Megan Harlan, MOBILE HOME

2020-10-29 · 18:25 · Megan Harlan · Podcast Audio

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[1:54]Meghan Harlan is a literary nonfiction writer and poet. She is the author of Mobile Home,

[1:59]A Memoir in Essays which was the winner of the 2019 AWP Prize for Creative Nonfiction and

[2:06]came out from University of Georgia Press in September. Welcome Meghan, thank you so much for coming

[2:11]on mom's don't have time to read books. Hi Zippy, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be

[2:15]here. Oh yay. Your work Mobile Home. Can you please tell listeners what this is about and what

[2:22]inspired you to write it? So Mobile Home is a memoir in essays about how I moved 17 different times

[2:29]across four continents when I was growing up and it really explores how our homes and our places

[2:35]shape who we are. So the types of homes that I lived in really spanned the gamut. At one point I

[2:42]was living in a very posh flat in London in Kensington and I also lived in several different

[2:49]really normal suburban houses in California and Texas. So your McManchions and your ranch houses

[2:55]that sort of thing. But I also lived in three trailers. One was located in Saudi Arabia. One was

[3:02]in a jungle in Colombia and the first one was in Alaska not too far from the Arctic Circle.

[3:09]So because of all this moving it gave me a different relationship with the place I think than

[3:13]probably most kids tend to have. I would say so. I mean how could it not? That's a perspective that

[3:19]child or adult most people have not been able to have. I mean that is a huge geographic and

[3:27]structural variety that you have there so wow. So there are like so many things to tease out.

[3:34]like one is the effect of frequent moving and one is the actual environments into it you move.

[3:39]So break it down for me a little bit. When you were moving so much what do you think that did to you

[3:45]as like personality and all the rest of it. And then we can go to like what those places were like.

[3:50]Right. Yeah I do think on the positive side I think it gave me a sense of ease with cultures

[3:58]across the world. A real curiosity and yeah just a desire to learn more about the world.

[4:05]But socially as a kid I think it was actually really difficult. And this was something it's funny I

[4:10]didn't really I didn't really see it until I became a mother myself. I had always sort of believed

[4:15]that my childhood was you know this great adventure and it was in a lot of ways. But I don't

[4:21]think I ever really had the perspective of what like a child who's growing up actually needs

[4:26]from their home which is a sense of rootedness and really structure. I think you know kids if

[4:33]you've ever of course taken a child on vacation somewhere you know if you're in Paris you want to

[4:38]see the Eiffel Tower and they want to get ice cream you know their perspective on a place is just

[4:42]completely different from what you know any adult would have. So that is why I haven't taken my

[4:48]kids to Paris. Exactly it's a little bit wasted until they're as important. So yeah that was something

[4:57]that again when I had my son I started to see just this huge difference. I would think about you know

[5:02]when I was in kindergarten and I was living in a motel for a while and then I was living in a hotel

[5:06]in London and then I was living in Saudi Arabia and it was all within about a year. Meanwhile he was

[5:12]going to a very you know sort of normal public school in our in our city and just had a completely

[5:20]different life than I did and so it started it just the chasm between these two experiences really

[5:26]started to fascinate me and I started writing these essays I would say he was about seven or

[5:31]eight and I started exploring you know the differences that we were having. And how did he now?

[5:36]He's 13 but he's glad you're not up and moving all the time I think so. He loves his home he does

[5:43]yeah and it's worked out so we do travel as much as we can but but yeah I think I think being in one

[5:49]place for our family at least has really been been the right thing. So do you feel like itching to

[5:54]travel all the time like are you sort of nomadic now in your I know you discussed your nomadic

[6:00]childhood but do you feel like a piece of that snuck into you? I think I do. I think it's I

[6:06]partially I just think it's like my family history like you know everyone in my family is like this

[6:11]I do think there's almost a genetic part possibly that some people like to keep moving and some

[6:16]people really want to stay in one place. You know if I hadn't become a parent I don't know that I

[6:21]would have I would have settled down the way that I have but you know we'll never know at this point

[6:26]so yeah. Well and tell me about writing the essays. How did you decide how to structure like each one

[6:33]and then when did you decide that they would be great together as a as a complete work? Well I love

[6:39]writing essays. I find the form to be incredibly freeing and when I start a piece I usually have

