Questions by Kyla Jamieson
What’s happening around you—either right around you or outside of where you are?
My front gate just slammed shut. A kid is yelling. A baby cries in the apartment across the courtyard from me. It’s the dead of night outside even though it’s barely 5p.m. Winter has kicked in and it rained yesterday so it’s muddy. I know this because I ran 3.7 miles earlier today so my running shoes will be muddy tomorrow.
Why do you live where you live?
I live in Los Angeles because a part of me loves being close to cardiac arrest at all times. It’s like the hurt locker of bad feelings. Humboldt is the most beautiful place on earth, but growing up, it was too quiet for me. The TV shows I am obsessed with and the movies I love are all being written and made here: nine miles from my house. So many talented, wildly creative people are here in Los Angeles and I want to be a part of that. Besides, California is water, forests, mountain, desert and ocean. I’ve fantasized about living in other states, but, like that damn cat, I always come back.
What are you looking forward to this week?
I’m looking forward to reading my pile of books because I taught my final Intermediate Essay Class last night (!). I have a three week break. I’m looking forward to writing my shorts and seeing friends.
What advice would you give an aspiring or emerging writer?
Read like your life depends on it. First, Read all women: fiction and nonfiction. Mary Karr, Adrienne Rich, Lorrie Moore, Roxane Gay, Maya Angelou, Bell Hooks, Joan Didion, Eileen Myles, Michelle Tea, Carmen Maria Machado, Myriam Gurba, Cheryl Strayed. Then read James Baldwin and go ahead and work your way through the men. Shoot for greatness but embrace your mediocrity.
What’s your morning routine?
Speak to no one. Put way too much coffee in my body. Run over 3 miles. Write before and after the run. Repeat.
What’s the first story or poem you remember writing, and how does it relate to your current work?
I first wrote horrible poems (possibly haikus) about watching Princess Diana get married to Prince Charles on my black and white TV in the 80’s. I think everything I have ever written takes me back to that forbidden spectacle—the formal, uncomfortable, slightly alienated wedding scene and what it meant to be a young woman in that space. I was awake in the middle of the night—a fledgling insomniac. I am still thinking about what it all meant.
What are you most proud of?
My students.
What’s one risk you’re glad you took?
I am glad I wrote about the union effort. I’m glad I wrote about my mother’s death. Every single risk I am glad I took.
Is there any advice you like ignoring?
Yes, all advice from white men in power I enjoy ignoring.
Is there a public space you’re fond of? Describe it.
Yes, Paris is my favourite place and it makes me cry because I am madly in love with it. The Place de la Bastille, where the poor stormed the prison during the French Revolution. The Genie of Bastille is bronze and you can see him from everywhere in Paris, perched and ready to fly or tip over, flirting on the edge of the sky. Paris speaks to my heart in a way I can’t explain.
Do you have a favourite word? Or a least favourite word? What is it and why do you like/dislike it?
I am not sure if I have a favourite word but there are words that belong to certain people for me. I like “Skitter” but that word belongs to Mary Karr. The phrase “Clear eyed” belongs to Margaret Wappler but then everyone borrows it. “Toggle” gets used too much so I hate it. The word “Argonaut” is Maggie Nelson’s. The colour and word “red” belongs to me and it will always belong to me, so find your own colour. You can’t have the colour green because it belongs to Fredrico Garcia Lorca.
Do you have any “vices”? What’s the relationship between your vices and your writing?
No, I am a goody two shoes. But I am a goody two shoes who is addicted to everything, but who chooses to abstain in order to write.
Antonia Crane is the author of the memoir “Spent.” She is a writer, SW, runner and activist in Los Angeles. She received the AULA Distinguished Alumni Award in the Area of Activism or Community Service (2018). She is on the Board of Advisors for 5050by2020, the MeToo branch of Jill Soloway’s TV network, Topple. Her work can be found in: The New York Times, The Believer, The Toast, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Salon.com, Bustle, HuffPo, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, DAME, The Establishment, Narratively, The Los Angeles Review, Quartz, Medium.com, and other places. She wrote and produced episode “POPPY” for the scripted series DRIVEN. Her screenplay “The Lusty” (co-written by Transparent director, Silas Howard), based on the true story of the exotic dancer’s union, is a recipient of the San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant in screenwriting. She has appeared on CNN’s This is Life with Lisa Ling and has been interviewed on WTF by Marc Maron and Michael Smerconish on POTUS radio where he compared dancers to Uber drivers. She is currently at work on a scripted web series for and about the sex industry. Find her on Instagram @antoniacrane, Twitter and on her website: http://www.antoniacrane.com/.