Sitting Down in a Virtual Swamp With Lindsey Griffin
Lindsey Griffin's short story "Seaworthy" is available in Saw Palm 11.
What’s your connection to Florida? What most compels you about America’s Australia?
I moved to Miami in my early twenties after growing up in the Midwest, and I earned an MFA at the University of Miami. For me, the complex and varied landscape of South Florida was a dramatic change, and it is that landscape—the Everglades, Fisheating Creek, and the coastal environments of Miami, Naples, and Englewood—that I find myself returning to again and again in my writing.
Tell us a little about your piece in Saw Palm. What inspired it?
My husband and I purchased an inflatable kayak while living in Miami in order to increase our access to the Everglades and other waterways. Though “Seaworthy” is fiction, we did take that kayak all over South Florida and our adventures certainly influenced the writing of the piece. I believe my husband and a friend even took the kayak to John Pennekamp State Park with ambitions to snorkel but ended up spending the day navigating dense mangrove trails instead.
What do you hope readers come away from your work thinking or feeling?
For me, “Seaworthy” is about feeling isolated and the often fragile means through which we seek control. The fiction is rooted in place and yet the piece itself is allegorical. I enjoyed exploring that tension.
Do you have a writing routine? Describe your writing process.
I have kids and I work from home, so I write in the evenings and during nap time. Reading my Bible and praying before I write has become a part of my practice.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
Always read your work out loud.
What is the most surprising piece of writing you’ve come across recently?
I recently “read” a book of photography called Abandoned in Place: Preserving America’s Space History by Roland Miller. Many of the decaying sites documented in the book were photographed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The images vary from landscapes to the more abstract and there are a series of essays peppered throughout. I found myself surprised and engaged by the interplay between text and images and the layers of meaning achieved through their juxtaposition.
Is there a certain piece of writing you find yourself turning to again and again?
Every time I read Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, I am affected by it. It is a story of the West, a frontier story that surrounds several generations of women dealing with loss and transience. Robinson’s ability to elevate the commonplace and to find the sacred in the daily is something I would love to emulate.
The “Florida Man” Twitter account curates news headlines of bizarre domestic incidents involving state residents, such as “Florida Man Fights to Keep Pizza-Loving Alligator.” If you had to write a Florida Man-style headline about yourself, what would it be?
Since, all of my kayaking adventures included my husband, I guess my headline would be:
“Florida Couple Overnights in Everglades in Inflatable Kayak”
Where can we find out more about you? Social media, website?
I host a monthly podcast called Artifact Chat, and more about my writing can be found at lindseygriffin.com
What’s your connection to Florida? What most compels you about America’s Australia?
I moved to Miami in my early twenties after growing up in the Midwest, and I earned an MFA at the University of Miami. For me, the complex and varied landscape of South Florida was a dramatic change, and it is that landscape—the Everglades, Fisheating Creek, and the coastal environments of Miami, Naples, and Englewood—that I find myself returning to again and again in my writing.
Tell us a little about your piece in Saw Palm. What inspired it?
My husband and I purchased an inflatable kayak while living in Miami in order to increase our access to the Everglades and other waterways. Though “Seaworthy” is fiction, we did take that kayak all over South Florida and our adventures certainly influenced the writing of the piece. I believe my husband and a friend even took the kayak to John Pennekamp State Park with ambitions to snorkel but ended up spending the day navigating dense mangrove trails instead.
What do you hope readers come away from your work thinking or feeling?
For me, “Seaworthy” is about feeling isolated and the often fragile means through which we seek control. The fiction is rooted in place and yet the piece itself is allegorical. I enjoyed exploring that tension.
Do you have a writing routine? Describe your writing process.
I have kids and I work from home, so I write in the evenings and during nap time. Reading my Bible and praying before I write has become a part of my practice.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
Always read your work out loud.
What is the most surprising piece of writing you’ve come across recently?
I recently “read” a book of photography called Abandoned in Place: Preserving America’s Space History by Roland Miller. Many of the decaying sites documented in the book were photographed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The images vary from landscapes to the more abstract and there are a series of essays peppered throughout. I found myself surprised and engaged by the interplay between text and images and the layers of meaning achieved through their juxtaposition.
Is there a certain piece of writing you find yourself turning to again and again?
Every time I read Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, I am affected by it. It is a story of the West, a frontier story that surrounds several generations of women dealing with loss and transience. Robinson’s ability to elevate the commonplace and to find the sacred in the daily is something I would love to emulate.
The “Florida Man” Twitter account curates news headlines of bizarre domestic incidents involving state residents, such as “Florida Man Fights to Keep Pizza-Loving Alligator.” If you had to write a Florida Man-style headline about yourself, what would it be?
Since, all of my kayaking adventures included my husband, I guess my headline would be:
“Florida Couple Overnights in Everglades in Inflatable Kayak”
Where can we find out more about you? Social media, website?
I host a monthly podcast called Artifact Chat, and more about my writing can be found at lindseygriffin.com
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Lindsey Griffin holds an MFA from the University of Miami and serves as a prose editor for the museum of Americana: a literary review. Her writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Image, Epiphany, Sou’wester, Blue Earth Review, Midwest Review, and elsewhere. She resides in Denver where she is a member of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Visit her at lindseygriffin.com
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