Tag: [“Hybrid Writer”]

Dustin Grinnell is a writer based in Boston. His creative nonfiction and fiction combines medicine and the humanities and has appeared in Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Perspectives in Biology & Medicine, New Scientist, Hektoen International, Ars Medica, The Awakenings Review, Blood and Thunder: Musings on the Art of Medicine, and Tendon: A Medical Humanities Creative Journal. His two novels, The Genius Dilemma and Without Limits, were self-published in 2013 and 2015. His sci-fi thriller, The Empathy Academy, is forthcoming with Atmosphere Press. He has MFA in fiction from Lasell University, and an MS in physiology from Penn State. He’s a full-time copywriter for Bose Corporation.

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

Dustin Grinnell:

If I subscribe to any philosophy, it’s existentialism, a philosophical tradition that has been described as less of a school of thought and more of a mood or attitude toward life. It deals with matters such as anxiety, death, authenticity, isolation, and finding meaning in one’s existence. For better or worse, these are issues I think about often and incorporate in my writing, fiction in particular. Existentialism isn’t just a philosophy; it’s also a literary movement, led by great writers, many of whom I’ve enjoyed reading in recent years. These authors include: Jean-Paul Sartre and his novel, Nausea, and play, No Exit; Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, and his philosophical treatise, The Myth of Sisyphus; Fredrick Nietzsche’s novel, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and excerpts from his books; Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story, “Notes from Underground.” Often, I’m more attracted to contemporary books that popularize the literary works of these existentialists, as they make their ideas more accessible. In this regard, I’ve enjoyed reading nonfiction books like Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are, At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell, and Irrational Man by William Barrett.    

Eckleburg: What are you working on now?

Dustin Grinnell:

I’m finishing a collection of short stories titled, The Healing Book. I’m also submitting my finished collection of essays, The Dizziness of Freedom, to agents and publishers. 

Eckleburg: Who and what are your artistic influences?

Dustin Grinnell:

Michael Crichton. Alan Lightman. Friedrich Nietzsche. Kurt Vonnegut. George Orwell. Aldous Huxley. Ray Bradbury. Oliver Sacks. Edgar Allen Poe. 

Eckleburg thanks Dustin Grinnell. 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.

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.