Interview With Author - Linda Hasselstrom
Name: Linda M. Hasselstrom
Website: www.windbreakhouse.com
Website: www.windbooks.com
Contact: Tamara Rogers, assistant, info@windbreakhouse.com
Questions:
Q: Where are you originally from?
A: I was born in Texas, lived in South Dakota until graduating from college, worked briefly in Iowa, got my graduate degree in Missouri, and returned to my family ranch in South Dakota. Since 1992, I have lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while maintaining my businesses — the ranch and writing retreat– in western South Dakota.
Q: Can you tell us your latest book news?
A: I’m excited to be working on a book about changing communities in the West. But the most beneficial work I’ve ever done was probably during the past decade, helping to edit three anthologies of writing by ordinary Western women. See www.windbooks.com for more on this project. The books are “Leaning into the Wind,” “Woven on the Wind,” and “Crazy Woman Creek,” all published by Houghton Mifflin.
But the most exciting thing I do each spring and summer is invite women writers (of all ability levels from complete novice to published author) to my ranch home and writing retreat in South Dakota to work with me on their writing. Windbreak House is our professional hideout, where we are concerned only with writing.
Q: How old were you when you first started writing?
A: Nine years old; I began writing when I moved from a midsize town to the prairie with my mother and new father. With no siblings and no near playmates, I immediately began writing.
Q: When did you first realize you had the potential to be a writer?
A: When I began reading the work of Nebraska writer Mari Sandoz, it gradually dawned on me that people like me could write the books I read so eagerly.
Q: What was your inspiration to write your first novel?
A: I don’t write novels, but nonfiction and poetry about the Western landscape and environment.
Q: Is there anyone or anything that inspired you to write?
A: I’m always inspired by the real stories taking place around me all the time, acted out by both humans and animals.
Q: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?
A: Environment is everything in my writing: my ranching business depends upon a clean environment, and demands that I take good care of the natural resources available to me. Similarly, my writing about the truth of people’s lives requires me to be honest and open in showing how important the prairies are to people who may never have seen one, or who think they are flat and boring.
Q: Do you have a specific writing style?
A: I try to write as if I’m having a stimulating conversation with an intelligent person with whom I might not always agree.
Q: What genre are you most comfortable writing?
A: Nonfiction prose and poetry.
Q: How do you come up with the title(s) for your book(s)?
A: I always find a title somewhere within the writing, though of course sometimes the publisher chooses another title that I find less suitable.
Q: Is there a message in your novel (book) that you want readers to grasp?
A: I want readers to respect the natural life of the prairies and plains, understand the limit of our resources, and live moderately and sensibly.
Q: How much of the novel (book) is realistic?
A: My nonfiction writing is all true.
Q: Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life?
A: All my work is written from true experiences.
Q: What books have most influenced your life?
A: First, the true portrayals of Mari Sandoz taught me that the life I live is worth recording. John Mcphee’s beautiful objectivity proved that you can write honestly about even the most controversial subjects.
Q: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
A: Mari Sandoz and John McPhee
Q: What are you reading now?
A: “Encyclopedia of the Great Plains,” David I. Wishart, Editor, U of Nebraska; “Keepers of the Spring: Reclaiming Our Water in an Age of Globalization,” Fred Pearce, Island Press; and “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image,” Leonard Shlain, Penguin.
Q: What new author has grasped your interest?
A: Mark Spragg, Where Rivers Change Direction
Q: Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?
A: My books include the following:
– “Between Grass and Sky,” University of Nevada Press, September, 2002
– “Bitter Creek Junction,” poems, 2000, High Plains Press, Glendo, Wyoming
– “Feels Like Far,” nonfiction, 1999, The Lyons Press, New York
– “Bison: Monarch of the Plains” Text for photographs, Graphic Arts, September 1998
– “A Roadside History of South Dakota.” Nonfiction, 1994, Mountain Press, POB 2399, Missoula, MT .
– “Dakota Bones: The Collected Poems of Linda Hasselstrom.” 1993, Spoon River Poetry Press, POB 6, Granite Falls, MN 56241; contains the texts of two previous books of poetry, “Roadkill” and “Caught by One Wing,” plus new poems
– “Land Circle: Writings Collected From the Land.” Essays and poems, 1991, Fulcrum, 350 Indiana St., Suite 350, Golden, CO 80401.
– “Going Over East: Reflections of a Woman Rancher.” Nonfiction, essays, 1987, Fulcrum. Reprint with new epilogue, 2001.
– “Windbreak: A Woman Rancher on the Northern Plains.” Nonfiction, Barn Owl Books, 1987. Order books from Linda M. Hasselstrom, PO Box 169, Hermosa SD 57744, info@windbreakhouse.com or (605) 255-4064.
Website: www.windbreakhouse.com
(*This one is for my writing retreat house for women, my books, and various helpful articles.)
Website: www.windbooks.com
(*This one is for the collections of Western women’s writing I’ve edited with two colleagues, Gaydell Collier and Nancy Curtis.)
Contact: Tamara Rogers, assistant, info@windbreakhouse.com
Windbreak House Writing Retreat
P.O. Box 169, Hermosa, SD 57744-0169
(605) 255-4064 messages only