[6:46]some kind of question in mind and as I'm writing I'm really trying to find not so much an answer

[6:52]but maybe more interesting questions because sometimes I'll come to something with like for example

[6:57]I wrote a piece about my arachnophobia and I you know still I'm afraid of spiders and I have kind

[7:04]of a superstition around them I never kill them but as I was writing the piece I started seeing

[7:09]you know there were actually some more interesting questions that were buried underneath

[7:13]sort of the surface and so yeah so that was how I really come to each essay trying to look for

[7:19]just more discoveries as much as I can find them. As far as the book itself I don't know that when

[7:25]I first started writing the essays I conceived it as a as a collection but at a certain point it

[7:30]was hard not to notice that there was a certain theme that kept coming up and so yeah so then I

[7:36]was able to write a few pieces to kind of pull them together and give the whole thing a shape so

[7:40]that they would cohere hopefully. Wow like what do you think the characteristics of being able to

[7:46]adapt like that? Like what makes someone better or worse because like you said you feel it's

[7:52]genetic like kind of like things the way they are. I would like to be more you know today I'm in

[7:58]Saudi Arabia tomorrow I'm you know in a posh flat and let it act but to be perfectly honest I'd

[8:03]rather just stay. But were you always that way or is because I know you have kids I do think that

[8:12]when you have a family I don't know I mean yeah it really does change you like to travel but

[8:18]I'm not like you I like to travel recreationally yeah times a you know a year but I'm not like

[8:26]and I wish I I had that sort of wanderlust I know people like you and you know I have someone in my

[8:31]life who loves to travel yeah always off somewhere but like you have to have a baseline

[8:37]adaptability like a baseline like you can drop me anywhere and I'm gonna pick up it's like my dog

[8:43]you know like we just inherited this dog for my mother-in-law and like anywhere we drop her

[8:47]just fine you just like figures out what's on that block and I don't know how to get that or

[8:52]how to give that to my kids but you have it and I want okay well I think there is a lot of

[8:59]nature and nurture so yeah it's it's hard to suss that one out I have to say but but yeah I don't

[9:05]know I guess you know are there places that just intrigue you from afar that you've never been

[9:10]I feel like you know there are cultures that I'm just like oh I have to go there I have to

[9:14]feel what it's like to be there and I think that more than anything is what drives me you know just

[9:19]to to keep exploring and keep things fresh and yeah but I honestly it's a nature nurture question

[9:26]I'm not sure I can I can figure that one out well these days at least travel is sort of on hold

[9:31]anyway so yeah you know I can table this for my you know self-improvement next year

[9:39]but I love your writing style you have a really beautiful just a really beautiful writing style

[9:44]that's different than than others that I've read lately and that really sort of was arresting from

[9:49]even the first page the way you see the world and we're vocabulary and just I don't know the way

[9:55]piece it all together it's a nice style tell me about your writing

[10:00]I think background and did you, what classes you may have taken?

[10:03]When you decided that, I know you realized that essays

[10:07]are your preferred medium, but when did that all happen?

[10:10]And yeah, take me back.

[10:12]That's a good question.

[10:13]Yes, so I studied poetry early.

[10:16]I got my MFA in poetry from NYU many years ago.

[10:20]And then I went into freelance journalism,

[10:23]and I really made a living doing that.

[10:25]I did some travel writing.

[10:26]I did a lot of book reviewing, some art journalism.

[10:29]I did author interviews, that kind of thing.

[10:31]And so I think that what happened for me

[10:34]is poetry, obviously, is so creative.

[10:37]And then the journalism, I also really enjoyed, though,

[10:40]because I actually enjoyed the fact checking.

[10:42]I liked, really just learning about a subject

[10:46]and almost having kind of a humility when you come to it.

[10:49]You think you know something and then you research

[10:51]and you discover new elements to it.

[10:54]And so for me writing essays really kind of smashes these two

[10:57]things together where I can be creative

[11:00]and bring kind of a lyrical voice sometimes to the subject.

[11:04]But then also kind of keep everything tethered in reality

[11:08]to some degree.

[11:10]Yeah, and so that's really my background.

[11:12]I have another book, which is a book of poems.

[11:14]But yeah, but this book, it really does bring together

[11:17]what I love to do in writing, I would say the most.

