LUCY SANTE
Writer
The writer spent decades chronicling the emotional topography of urban life. More recently, she turned her unsparing eye on herself with a gut-punch of a memoir about transitioning at age 66.
WHAT IS YOUR TRADEMARK? I’m known for writing about cities as experienced by the poor, in the past and in my youth—also about photography, also memoirs (I’ve written two). I have a lot of range, and most readers know me for one or two aspects—different combinations of aspects for different people.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SURPRISED YOURSELF IN YOUR PRACTICE? It happens almost every time I sit down to write. Going into a work, I never quite know where I’m headed, exactly. I let my unconscious take the wheel for long stretches, and wind up taking turns I never anticipated.
“"I want to see more attention to detail, more adventurousness, more of the music of language."”
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN YOUR INDUSTRY? LESS OF? I want to see more attention to detail, more adventurousness, more of the music of language. I want to see less short-sightedness, less virtuesignaling, less academic prose. We’re actually in a really good period for literature, but there’s so much being published it’s hard separating wheat from chaff.
IF YOU COULD ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS TO A SINGLE QUALITY, WHAT WOULD IT BE? My memory.
in your life?
