Jonathan Howland

Jonathan Howland lives in San Francisco. After 36 years’ teaching and working in independent schools, he now alternates between climbing trips in western states and writing, gardening, and playing with two grandchildren at home. Also: cooking, yoga-ing, and coyote-sighting in the Presidio of San Francisco, which he frequents with Courtney and their dog Ike. His favorite writers include Melville and Morrison and Marlon James, Faulkner and Woolf and Chekhov, though if limited to just one, Emily Dickinson.

Instagram: @JonathanHowland

Favorite non-reading activity?

Movement – running, climbing, yoga-ing, walking with Ike and Courtney.

Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?

Savory. I cook all the time. Often have legumes in various states/stages of preparation, over or under which I put vegetables of many types from twice-weekly Farmer's Market visits: Castro Street Wednesday and Fort Mason Sunday.

More than once a week I run home from somewhere because I'm sure I left a stovetop or oven on and usually I'm right.

Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?

So long as it involves/invites walking, running, and/or hiking, either. Love to wander and wonder through unfamiliar places. Greatest hits in recent years: Ithaki, Greece; Brooklyn, New York; and Sinks Canyon, Wyoming.

Peak District of England. Italy's Dolomites. "The Routebourn," south island, New Zealand. Helsinki.

Do you collect anything? If so, what, why, and for how long?

Small pieces of wood and stone that look like feet. You'd have to see our mantel to know what I mean.

Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?

Homemade birthday cards a 6 year old would make – colored paper, markers, glue.

Often featuring clumsy (if earnest) drawings and not un-clever (if sappy) rhymes.

And once a year a bona fide crossword puzzle for Courtney for her birthday – theme-based, full-sized. Takes several weeks (to make), and several months sometimes to solve.