Linda Dahl

 Linda Dahl began her career as a travel journalist and college teacher before turning to writing full time. An award-winning author, she has written groundbreaking books about women in jazz and women’s needs in recovery from addiction, as well as five works of fiction. She is currently at work on a screenplay and a new novel. She has two children, a cat, and too many plants. She lives in Riverdale in New York City.

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?

I first heard Miles Davis and John Coltrane as a freshman in college. Jazz was so different from anything I’d heard up to then. I was hooked and joked that I was going to switch my major to jazz. I’m sure it has influenced the way I think and write: the call and response, the polyrhythms, the phrasing. As Miles Davis put it, “it’s the notes you don’t play.” But I don’t listen to anything when I’m writing. Music - good, bad, or indifferent - draws me away into its own story. And I wouldn’t want to diss my muse.                    

If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?

I would create a show about art and jazz. It would include painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage, murals, pottery. Beside works inspired by the music, I would showcase art made by jazz musicians. How many people know that Duke Ellington was a awarded a scholarship to the Pratt Institute in New York before he decided to pursue his other passion, music? Or that Louis Armstrong decorated the covers of his (many!) reel-to-reel tapes with intricate drawings and collages? That Miles Davis, Tony Bennett, Larry Rivers, Mary Lou Williams, to name a few, drew and painted? I’d also gather artwork of young musicians. Alongside each artist’s work, there’d be selections of their recordings. And I’d feature discussions of the artists and their work, including hip-hop and pop artists, to draw in young people. So often they don’t know much about the amazing history of African American jazz.     

Favorite non-reading activity?

My favorite thing to do is swimming. I love the feeling of being in another world. It clears my head, invigorates and relaxes me. My inner dolphin always thanks me.   

What brings you great joy?

A lot of things bring me joy. Letting go of negativity is top of the list. Doing something I was afraid of. Being nice to someone I don’t care for. Calling a friend I haven’t talked to in a while. Listening to my daughter without giving unsolicited advice. Cuddling my cat until he scratches me.  

Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?

I speak Spanish and Portuguese Understanding new structures for expressing language clarifies how one’s first language works and gives greater precision in thinking and writing.