Each day leading up to the 2019 Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony, we’ll be featuring an exclusive interview with one of our 36 finalists. Learn more about these incredible local writers and gear up to see the winners announced live in person April 6.
Interview with Patricia Hampl, author of The Art of the Wasted Day
Category: Memoir & Creative Nonfiction
Tell us something about your finalist book that you want readers to know.
The Art of the Wasted Day started as an inquiry into leisure and daydream in the midst of our hurried-up world. Sort of a personally voiced quest about our condition of rush. But it became more personal – and more narrative – as I contended with the loss of my husband who was so central to the questions the book raises. It’s also something of a travelogue as I visit the homes and haunts of my heroes of leisure – especially Michel Montaigne.
Let us know a little bit about your writing life. What brought you to a writing career and how did you become a published author?
I was one of those kids who was writing at the kitchen table, asking my mother how to spell the hard words (which was most words at the time). Thanks to working on the publications at the University as an undergrad where I met other kids who wanted to be writers – and a university that supported publications generously – I was a published writer and thought of myself as a pro from the time I was 18. That fiction – that I was a pro – kept me going till it became true.
Minnesota is often ranked highly as a state that values literature and reading. In your experience, what is it about our state that makes it such a welcoming place for writers and book creators?
Polar Vortex, anyone? Stay inside and read–or write.
What is something you are good at that few people know about?
I used to be a champ ice skater. Now it’s only a memory–but then, I’m a memoirist.
What do you love about libraries?
I remember my mother taking me downtown to the Saint Paul Public Library (now the George Latimer Library) before I could read. “I think you’ll like this place,” she said. And we piled up fairy tales and picture books. She was right–about me and about libraries.
