Kathryn Crawley
Kathryn Crawley was born of pioneer stock and raised in the small West Texas cotton town of Lamesa. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in speech pathology from Baylor University. Unforeseen events and an adventurous spirit led her to Wyoming, Colorado, and to Greece, where she worked with Greek cerebral palsied children. She later established roots in Boston where she continued her career as a speech pathologist. Today, she enjoys life with her partner Tom, daughter Emilia, and two dogs. Walking on Fire is her debut novel.
Instagram: @katcrawl.2
Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?
Imposter Syndrome? My partner Tom says, “That describes you every day!” In other words, I’ve been living Imposter Syndrome since the outset of my publishing adventure. Writing is a solitary activity, with no objective way to determine its value. This is especially true when it’s a first novel, the first time the work leaves the safety of your computer and ventures out into the world. I am reminded of the Elizabeth Stone quote about motherhood: “It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” Sometimes that’s what it feels like with my book.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
Houses at Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh resides at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I have always loved Van Gogh, but this piece speaks to me both on an artistic and sentimental level. In 2007 I visited Paris as a chaperone of an advanced art class for our local high school. We took the train from Paris to Auvers where Van Gogh lived his final days. Houses at Auvers shows a lone figure walking past a thatched hut, alongside brightly-colored neighboring houses, and a sky with curlicued clouds, illustrated with Van Gogh’s familiar, emotion-filled brushstrokes. Standing in front of that painting evokes memories of a spring day, walking through what seemed like sacred space, and visiting the cemetery outside the village. Vincent and his brother Theo are resting together, with overgrown ivy uniting the graves of the two brothers.
What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?
I’ve been a writer my entire life. Early poems of West Texas sandstorms. Nancy Drew-inspired neighborhood mysteries. Short stories attempting to capture the meaning and the magic of two years living in Greece. A published essay contemplating a nose piercing on my fiftieth birthday. I only became an author this past year when She Writes Press vetted and selected my debut novel Walking on Fire for publication. Scraps of writing coalesced into stories into chapters into related narrative into strong threads of meaning into something to hold in my hands. Now, I love shifting back into the role of writer, producing material for writing and critique groups, as well as for my website, and wondering what next might spark a fire for a new exploration and possibly another book.
If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?
One of my favorite books is Turkish author Orham Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence. The protagonist steals simple objects that belong to his lover. With money from his Nobel Prize in Literature, Pamuk recreated this Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. For my own highly personalized museum, I would wish to create a private collection of objects from friends and lovers over the years, items emblematic of what I learned from each of those intimate relationships.
Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?
In 1974 I was hired as a speech pathologist for a center for cerebral children in Greece. Readying for that job, I bought an album, cracked the code of the Greek alphabet, but landed in Greece still with minimal language skills. In my two years there I immersed myself totally in the language, which actually impacted my facility with English. By my second year there I was dreaming in Greek, and tourists I would meet often thought English was my second language. Many years later, a Greek word still may come to mind before the English, both in speaking and when writing. Because my novel was set in Greece and described my protagonist learning the Greek language, I was able to explore that process in great detail. As anyone who has studied language or seen “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” knows, the roots of many English words have origins in Greek. Sometimes it feels like I have a vocabulary cheat-sheet.