[11:20]Tell me a little about your publishing journey.

[11:23]I'm a publishing journey.

[11:24]So for this book, I submitted it to some creative writing

[11:28]contests, like academic presses, that kind of thing.

[11:30]I sort of felt because it was a book of essays

[11:33]that are very literary.

[11:35]I probably should go the university press route.

[11:39]So yeah, I picked up some of the contests

[11:41]that just looked really interesting to me.

[11:43]And the presses that I know are just class acts.

[11:47]And so I really focused on those.

[11:49]And I was so fortunate with this, the contest

[11:51]I ended up winning that ended up that resulted in my book

[11:54]being published was the first one I submitted to.

[11:57]And I didn't know it, of course, for many months,

[11:59]so I was still submitting to other contests.

[12:01]But I was very fortunate.

[12:02]Yeah, so it's worked out beautifully.

[12:05]I love that.

[12:06]I had somebody else on the podcast recently

[12:08]who won a book prize in Connecticut that she entered.

[12:10]And it just makes me think, like, people

[12:12]should be entering more contest, right?

[12:14]I don't know if people are doing that or what the hurdles are.

[12:17]I don't know what the cost or whatever.

[12:18]I don't know much about them.

[12:20]It just seems like a good way to at least motivate you

[12:23]to have something finished enough to send out to that

[12:24]as a start.

[12:25]Absolutely.

[12:26]Oh, there's nothing like a deadline.

[12:28]In fact, I finished the collection,

[12:32]the day of the deadline of this contest.

[12:35]Believe it or not, I was sent that day.

[12:37]And it was really my goal.

[12:38]And I'm going to get it in for this one.

[12:40]And yeah, having the deadline is key to finishing.

[12:44]Because I feel like I can pick at these things for years

[12:47]as I sometimes have.

[12:48]But yeah, it's just it's really helpful for me

[12:50]to have a deadline at some point.

[12:51]So since this sold or since the contest

[12:54]and then it sold and all the rest.

[12:55]Yeah, yeah.

[12:56]What have you been working on?

[12:57]Are you someone who has like five different essays

[12:59]going at once or I do?

[13:01]I do.

[13:02]I actually started a new project last year.

[13:05]And the funny thing about it is another nonfiction,

[13:07]creative nonfiction type of thing.

[13:08]And it's funny to me because there are themes

[13:12]that really overlap with what's happening this year.

[13:15]But it's really changed the way I see the whole thing.

[13:17]So I'm not sure quite what to do with it.

[13:18]But yeah, I've got some new stuff in the works.

[13:21]Not that I've been writing recently, but that's all right.

[13:25]Yeah, yeah.

[13:26]No, it was because I figured it's the output from this time,

[13:30]see how it's affected literature and what comes out.

[13:34]I feel it's such an intense year.

[13:36]And I think one thing with the pandemic and then the election

[13:39]and just so much to pay attention to with homeschooling

[13:43]with my kid, it's just been a lot.

[13:45]Having everybody at home all the time,

[13:47]and I'm not always used to that, have my own writing time.

[13:50]So yeah, I think it's, I'm really impressed

[13:52]by the writers who have been getting work done

[13:55]because it's been a thin time for me.

[13:57]But do you have any go-to sort of sanity

[14:01]reclaiming measures in your day-to-day life?

[14:04]Sorry.

[14:05]I do a lot of, yeah, I do.

[14:07]I do a lot of walking.

[14:08]I have to get out.

[14:09]I do yoga.

[14:10]Kind of the physical stuff is really what helps me the most,

[14:13]I'd say.

[14:14]We've had wildfires here in California.

[14:16]And that's been really just another layer of pressure

[14:21]on the whole system.

[14:22]But right now, things have cleared up.

[14:24]So I'm able to get out again and do hikes

[14:25]and socially distance with friends and that kind of thing.

[14:29]It's really a lifesaver, I'd say, at this point.

[14:32]Yeah, I feel like, so we inherited this dog recently.

[14:35]And I didn't used to walk in Central Park that much.

[14:37]I'm in New York City.

[14:38]Yeah, cool.

[14:38]I mean, I'm just not somebody who takes a walk

[14:41]with no destination.

[14:42]Right.

[14:43]I'm not like I'm going to go for a walk.

[14:45]OK.

