Lee Upton
Lee Upton is a multi-genre author. Her most recent book is the comic novel, Tabitha, Get Up (due out May 22, 2024) about a woman desperately down on her luck who attempts to write simultaneously two biographies about two celebrities: an actor so handsome his face is on the side of buses, and an author of erotic literature with a fanatical cult following. She is also the author of seven books of poetry including The Day Every Day Is, two story collections, a novella, four books of literary criticism, and a collection of essays, Swallowing the Sea: On Writing and Ambition, Boredom, Purity and Secrecy. She lives in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Facebook: @UptonLee
Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?
Vertigo. References to the film appear multiple times in my comic novel, Tabitha, Get Up. All the swooning romance and duplicity overlain with that alternately gorgeous and hectic soundtrack…except in my novel the Vertigo plot is about dogs.
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
Sometimes I plow ahead out of curiosity, but I admit I have dropped off after a page or two, even after a couple of paragraphs. The author will never know, so I’m not insulting anyone’s labors.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
James McNeill Whistler’s Milly Finch—the woman looks ready to slide off the couch/bed and I feel like I’m sliding with her. Then too, there’s her audacious red fan. And her dress: that smudgy washed out gray-violet that resembles captured rain. Near her elbow: the delicate, fussy little table. The suggestion of an overhanging theater curtain high above the woman. The ghost-like scribbly figure on the other side of the woman, busy struggling with something she’s either taking on or taking off. The painting looks smeared, like soft frosting. I’ve never been fortunate enough to see it in person.
Do you collect anything? If so, what, why, and for how long?
I remember what it was like not to be able to afford many books. Each year I find myself amassing more and more books. How can anyone stop bringing book after book after book into their home as companions?
What brings you great joy?
My husband and daughters and my entire family and friends, including those who are now only in memory and spirit with me. Our rabbit—the first little nonhuman being I see in the morning, bouncing around, so happy that anyone’s awake. Other great joys: reading, reading, reading, and alongside reading, writing (a challenging joy mixed, sometimes, with dread about rereading drafts of what I’ve written). Coffee. Chocolates. Vodka. Champagne. Flowers—especially roses, ranunculus, lily of the valley, lilacs. None of these are small pleasures.
