A Profound Conversation with Lucy Sante
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Lucy Sante is an American writer and visual artist and who is the author of Low Life, Evidence, and The Factory of Facts. She recently retired after 23 years of teaching at Bard College. She has won a Whiting Writers Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Grammy (for album notes), an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, and Guggenheim and Cullman fellowships.
I had the pleasure and honor of asking Lucy about reviewing books, what piece of writing she wishes she had written, and so much more.
UZOMAH: Are there any rules one must follow to be a great writer?
LUCY: No, there's no magic formula, and for every rule you can think of there are a thousand exceptions.
U: How did you come about reviewing books?
L: When I was young, it was a way for young writers to make money. There were a lot of publications that paid something, and you could write a dozen short reviews or two longer ones a week.
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U: What do you look for in what makes a good book worth reading?
L: For me, what matters most is how it's written, whether the breath of the author on the page can keep carrying me past the first pages. A good book is one in which you had no interest going in, but were so riveted by the writing that you gave in to the subject.
U: What has been the most challenging thing you have faced since transitioning as a writer?
L: Honestly, while I've faced challenges from transitioning, none of them have had to do with being a writer. But then I'm lucky, since I've been writing for publication for over 40 years and was established long before I transitioned.
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U: Is there any piece of writing that you wish you had written? Why?
L: I probably would have said The Illuminations when I was younger, but then I would have had to have been Rimbaud. My illuminations would perforce be different. The things I wish I'd written I have yet to write. Hope I have time.
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U: What piece of work you have written best shows as an example of your writing style? Which work would you give to someone who has never heard of you to grasp who you are as a writer?
L: For style: "E. S. P."; for a more sort of global sense: "Commerce." Both are in Maybe the People Would Be the Times (2020). And for both style and sense, let me pitch here, way in advance, my memoir, I Heard Her Call My Name, out from Penguin in January '24.
U: How can people be more sensitive with using pronouns and how important they are, and why?
L: You know, I rarely notice pronouns. Where I do notice that kind of thing is in French-speaking countries (French is my native language), where not pronouns but honorifics abound, so that even if you're just buying a newspaper there's an exchange of bonjour/merci and monsieur/madame. Unfailingly, when I walk into a café or a shop I'm bonjour madame, but the instant I open my mouth I become monsieur. This is very hurtful, especially over time. Transitioning is a delicate operation, and it's very easy to be knocked off one's emotional track, producing imposter syndrome and depths of self-loathing. France has not yet had its gender revolution (my friends who teach predict it'll happen in maybe three years), but still. It just seems like common courtesy. The principle should be: if it looks like a duck, treat it like a duck.
For more information about Lucy's writing and visual arts, please visit her site and follow her on Instagram.
