If you live in the Twin Cities and you’re friends with a writer who also happens to be a mother, chances are you’ve heard of mother, author, and teacher Kate Hopper.
Her Motherhood & Words™ classes at The Loft are super popular and the women who take the class love it
If you’re not in the Twin Cities, and you’re a writing mother, you’re in luck. Kate is also the author of Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers, which came out in May.
Speaking of Use Your Words, Kate will discuss her book at 7 p.m., July 12, at Common Good Books, 38 S Snelling, St. Paul. Until next week you can read Kate’s answers to our six questions.
What book(s) are you currently reading?
I prefer to immerse myself in one book at a time, but somehow I now find myself reading three or four books all at once. I’m not sure how that happened, but I think it’s a reflection of the splintered, hectic nature of my life right now. With that said, I’m loving Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and also the galley of B.A. Shapiro’s The Art Forger that I picked up at Book Expo in June. I’ve also been carrying around Diana Raab’s new collection of poetry, Listening to Africa, which I’ll be reviewing on my blog, Motherhood & Words.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Who?
Definitely, and it started with The Hardy Boys. (But that was probably because Parker Stevenson played Frank Hardy in the television adaptation, and I was positively smitten with Parker Stevenson.)
If your favorite author came to Minnesota, who would it be and what bar would you take him/her to?
I would have to say Scott Russell Sanders, because he is such a generous, dear man (and I love his essays). I’d take him to Lucia’s Wine Bar and sit outside. It seems like a place that could spark an essay.
What was your first favorite book?
The Boxcar Children is the first book that really took hold of my imagination. I remember spending hours planning the logistics of life in an abandoned train car (on the off chance I found myself and my two sisters orphaned). A couple of years ago I read it to my older daughter, Stella, and she was equally taken with it. (And I was relieved to find that I still loved it, as well.)
Let’s say Fahrenheit 451 comes to life, which book would you become in order to save it from annihilation?
I know someone else will save Shakespeare, so the book I’d save is Leslie Marmon Silko’s Gardens in the Dunes. There is something in the cinematic quality of this book that won’t release its hold on me even though it’s been years since I read it. I knew that someday I’d write a novel after reading this book.
What is one book you haven’t read but want to read before you die?
?I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t read Dostoyevsky. I’d love to dedicate a summer to his novels (and I’d throw a few other Russians into the mix, as well).