Melissa Hart is the author of the memoir Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood, published in September by Seal Press. Her essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, the Advocate, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Orion and Writer's Digest. She's a contributing editor at the Writer magazine. She teaches journalism at the University of Oregon and memoir writing for U.C. Berkeley's online extension program. Hart lives in Eugene, Ore., with her husband and daughter.
On your nightstand now:
I've just finished Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, and now I'm reading his memoir about growing up in the 1950s. I'm also reading the current issue of the New Yorker and making my way through each Sunday New York Times as well as reading picture books about animals to my three-year-old daughter. She really likes the Olivia books in particular. Favorite book when you were a child:
I loved Little Women. I've read it maybe 10 times, both for the engaging female characters and for the transcendental philosophy that informs the novel. Alcott's female characters are feminists, and they were inspiring role models for me as a child. As for the philosophy, I only discovered the Alcott family's interest in transcendentalism as an adult, but I appreciated Louisa's focus on the natural world and on living simply without a lot of money (the latter is a wise goal for a writer!)
Your top five authors:
Amy Bloom, Susan Orlean, J.D. Salinger, Jeffery Eugenides, David Sedaris. These people remind me of what I'm trying to do as an author. In particular, I read Susan Orlean for inspiration and J.D. Salinger for the Eastern philosophy that informs most of his writing.
Book you've faked reading:
Moby-Dick--don't we all? Oh, and I thought I'd finally made my way through five novels by Charles Dickens--they went so quickly--and then I realized I'd read the abridged children's editions in a book my grandfather had given me when I was 12.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Sue William Silverman's Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir. Sue writes fearlessly and honestly about memoir, inspiring me to delve deeply into my life and my own imperfections for material that speaks intimately to readers. I recommend this book to my students at U.C. Berkeley for its practical, compelling advice and inspiring reading selections. In particular, I admire how Sue reminds readers that we have a right to tell our own stories. I remember this when I worry that I've told too many "secrets" about my family.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. I love the droll photo of the bear, and since I backpack, I had to read the entire book just to make sure he didn't get attacked by a bear!
Book that changed your life:
Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth. I read this book periodically. I found my first copy in a Dumpster and adored it. It's such a rich book, full of philosophy and religion and different ways in which one might conduct one's life, and I love the full-color photographs of everything from sand paintings to scenes from the first Star Wars movie.
Favorite line from a book:
Rumi's "The morning breezes have secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep." I'm an insomniac, and I love to get up early and write or go outside. I spent a glorious morning in Venice a few years back, up with the sun and out on the canals with my camera. Life seems so simple at sunrise, and I like to take advantage of that feeling and try to carry it with me throughout the day.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories. I love to recommend this book to young adults because even though it was written decades ago, the characters and their inner conflicts are still so relevant. Salinger is the master of the provocative final image, as well--he wraps up each story without ever resorting to easy answers, instead allowing the reader to make meaning for herself. I love that.
What motivates you to write a rough draft?
These days, I have to take myself on a date at a local coffee shop to write a rough draft. I get a small mocha and some pastry or another, and I don't let myself get up until I've scrawled down a rough draft in a notebook. I don't write rough drafts on the computer--they look too perfect on the screen. In my notebook, they look hideous and it's freeing to be able to just write longhand in a loud, public place knowing that I'll be able to clean up the draft at home in a peaceful setting. I love the revision process in which thoughts and images come together in a more orderly fashion from my original mess on the notebook pages.
What are you working on now?
I'm working on a memoir about adoption, pregnancy and training owls. My husband and I adopted our daughter 18 months ago, in a process that took two and a half years. We'd originally planned on adopting from China, but we had to leave the program after they tightened their restrictions because we hadn't been married long enough. We moved to the Vietnam program, but read an article on international adoption in Mother Jones that inspired us to adopt locally. The whole adoption process, whether international or domestic, is bizarre and poignant and sometimes hilarious. I had to focus on something outside of it for a few years, and I chose to work with permanently injured owls at Eugene's Cascades Raptor Center, training them to sit calmly on a glove for educational presentations. My pride and joy is Archimedes, the Snowy owl at the Center. Snowies are difficult to train, and I helped to get him used to the general public so that they could meet him up close. He's on Facebook, by the way, under "Archimedes Snowy." I'm excited by the possibilities for this memoir, and I'm working hard to finish the rough draft by the end of this year.