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Maureen Langloss

 

Maureen Langloss is a lawyer-turned-writer and mother of three living in New York City. Her work has been published in the Prairie Schooner blog, Literary Mama, ProjectEve.com, GettingBalance.com, and the MeeGenius.com blog. You can find her online at maureenlangloss.com and on Twitter @MaureenLangloss

Describe your nightstand.

A messy Jenga tower about to topple. Lots of lit mags: AGNI, Cincinnati Review, Conium Review, Lumina, One Story, Paris Review, Saltfront, and, of course, the first Timberline. I’m working my way through story collections by Bonnie Jo Campbell, Jane Gardam, and Kelly Link. The only novel at the moment is Nella Larsen’s Passing, but I’m looking forward to Esmé Weijun Wang’s debut, The Border of Paradise. My non-fiction tends toward nature and wildlife: The Oyster War, The Shepherd’s Life, and H is for Hawk. My YA is Neal Shusterman’s Challenger Deep. My poetry is high contrast: Seamus Heaney and Sarah Blake’s Mr. West.

If you could spend a day with an author, who would it be?

George Saunders, without a doubt. His work has sent my writer’s soul searching more than any other. I long to write on his level: to make you care about my characters from the very first paragraph, to create stories that hit you in the emotional gut, to develop a voice so strong you hear it out loud when you read, to be that damn funny.

What’s your writing routine? Are you an early bird or a night owl?

I like to punch the clock the old-fashioned way: 9-to-5. My best writing happens by lunch. In the late afternoon, I like to read, research, and take long walks or subway rides to eavesdrop on stranger’s conversations, journey through ideas, find the surprising, and study people’s faces and weaknesses. Sadly, as a parent of three, this is sometimes aspirational. Often, my reality is stealing time from motherhood, in two-hour bursts. I’ve become much more efficient as a result. Though I still like to ruminate on drafts for months, sometimes years. I like my fiction to earn some wrinkles.