Laura Jamison
Laura Jamison is the author of the debut ALL THE RIGHT MISTAKES (She Writes Press), an uplit novel about the relatable messiness of adult friendship and life ambitions in the vein of Camille Pagán’s I’m Fine and Neither Are You and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It. Jamison is an attorney from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband and their four children. When she is not practicing law or writing, she is driving her kids to one of their many activities in her minivan. Laura is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan Law School. This is her first book.
Twitter: @Laura_Z_Jamison
Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?
I adore movies. Growing up, I was particularly drawn to films about women finding their place in the world--Baby Boom, Working Girl, Mr. Mom. It's remarkable that the issues in those movies are still the ones we are grappling with today. In my novel All the Right Mistakes, it's not an accident that Elizabeth's male colleague at work is named Kenny, a nod to the James Spader character in Baby Boom.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
Milwaukee is home to a world-class Art Museum, including a terrific collection of O'Keefe. But the best work of art is the building itself, the Quadracci Pavilion, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It contains a movable, wing-like brise soleil that opens up for a wingspan of over 200 feet during the day, folding over the tall, arched structure at night, evoking waves, wind, flight. It's spectacular.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
I grew up in a family where vacation was synonymous with beach. While I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose at sand and palm trees, I discovered as an adult that I wasn't, in fact, a beach person. My idea of pure bliss is a perfect coffee and a long walk, preferably punctuated by some great art or architecture. Maybe the best parenting decision I every made was to take each of my children alone to a US city when they turn seven and a European city when they turn twelve (I have four children so this meant a lot of trips!). These are some of my favorite memories. My youngest, twin girls, are eleven so I have only one of these trips left. Since there are two of them, we will hit at least two cities and I pray they are thinking Switzerland--even though it's their trip, that one's on my bucket list. I hope my children grow up to love cities as much as I do, but perhaps the love of cities skips a generation and they will be beach people.
What do you worry about?
As a full-time working attorney, I worry for a living. I try really hard to turn off the worrying on nights and weekends, but sometimes it's a battle. Perhaps it's Pollyanna, but I'm trying to embrace this unusual time with the COVID-19 outbreak as an opportunity to teach my children how to control their worrying and practice resilience.
What brings you great joy?
My children. It's so hard to put into words the joy that parenting brings. Anne Lamott does it best, I think. One of my closest friends recommended her book Operating Instructions to me after I gave birth to my first child and I've been a fan ever since. To quote Anne "I can talk about writing, or faith, or motherhood. All of them are messy, beautiful, screwed up."
