Member Spotlight: Jeanne Bonner

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Translation is a form of writing that reveals a hidden treasure and it’s a communion between two languages, two cultures.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? If I am not inspired to work on an essay, I translate or I keep a journal. The imperative is to keep working on a creative project, any way you can. Taking notes helps. Translating individual words can assist the effort. Re-reading journals recalls previous inspiration.

What is your favorite time to write? Early morning before the sun — and everyone else — is up

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? At my MFA graduation from Bennington College, Charles Bock told us graduates that writing was now our permanent part-time job or side gig. I may need to earn money a different way to make a living but I am always writing.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? So many venues where I can express myself. I can publish essays or work on translations that channel my love of language or write a blog post about a passing fancy.

Jeanne Bonner’s translation of This Darkness Will Never End by Edith Bruck is out now with Paul Dry Books.