Featured Interview With Jennifer Gay Summers
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Pacific Palisades, California, and have lived in the greater Los Angeles area ever since. After a decade as an actress, followed by a teaching career, I finally followed in my father’s and brother’s footsteps as a writer. Instead of going into the film business like them, I became a journalist and author. My home is run by Mochi, a very handsome, strong-willed Bengal cat who keeps our family in line.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I can’t remember an age when I wasn’t fascinated with books. I’ve been a lifelong reader, thanks to my parents, who had wall-to-wall bookshelves. I started writing after a career as a high school and adult school English teacher. I was a news contributor to Whole Life Times magazine, then branched into writing personal essays. When I started a blog for ADDitude magazine about raising a neurodivergent child with ADHD, I found my true calling as a writer.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Anne Lamott will always be at the top of my list as a favorite memoirist, along with Jacqueline Winspear for fiction and Dani Shapiro for both memoir and fiction. I love memoir for its vulnerability, authenticity, and revelations. Lamott’s Operating Instructions was the inspiration for my memoir, Chasing Lee, and gave me the courage to write about my child and share our lives.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My memoir, Chasing Lee: A Memoir of Raising a Neurodivergent Child, comes out this fall. It follows a mother’s desperate race to find help for her daughter with ADHD, sensory challenges, learning disabilities, and anxiety as she battles a school system ill-equipped to meet her child’s needs. In doing so, she moves beyond traditional expectations of motherhood to become the fierce advocate her child deserves. Chasing Lee offers readers who are raising neurodivergent children honest insight, survival tools, and hard-won hope in a story that reveals the strength of love and the beauty of letting go.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Jennifer Gay Summers’s Website
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