[14:46]Like, I'm going to go pick up my kid

[14:48]and I'm going to take the long way, maybe.

[14:50]Yeah.

[14:50]But now that I have this dog, I'm like constantly out

[14:53]and in the park.

[14:54]And it's a totally different perspective

[14:56]on the city and city life and life in general,

[14:59]like getting out in the nature.

[15:01]I know this is like the most obvious thing.

[15:03]No, it's funny how like, we forget the obvious things

[15:07]all the time, and I do at least.

[15:09]Yeah, it makes a huge difference.

[15:10]So are you enjoying it or?

[15:12]Yes.

[15:13]I mean, sometimes I'm so busy that I'm like, gosh, the dog

[15:16]isn't going on like five hours, but yes, I enjoy it.

[15:19]And now, like the other day, it was pouring.

[15:22]And I was like, oh, no, you know, I'll just go in the rain.

[15:24]And I'm like, I have to go.

[15:25]Oh, good, yeah.

[15:26]Now I like need it, you know, so cool.

[15:28]That happened very quickly.

[15:29]It's only been like 30 weeks.

[15:31]I don't know how to get it.

[15:32]That's great.

[15:33]I'll go to how quickly we develop habits and all the rest of it.

[15:37]So I see like a zillion bucks behind you.

[15:39]What kind of books do you like to read?

[15:40]These days, mostly nonfiction.

[15:42]I read a lot of travel.

[15:44]I've been doing a lot of, you know, armchair travel

[15:46]just to remind myself that there is a world beyond my little

[15:51]town here.

[15:52]Yeah.

[15:52]And actually, this is my fiction collection.

[15:54]These are all novels.

[15:56]I have a ton of books I used to, like I said,

[15:59]I used to review books for a living.

[16:01]And so, and I just collect books.

[16:03]I adore them so, and I love the objects.

[16:05]I don't read a lot on Kindle, although I do it when I travel,

[16:09]but I'm very old-fashioned.

[16:11]I just love having it in my hand.

[16:13]And I'm also like a margin person.

[16:16]I write in the margins all the time.

[16:17]So I'm kind of hard on my books.

[16:20]But yeah, I love having them around.

[16:22]Me too.

[16:22]Yeah.

[16:22]I always like to turn the pages and flapping back and forth.

[16:26]And yeah, plus I find the ones I read online.

[16:29]If I don't have them, I kind of forget them.

[16:31]Me too.

[16:32]Whereas if I'm like, if I'm always sort of reacquainting myself

[16:35]with the spines, they stay in my consciousness.

[16:37]It's true.

[16:40]So what advice would you have for aspiring authors?

[16:43]Well, for creative writers, I would say,

[16:46]I guess the best advice I wish I had had a long time ago

[16:49]is to write the pieces as if you're never

[16:52]going to show them to anyone.

[16:54]This is also one of, I think, those obvious pieces of advice

[16:57]that I feel like I did here many years ago.

[17:00]But I would say that that's right for yourself,

[17:04]not even because you're afraid to spill the skeletons

[17:07]from the closet, but just because you want to write the piece.

[17:11]There's some subject you're fascinated with.

[17:14]You suspect maybe other people may not be.

[17:16]But go for it anyway and see what happens.

[17:19]And I just think having that freedom

[17:21]is the key to really doing creative work.

[17:25]Very, too.

[17:26]Yeah, amazing.

[17:27]Well, thank you, Megan.

[17:28]Thanks for coming on, Mom.

[17:29]I just don't have time to read books.

[17:30]Thank you.

[17:31]This mobile home, congratulations

[17:32]and winning the contest.

[17:34]Sorry for how many times we reached out to get here.

[17:36]OK.

[17:37]And I feel great that we can finally say we did this.

[17:39]Yeah, thank you.

[17:41]Thank you for having me.

[17:42]And thanks for the conversation.

[17:43]Excellent.

[17:44]Thanks so much to be here.

[17:44]OK, bye.

[17:45]Bye.

[17:47]Thanks again to today's sponsor SugarWish.

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[17:56]Thanks for listening to this episode of Mom's Don't

[17:58]Have Time to Read Books.

[17:59]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, at Zippy Owens,

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[18:11]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound

[18:14]for the Sound Editing.

[18:15]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions

[18:17]for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.