When a writer learns to draw

Talking with Jesse Lee Kercheval and some other stuff

I am inspired by life-long learners.

Jesse Lee Kercheval is an accomplished writer and poet with an additional, special niche: she translates Uruguayan poetry into English (what’s not to love about that?). During the pandemic she grew a new branch, and learned how to draw. Her most recent book is a beautiful graphic memoir called FRENCH GIRL.

I met Kercheval when she gave a reading at the wonderful bookstore around the corner from me, DC’s Lost City Bookstore. I needed to tell her that the daily drawings she posted and still posts on social media helped sustain me during the pandemic and beyond.

Then I asked to interview her.

Jesse Lee Kercheval

1. What do you do for work, including drawing?

   For 35 years, my “day job“ was teaching creative writing. I taught poetry, fiction, and nonfiction workshops at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I was the founding director of the MFA program. Now I am an emerita! But I am still a writer and poet, and I’m also a translator specializing in Uruguayan poetry. The art and the graphic narratives are late additions to my creative life but very much the center of it right now.

2. How and why did you learn to draw?

   I started drawing for the first time in my life at the beginning of the pandemic when I was locked down in Montevideo, Uruguay. I began posting a daily sketch on social media just to keep me going. Then I began combining the art with words, first in illustrated essays (lots of words, a few drawings) and then in full out graphic memoir pieces/ comics (drawings with a few words as text). My graphic memoir French Girl is the latter.

3. What sustains you in your work?

   I love what I do! Now that I am not teaching (and going to department meetings) I wake up every morning, thinking, What do I want to do today? And mostly that is write and draw—together and separately. I am always looking for visual inspiration, in museums, in movies, while traveling, while reading other graphic novels and memoirs. So much to see and learn!

Jesse Lee Kercheval doing her thing at Lost City Books in DC.

On a related note (at least to me it’s related), here’s a wonderful interview with Gustavo Dudamel, conductor of the LA Philharmonic, done by Mick Wetzel, who plays in the LA Phil’s viola section. I love Dudamel’s suggestion to strive for the most beautiful and resonant sound, rather than aiming to make no mistakes. Dudamel says, “The real action of music is about beauty, and in an orchestra, beauty is about playing together, listening to each other, thinking differently but connecting with one idea. For me this is the most essential thing."

Gustavo Dudamel is a force of nature. If you ever have the chance to see/hear him conduct, I strongly recommend it. And yes, violists rock.

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel

Here’s an interview I did in the Washington Independent Review of Books with Sarah Seltzer on her debut novel The Singer Sisters. I really enjoyed the flow of this book, and its multi-generational framework. Among other things, Seltzer is an editor at Lilith Magazine,

If you are interested in joining a book group style discussion/conversation about Jamel Brinkely’s terrific short story collection, WITNESS, please do. I will be hosting it on behalf of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation on November 12 at 7 PM eastern. You can get tickets here.

Thanks all!

Love, Martha

P.S. ICYMI, here’s last week’s newsletter, Hello to Stirred Stories