, near-daily help from my in-laws has also been absolutely essential. I am incredibly indebted to them for stepping in at this moment of crisis.
Who would you love to collaborate with? What’s a dream project for you?
I love the idea of one day launching a literary magazine and small press—something that combines the eclectic literary sensibility (and support for emerging writers) of journals like Slightly Foxed or The Stinging Fly and the minimalist, atmospheric aesthetic of Kinfolk or Beside. Something specifically for travelers and daydreamers who want to read alongside their peregrinations. How do you like Wanderlit? ;-)
What’s inspiring you outside of your own genre?
Over the course of the pandemic, I’ve really discovered a love of classical music, which I’d never before taken the time to truly appreciate. WCRB got me through the first 6 months, which we spent in Cambridge without any childcare whatsoever. (I remember one day in particular that was saved by François Couperin’s “The Mysterious Barricades”.) Since coming to Toronto, my daughter has become enamored with Yo-Yo Ma, who has done a wonderful series called #SongsofComfort and whose interpretation of Bach’s cello suites are just mesmerizing. I’ve also listened to Ludovico Einuadi so much that I know his compositions will always remind me of this strange, dark time.
How would you like the world to see artists and mothers?
As one and the same.
How can we support and encourage each other more?
Through true friendship: deep conversations, fierce loyalty, generosity of spirit, trust, forgiveness, mutual admiration, treating one another as ends rather than means. It may sound a bit Pollyanna-ish, but I believe these things are tides that lift all boats when it comes to supporting and encouraging women.
If you had a million dollars to make the world a better place, how would you spend it?
Trying to get democratic socialist legislation passed in the United States.
If there was a movie version of your life, what who would you like to play you and what story do you want her to tell?
This depends so much on the mood of the hour, doesn’t it! But how about Anna Karina circa Une Femme est Une Femme or Geraldine Chaplin circa Cria Cuervos? The script is unfinished.
If you could give everyone a small treat, what would it be?
A poem or a seashell (same difference, imho)!
If you had a free hour, how would you spend it? What about a free day?
These are COVID-era daydreams, right?;-) I would spend a free hour reading purely for pleasure in a warm bath. With a free day, I would love to go hiking or beachcombing and have a decadent picnic in some secluded nook.
What would you bring to a favorites party?
A decanter of green chartreuse!
Elizabeth is a freelance writer and editor based in Cambridge, MA. Her essays and short fictions have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, La Piccioletta Barca, Cleveland Review of Books, and Full-Stop, among others. You can find her online at Go Lightly Editorial or follow her on Instagram @golightlyeditorial.
This interview was originally published in 2021.
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Hi! I’m Heidi. Writer. Editor. Mother. I’m interviewing 100 creative mothers, because I believe the more we see other mothers making beauty and meaning in small moments, the more we will be inspired to make our own kind of art, whatever that may look like during this intense season of life. Support the project by sharing with a friend.