By Gina Magno, Features Editor
In this interview, we sat down with one of our very own Portage Prose authors, Nancy Jorgensen. Nancy is a poet and essayist from Wisconsin and published one of her essays, Nesters, in Portage Magazine. In this interview, Nancy breaks down all things life, career, advice, and writing. She also discusses her most recent book, co-written with Elizabeth Jorgensen: Gwen Jorgensen: USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete. We hope you enjoy it!
Interview Transcription
Gina Magno:
Alright, well, thank you again for meeting with me! The first question I wanted to ask was just a little bit of background of your history as a writer and what you sort of did to jump start your career.
Nancy Jorgensen:
Well, what I did for a profession was I taught high school choir for over thirty years. And so I’m kind of in the arts anyway. While I was teaching, my teaching partner and I wrote a book about choral music, and even in my job itself, there was a lot of writing. I would put together concert programs and write biographies of kids that were in musicals. And it seemed like, there was always something to write. Then my partner and I did this book, and we followed it up with a second book. So writing has always been part of my life, even when I was making money doing something else. Then I retired, and now I’m doing more writing than music.
GM:
Was that what really jump started it for you? Or have you always loved writing since you were younger?
NJ:
I always loved writing. And I felt like it was a strength that I had, as opposed to math or science. I didn’t think I was great at that, I was better at the communication arts and music and writing. And, yeah, I think I always enjoyed it. You know, when we were teaching, this principal came up to us and said, you ladies should write a book. But you know, everyone says that. Everyone says, oh, you do this, and you do it all day. So well, you should write a book, and we just kind of passed it off. Then we took it seriously, and we thought we had made a lot of mistakes, but we thought other teachers could maybe learn from our mistakes. And so when we took it seriously and approached a publisher, and they said, Yes, that’s a good idea, that was a big jumpstart.
GM:
Was there ever an early memory you have when you realized you had that spark? For me, I kind of think back to when I was in elementary school, we used to do these little picture books that we could make, and we would write a little story along with it. And then they would send it off to somebody that would print it out for us into a hardcover book, and then we’d bring it home to our parents. So for me, I always really loved that. It was something that was so fun for me to express myself, was there ever something like that for you?
NJ:
When I was a kid, I used to like to write bad poetry. But my mom would read it and she would tell me how great it was. And I know it wasn’t great, but I enjoyed doing it. That’s kind of the only memory. I liked going to the library and checking out books. So I always like words.
GM:
So what does a typical day in your life look like?
NJ:
Well now I’ve been retired for about five years, so I do a routine. I get up early, maybe six o’clock, and I’ve got a Stairmaster at home. So I do some exercising and follow it up with maybe some yoga, and then breakfast. Then I do like to write every day from maybe eight o’clock to 10:30 or 11, and then I try to get some piano practice in because I’m still active there. I accompany some people around the corner from me. In fact, one of the people who I accompany is a trumpeter who used to be a professor at Carroll. And so I practice some accompaniments and have lunch and then try to go for a walk in the park. I live very close to Menaka Park here. I think it is also good for writing. It’s just when you’re walking around and not thinking about anything, ideas can pop into your head. So I do get a lot of ideas that way, either about new essays or books or something I’m working on. And then I make dinner for my husband and go to bed early so I can get up at six the next day.
GM:
I also just wanted to ask you a little bit more about your essay that we’re publishing, Nesters. Our whole class loved it, and it was universally one of our top pieces. So we were all really curious about where you drew your inspiration for the story, if it was sort of reminiscent of a certain period in your life, or maybe just of the Midwest in general.
NJ:
Yeah, you know, it’s like a lot of essays that I write, I started out with a different idea than what I ended up with. My husband and I like to go biking, and we go on the New Berlin trail a lot, where there are those bluebird boxes. As we were biking one day, I thought this whole essay was just going to be on the color blue because there were the bluebirds and the blue sky. Then we cycled around past the pool, which is blue, and I just thought the whole thing was going to be about blue. And then as I started writing, I realized it was about something else, which I think happens a lot. A lot of it just came out as I was writing and you know, kind of searching for themes and searching for metaphors. And it just kind of evolved.
GM:
I also saw that you’ve done a lot of work with your daughter, Elizabeth. You guys both actually collaborated on a book about your other daughter, Gwen. So I was also wondering about what the process was like to go from doing a solo project to being able to collaborate. I imagine that was probably such a fun and amazing moment to have with your kids too, to be able to share that passion with them. Because I also saw that your daughter is an English teacher as well!
