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SELFIE INTERVIEW | Jennifer Moglia Lucil

Jennifer Moglia Lucil is a writer, outdoor teacher, and intrepid parent of twin teenage boys. Her southwest home has taught her about reciprocity with the natural world, while her New York and Massachusetts families have taught her to recover her roots in order to take imaginative flights.

Jennifer’s work has won local recognition, from the Albuquerque Museum of Art, Anne Hillerman Celebration of Writing Award, 2019, for “Night of Thieves,” and from Alibi.com’s Pretty in Pink Writing Contest for “Chance Conversations: Teachers Seize the Ride-Sharing Moment.”

Jennifer studied Literature at Smith College and holds a Master’s degree in Literature and Film Studies from Brown University. She lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Eckleburg: What captures your interest most in your work, now, as a reader of your work?

Jennifer Moglia Lucil: In these upended times, I love encounters with the absurd. I’ve actually stopped myself in somber moments and asked, “O.k., that’s how you feel, but what was absurd about the moment?” Capturing the insanity of the time gets me moving forward, hopefully brings laughter. I am not as daring as the magical realists, but I discovered that being playful with words can bring something unexpected to the narrative.

Eckleburg: What are you working on now?

Jennifer Moglia Lucil: I am working on a personal essay about driving to Colorado in an RV with my husband and twin boys during the pandemic crisis. The subject is truly ripe for considering the sad humor of luxury vs. entrapment, escape and imprisonment in a motor home set out to see the country.

Eckleburg: Who and what are your artistic influences?

Jennifer Moglia Lucil: I remember watching, The Grapes of Wrath, with my grandfather, who loved the film as much for Henry Fonda’s I’ll Be There speech as for his own belief that “a man’s gotta’ work” to have a sense of dignity. The artists who take the time to tell the lives of the under-represented have always moved me. Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times speaks to the Dollar Tree store employee of today for me, just as it did the factory worker of the time.

Eckleburg thanks Jennifer Moglia Lucil. Do you have new work published here at Eckleburg or elsewhere? Add your Selfie Interview and share the news with our 10,000+ reading and writing community. If you have a new book out or upcoming, join our Eckleburg Book Club and let our readers know about it.

Posted on

SELFIE INTERVIEW | Jennifer Moglia Lucil

Jennifer Moglia Lucil is a writer, outdoor teacher, and intrepid parent of twin teenage boys. Her southwest home has taught her about reciprocity with the natural world, while her New York and Massachusetts families have taught her to recover her roots in order to take imaginative flights.

Jennifer’s work has won local recognition, from the Albuquerque Museum of Art, Anne Hillerman Celebration of Writing Award, 2019, for “Night of Thieves,” and from Alibi.com’s Pretty in Pink Writing Contest for “Chance Conversations: Teachers Seize the Ride-Sharing Moment.”

Jennifer studied Literature at Smith College and holds a Master’s degree in Literature and Film Studies from Brown University. She lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Eckleburg: What captures your interest most in your work, now, as a reader of your work?

Jennifer Moglia Lucil: Living through unimaginable times, I actually stop myself in somber moods, and ask, what was absurd about this moment? Capturing the insanity feels like a way to salvage some sanity, maybe even have a laugh. This endeavor makes me unafraid, helps remind me that I can be as playful as I dare to be with my words.

Eckleburg: What are you working on now?

Jennifer Moglia Lucil: I’m working on a personal essay about an RV trip to Colorado with my husband and twin teenage boys during the pandemic crisis. The subject is truly ripe for capturing the hypocrisy of the notion of escape during this period in history. 

Eckleburg: Who and what are your artistic influences?

Jennifer Moglia Lucil: I remember watching The Grapes of Wrath with my grandfather, a film he loved as much for Henry Fonda’s “I’ll Be There” speech as for his own notion that a “man’s gotta’ work” to hold his head up in this world. Steinbeck’s novel made me believe in the power of fiction to lend dignity to the most vulnerable people. I love the artists that take the time to tell the overlooked stories, now more than ever, as our country’s under-represented people bear the brunt of systemic disease. Charlie Chaplin’s film, Modern Times continues to inspire me, as does Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye.

Eckleburg thanks Jennifer Moglia Lucil. Do you have new work published here at Eckleburg or elsewhere? Add your Selfie Interview and share the news with our 10,000+ reading and writing community. If you have a new book out or upcoming, join our Eckleburg Book Club and let our readers know about it.

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SELFIE INTERVIEW | Ann Beman

Ann Beman is Tahoma Literary Review’s nonfiction editor and also serves as prose reviews editor for the Museum of Americana online journal. Her work has appeared in DIAGRAM, Bombay Gin, Mojave River Review, and some other cool places. But nowhere’s as cool to her as where she lives with two whatchamaterriers, a chihuahua, and her husband in Kernville, on the Kern River, in Kern County. Cue the banjos.

Eckleburg: What captures your interest most in your work, now, as a reader of your work?

Ann Beman: I am most interested in how I as narrator move through a space. How do I capture the motion? How do I capture the space?

Eckleburg: What are you working on now?

Ann Beman: I am in the early stages of writing a collection of essays based on seasons in the Kern River Valley — in the traditional sense and in the peculiar ways that this place and this community define seasons.

Eckleburg: Who and what are your artistic influences?

Ann Beman: I’ve been reading Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces, Elizabeth Bradfield’s poetry, and Ted Williams’s Earth Almanac. I am drawn to fiction — both novels and short stories — where place is its own strongly developed character. Jane Harper’s thrillers set in the Australian Outback come to mind. Right now I’m reading a lot of Japanese fiction, but for this seasons project, I’m particularly influenced by an app called 72 Seasons: A year seen through the ancient Japanese calendar.

Eckleburg thanks Ann Beman. Do you have new work published here at Eckleburg or elsewhere? Add your Selfie Interview and share the news with our 10,000+ reading and writing community. If you have a new book out or upcoming, join our Eckleburg Book Club and let our readers know about it.