{"id":93,"date":"2014-07-30T10:38:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T14:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casit.bgsu.edu\/marblog\/?p=93"},"modified":"2025-01-09T20:43:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T01:43:23","slug":"mar-asks-laura-madeline-wiseman-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casit.bgsu.edu\/marblog\/mar-asks-laura-madeline-wiseman-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Laura Madeline Wiseman, On Nonfiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Laura<\/a>
Laura Madeline Wiseman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Martian mascots, murder cases, James Bond, and geography spanning from Russia to Nebraska? It\u2019s all part of our inaugural Mid-American Review<\/em> contributor interview with author Laura Madeline Wiseman<\/a>, whose creative nonfiction piece \u201cFrom Russia with Love<\/span> Melancholia\u201d appeared in our Spring 2014 issue (Vol. XXXIV, Number 2). Here’s a quick sampling from the essay:<\/p>\n

“Do you want to touch my monkey? Do you like his yellow shirt? What about his teeny pair of jeans? How about a picture with my monkey? He will climb up on your shoulder or sit on your hip, his little hand will clutch the silver heart of your necklace. Would you rather hold this red parrot? Listen, he says hello in Russian. He says goodbye, da-svi-da-nya<\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s hit it!<\/p>\n

1. Quick! Summarize your story\/poem\/essay in 10 words or fewer.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

An essay on traveling to Russia for with<\/span> love.<\/p>\n

2. What can you share about this piece prior to its MAR publication?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started drafting \u201cFrom Russia with Love<\/span> Melancholia\u201d while I was traveling in Moscow and Sochi in 2011. At the beginning of the trip, I was often jetlagged and\/or culture shocked. Taking just a few moments to record my impressions allowed me to think through the cultural differences and reflect on my experiences while I was there. When I returned home to the United States, I continued writing bits and pieces of the essay, focusing on the parts of my travels that lingered, or that I found myself returning to without conscious effort. Russia didn\u2019t just go away after I returned to my normal Nebraska summer of gardening, bicycling, and working. Rather, like learning a new word, Russia seemed to filter into my everyday life. I found myself seeking out more of Russia in the form of renting movies like the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love<\/em>, reading books like Elliot Holt\u2019s You Are One of Them<\/em>, and attending cultural events like The Russian National Ballet Theatre\u2019s production of Sleeping Beauty<\/em>. Even recently, I enjoyed the audiobook version of Donna Tartt\u2019s The Goldfinch <\/em>for the literary quality and the story, of course, but also for the reader\u2019s performance of Theo\u2019s Russian-born friend Boris.<\/p>\n

3. You\u2019re at a family reunion and some long-lost relative asks about your writing. What do you say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, something like this recently happened. I was giving a reading in Omaha at a local art gallery this spring and a woman approached me before the event to ask if we were related, given that we had the same last name. She said, \u201cI came to this reading because of your last name.\u201d She asked specifically if I was a descendant of a Charles \u201cChick\u201d Wiseman. I was. He was my great-grandfather. She was a descendant of his elder brother. We talked a little about that connection and then I explained that I\u2019d recently written a book about our mutual ancestor, Matilda Fletcher Wiseman, who was a nineteenth century lecturer, suffragist, and poet. Matilda was my great-great-great-grandmother and Chick\u2019s great-grandmother. My book Queen of the Platform <\/em>follows Matilda\u2019s career by exploring the connection to the men in her life: her brother, a civil war solider, her first husband, a school teacher and a lawyer, and her second husband, a minister who became her agent. Matilda spoke to support herself and her family. On the stage she spoke among other lecturers of her time, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I didn\u2019t have extra copies of Queen of the Platform <\/em>with me at the reading, but I did have a copy of my chapbook Men and Their Whims, <\/em>a series that focuses specifically on the bond between Matilda and her younger brother, Geo, who was charged with murder. Handing over a copy of the chapbook for free to my recently discovered Wiseman cousin, I said, \u201cHere,\u201d adding, \u201cThank you for coming to my reading.\u201d I also told her how she could find Matilda\u2019s book about the murder case.<\/p>\n

4. What do you consider your biggest writing-related success? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I always feel like my latest released book or chapbook is my biggest success. Thus, I\u2019m delighted to have my newest book of poetry, American Galactic<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>in the world. Opening with an epigraph from Charles Simic, \u201cLots of people around here have been taken for rides in UFOs,\u201d American Galactic<\/em>, explores Martians, crop circles, abductions, and how humans face an extraterrestrial invasion via sci-fi poetry.<\/p>\n

5. Tell us one strange thing about yourself that does not involve<\/strong> writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I successfully biked every mile of RAGBRAI<\/a> this summer, biking 446 miles across the state of Iowa in seven days. My team\u2019s mascot was a Martian.<\/p>\n

6. Tell us one strange thing about yourself that does <\/em>involve writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I write every day.<\/p>\n

7. Do you have another favorite piece of writing in this issue of MAR<\/em>? If so, name it and tell us why.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I adore Jeannine Hall Gailey\u2019s poem \u201cEvery Human is a Black Box.\u201d I\u2019ve been a fan of Gailey\u2019s work ever since I read her fabulous Becoming the Villainess<\/em>. In the MAR poem, I love how she explores and charts the ways each of our bodies are marked by a world that none of us can fully read.<\/p>\n

Great responses. Now, if we could only have a shot of you with your MAR<\/em> issue….
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/a>
MAR is a gal’s best friend.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perfect. Thanks for your time!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laura Maylene Walter, Fiction Editor
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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