Q&A: Lynn Kanter

By Josh Harms

“I have to admit that something isn’t right,” confesses professional organizer Sasha Goldstein at the start of Lynn Kanter’s novel excerpt “The Closet.” “It has all begun to feel a little, well, hollow.” A sixty-three-year-old insomniac, Sasha stays up night after night in front of the TV, spiraling and wondering whether her wealth and prestige and fine furnishings amount to anything. “What does it all mean? What is any of it worth?” She sarcastically consoles herself that at least she’s sure her anxiety isn’t just a midlife crisis: “For that, you need a life. And I can look back and pinpoint exactly where mine went wrong.”

Kanter’s “Closet,” published in the upcoming Grace in Darkness anthology of D.C. women writers, is a story that hinges upon retrospection. From her sleepless and world-weary vantage point in the present, Sasha jumps back forty years to reveal how the meaninglessness of her life’s story can all be traced back to a botched kidnapping-and-ransom plot. This move — commenting on the past to explain the present — is a hallmark of memoir and confessional writing. Retrospection is the key. Such texts use the wisdom accumulated over time to make meaning out of the past.

---

Kanter also finds insight through retrospection in her most recent novel, Her Own Vietnam. Praised as “well written, compassionate, and perceptively told” by Foreword Reviews, Her Own Vietnam tells the story of Della Brown, a former Army nurse whose time on the frontlines in Vietnam still haunts her decades later. In setting the story at the beginning of the Iraq War, Kanter is able to use Della’s retrospection to draw parallels to another of America’s not-so-distant “foreign interventions.” The retrospection in Her Own Vietnam helps us recognize how the wartime violence that America stirs up abroad inevitably causes long-lasting emotional violence at home.

Lynn Kanter is the author of the novels Her Own Vietnam, The Mayor of Heaven and On Lill Street. Her short stories and essays have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. After many years on the staff of a social justice organization, Kanter now works as a consultant, writing for national progressive organizations. She lives with her wife in the Washington, DC area

---

Josh Harms: What about Sasha Goldstein’s story made you decide it would fit well with Grace in Darkness?
Lynn Kanter: I wasn’t sure if it would fit well, but when Melissa Scholes Young invited me to submit something, I crossed my fingers and hit send. Of course, my story does concern itself with darkness and grace, but couldn’t that be said about any piece of fiction?

What drew you to write Sasha’s story?
In the excerpt published in Grace in Darkness, we see the pivotal moment in Sasha’s youth when a plan that was foolish to begin with goes horribly wrong. After that, her life moves in surprising directions that require her to wrestle with questions of complicity, identity and community. I’m interested in exploring those questions and considering the unpredictable ways in which public events affect people’s private lives. For me, the way to delve into an issue or an inquiry is to write about it through a character’s point of view.

How has writing this book been different from your prior novels?
I’m still in the midst of writing this novel. So far, the writing process has not been different from my previous books; I begin with a rough idea of the characters and plot, and I basically write to find out what will happen. What’s different for me is that, thanks to Grace in Darkness, an excerpt from the novel is now out in public. It’s strange to have a little piece of the story walking around in the sunlight while the rest of the novel is still emerging.

Why is “the closet,” specifically the one belonging to her kidnapping victim, such a critical thing for Sasha, even decades later?
Sasha first sees Amanda Porter’s closet in a moment of crisis, and it seems like an oasis of order and serenity in the midst of Sasha’s chaotic life. Over the years, she’ll have cause to revisit the memory of that particular closet, and the reality of many different types of closets—both literal and figurative—for distinctly different reasons.

 “Writing, reading, social justice. It all starts with a story.” Why is this your author tagline?
In my writing, I’m telling the story of our time, but through people. In everything I do, I want to change the story that has historically been unfair to marginalized people. I want to make a better story. I write about people whose personal lives are affected by political situations and inequalities. Because all our lives are affected by that. I don’t write fiction to address issues; I write fiction to explore the real effects of political decisions and situations. My values come out in my fiction writing. In general, I’ve seen a lot of change happen in our country. Revolutions and evolutions — created by regular, everyday people who get together to use tools of democracy to make changes for the better.

Where do your story ideas come from?
I’m not exactly sure. Usually they emerge from a question: What would happen if…? What would it be like to…? But where the questions come from, I can’t say.

Where do you work? What do you like about your day job?
I work at home as a consultant, writing for several progressive organizations. It’s a good job for a writer with a passion for social justice.

What keeps you writing?
What keeps me writing is the intrigue of exploration: getting to know characters and their worlds from the inside out, by writing about them. This book and my last one, Her Own Vietnam, required me to research historical events that happened in my lifetime, although I had no personal experience with them. I enjoy the research, but the primary excitement is understanding how it illuminates the life of the characters.