Featured Interview With Eileen T. Lynch
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am a writer and educator who grew up in Park Ridge, IL, a twenty-minute train ride from downtown Chicago. A graduate of Maine South High School and Loyola University, I was influenced by her insurance man father who participated in the Hull House Playwright’s Workshop and frequent trips with her mother to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Joffrey Ballet, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Early jobs in retail and advertising gave me a lifelong love of Michigan Avenue and the Loop, where until Covid, 800,000 people commuted to work every day.
My next stop was the Clothesline School of Writing at the University of Chicago which included weekly public readings at the Woodlawn Tap.
Visits to college friends in Albuquerque prompted me to visit and then to live and work in New Mexico. In Albuquerque, I joined the SouthWest Writers. Art fairs in Santa Fe and Taos combined with hiking trips throughout the state added an appreciation for the Southwest.
Returning to Chicago in 1999, I worked for the Institute of Real Estate managements as Ethics Administrator for thirteen years. In 2015, I joined The Writer’s Hotel where yearly conferences provided a vibrant writing community and an opportunity to read my work in New York City and in Maine.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started reading at the age of 5 and never stopped. My first poem was published in the school paper when I was eight.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Hard to pick favorites when there are so many. I loved F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather as a student. As an adult I discovered Haruki Murakami, Colum McCann, Jose Saramago, and Lucia Berlin. I enjoy literary fiction as well as realist and magical realism.
In my writing, writer friends who I’ve met through The Writer’s Hotel and other workshops inspire me.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My forthcoming novel is Splenditude, which follows protagonist Deirdre Collins.
Deirdre’s driving passion is to write a great novel. When she is unable to publish her first novel, depression lands her on suicide watch in a psych hospital. There she meets Max Fletcher, a handsome young man with drive and genius who is battling demons of his own. They understand each other due to their similar brain chemistry. Whether their relationship benefits or hurts them creates suspense as the story unfolds.
After discharge, they move to different parts of the country and lose track of each other. Max becomes a successful entertainment producer in New York city. Deirdre teaches behaviorally challenged children in a northern Illinois town while studying with a famous writer.
A commitment to health and craft enables Deirdre to reimagine her struggles through the students she teaches. Just as writing success seems imminent, a visit from Max upends everything Deirdre has built.
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