NJ:
Yes, she is. We actually taught in the same building when I was teaching. I saw her a lot. And I missed that because we’d have lunch together. And she would ask me to buy her lunch in the cafeteria, it was just like when she was a kid again. But because she teaches English, and I was writing all these programs for music concerts, I would ask her to help me edit them, or proofread them at whatever stage they were at. So she’s actually done a lot of editing for me. And then, as we kind of got into that professional relationship, she would write English articles and I’d return the favor, so we’ve been editing for each other for a long time. We’ve actually written two books together. The first one was a family memoir, from Elizabeth’s perspective and my perspective about a family that follows our daughter to the Olympics. The most recent book is a middle-grade sports biography about my younger daughter who won the Olympic gold medal in Rio for triathlon. That was a great experience. My younger daughter, who’s an athlete, is not really a writer, although she writes very well. But her days are taken up with training, you know, swimming and biking and running. And she’s not writing books, but Elizabeth and I sort of served like her ghostwriter. So the three of us were collaborating. We were using Gwen’s ideas and her stories and her messages and incorporating them into this book. People always ask us, about whether we fought about certain things or disagree on things and, you know, we were just so busy. Elizabeth was teaching English, and Gwen was training for triathlons. There just wasn’t time to be fighting about things. And I think we all learned to respect each other’s talents because everybody has different talents. Gwen had the story that we really wanted to tell, and Elizabeth is very creative. She’s also really good at marketing, and she just comes up with a different perspective on things. So we all just kind of collaborated and let each other do their best work at whatever they were good at.
GM:
What were some of the challenges you’ve experienced throughout your career either, while you were a teacher, or since now that you’re a writer, you can sort of flip-flop on both if you want.
NJ:
Oh, wow. There are always so many challenges no matter where you are. You know, when I was teaching, I had a huge program, and we saw 400 kids every day. So we had these big concert choirs that would meet with 100 kids, and they all met together every day. And so that was kind of a good problem because it was the problem of success. But if you’ve ever had 100 freshmen boys in one room at the same time and trying to get them to sing, there’s a lot of challenges there, you know, keeping them on task and getting the work done. But again, that was a good problem. As a writer, I think the problem is always finding somebody who wants to publish your work and finding readers. Right now I’m not doing it with income being the primary focus. But that’s always nice when somebody will pay you for your words. Yeah, but you know, finding places to publish your work. So far, I haven’t had a problem coming up with ideas. I’m always afraid I’m going to have a blank on what am I going to write next, but I’ve been pretty lucky. There’s always kind of an idea out there.
GM:
Yeah, definitely. Writer’s block is the answer I was expecting. But it’s nice to hear you have ideas to spare! So one of my last questions is, what would your advice be for any aspiring writers who might listen to or read the interview? Do you have any words of wisdom to pass along?
NJ:
I think it’s really important to have someone read your words. For a while, I was participating in the all-writers workshop in Waukesha with Kathy Giorgio. She’s got a Wednesday afternoon group, and I was in the Tuesday night book writers’ group. And especially for that, when we were writing the book, I would bring about 3500 words weekly to class. There were maybe six or eight of us, and we would read each other’s submissions for the week, everybody would submit about that many words. And it was just really insightful to hear what people said about the book. And because it was a sports book and a lot of the writers, they were not athletes or they were not into sports. So they would read certain sections, and maybe all six of them would say, I just don’t get this. There was one section where I was trying to explain how to get on and off a bike in the middle of a triathlon. When they do that, their shoes are already attached to their bike. So you hop on the bike barefoot and slip your shoes in while you’re pedaling. Well, I clearly did not write that so that anyone could understand what was happening. And so to have six people telling me the same thing, that was really valuable. I knew I had to go back and rewrite that, and I did. But for other things too, it’s just that a writer is so close to their words, and when I read something, I think everyone will understand it, but they don’t always have that perspective. I think it is really important. Right now, my daughter Elizabeth is that person for me, and I’m that for her. It’s important to have somebody that you’ve got a good relationship with. Elizabeth, and for me, we want each other to be honest. And yet, we also know how to temper the criticism with a lot of praise, and always find something good that we see. But we’re also just really honest, if we have an opinion, we are not afraid to say it or afraid to accept it.
GM:
My last question is just a chance for you to promote anything that you’re working on. It’s really just a what’s next for you kind of question. Are there any essays or books you’re working on? Or is there anything that you just finished that you want to take a chance to promote?
NJ:
Sure. I just had a moment that I’m really proud of, I had an essay published in MS magazine, one of those top-tier publications that I would have aspired to, and so that was just published this month. I also had an essay published on Wisconsin Public Radio, through Wisconsin Life, where I wrote the essay and I also recorded it. So people can go to Wisconsin Life and on Wisconsin Public Radio, you’ll find four essays there, but one just came out this month. And then our most recent book is a middle-grade sports biography we wrote. People told us that there just aren’t enough nonfiction books for middle-grade readers, and especially there aren’t enough sports books about females and female heroes. That was the inspiration for this book. The book is called Gwen Jorgensen, USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete published by Meyer and Meyer Sport. Thanks for allowing me to make those plugs!
GM:
Of course! Well, thank you so much for sitting down to meet with me, Nancy. I really appreciate it.
NJ:
It was nice to meet you! Thank you.
Music Credit
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/pecan-pie/night-gatherings
License code: 9AJPHCGDKGCO2YRZ
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