Ask the Author: Elizabeth Quant
An interview
Ashley Holloway (AH): Hi, Elizabeth Quant! Thanks for taking some time with Unleash. We were thrilled to share your narrative with our writers. Can you tell us a little about your journey as a writer?
EQ: I have been a writer for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I saved up my allowance and money made from sweeping the local roller rink floor to spend at B. Dalton Bookstore on The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker Magazine, and every Sidney Sheldon, Jackie Collins and Sweet Valley High book I could get my hands on. I carefully cut out pictures from the magazines (Oh! I also bought International Male - look it up - OMG where were my parents?) and wrote stories about them in my Future Book, a scrap book filled with male swimsuit models in the Hamptons and classy shoulder-padded ladies in their upper east side penthouses. I grew up on the prairie of North Dakota, so let me say how absolutely obsessed I was with New York City. I also loved watching people around me, listening to their conversations and then imagining a new world for them, my new characters. I took many years off writing to raise a family, but was able to find my way back into creating by attending wonderful workshops and retreats filled with supportive people who have become dear friends. And now the biggest supporters of my writing are my grown-up kids, my best friends Kim and Camie, my sister, and my husband.
AH: What is the best piece of advice you've received as a creative person?
EQ: My dad, a geologist who grew up in the deep south, used to tell me “wait and see.” I was a tad dramatic growing up (still am) and whenever I was freaking out about grades or relationships or health stuff, he would quietly listen, not interrupting. Then, after I was all done barfing out my feelings, he would say, “just wait and see. Things will work out one way or another.” I believe this advice applies to my writing also, especially when I’m stuck on a plot issue, or waiting for a response to a submission. I don’t need to fret about whatever I’m obsessing about, because one way or another, it will work out. My father passed away a few years ago, but my kids have “wait and see” tattooed on their arms to remind me of his words every day.
AH: Please share with us one (or a few) of your favorite lines, either from your own work or someone else's work, and explain what strikes you about the passage.
EQ: “I’ve told this story so many ways, so many times. I’ve written it; I’ve told it to my dogs while we sat on my father’s lake dock where we released his ashes. I’m not surprised by my need to tell and re-tell the story of my father’s death, but I have been surprised that every time I tell it there is one thing that stays the same: All my other stories make their way up to the surface too, begging for inclusion, connection, a piece of the action, like koi swimming to the pond’s surface for a nibble of bread crumbs.” – excerpt from an essay by Signe Land, in Pif Magazine, called “On Writing, Dogs, Autism, What Is Lost, What Is Found, And The Practice of Alchemy.”
My earliest writing teacher was my sister Signe, who wrote the above passage. “All my other stories make their way up to the surface too, begging for inclusion.” These words inspire me daily to listen and make room for all the other stories inside me that bubble up when I’m writing.
AH: How did you find your first publication? Was it everything you dreamed it’d be?
EQ: My first published essay was in Disability Acts in 2019, called “Taking Back Our Bodies’ Stories.” I was so excited to show my mom, because she was the one who drove me back and forth to creative writing camp each summer, showed me how to use a typewriter, and let me read any books that I wanted. She was always so encouraging of my writing, so having a very personal essay published was a huge deal for both of us.
AH: What are you working on next, and where can our readers connect with you?
EQ: I felt like I came full circle with my first piece in the New York Times this summer, after spending my youth carefully pasting NYT’s articles in my “Future Book,” hoping that someday I would have my words in there.
My sister and I are about to query a fun mystery novel with a queer, autistic protagonist who runs a B&B, but her guests keep dying. F*CK THIS MURDER includes a cute touristy mountain village, exes who flirt, Bees! A murder forest, adorable pets, a wedding, and love!
I’m on Instagram, Threads, (@elizabethlquant) and Facebook, and hopefully soon will have a proper website.
