We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Galina Vromen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Galina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
I have often found myself boxed in by others’ expectations that I should confine myself to doing what I have done professionally in the past – and not suddenly change course. I recently became a debut fiction author. That was a big change for me and a sharp shift from my previous work as a non-profit CEO, which also differed radically from my early working life. I started my professional life as a journalist and became an international correspondent for Reuters News Agency in my 30s, living abroad for more than a decade. When I returned to the US in my 50s, no one would hire me. They felt I was overqualified (“Are you really going to cover the opening of shopping malls after you’ve covered wars in the Middle East, and NATO conferences and the International Court of Justice in Europe?”). At the same time, employers would not consider me for jobs that weren’t in journalism. I was finally lucky to meet someone unconventional and willing to take a risk, and he hired me as the director of special projects at his foundation, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, then in Springfield MA. There I became a jack-of-all-trades which played to my strengths: learning and adapting, researching and finding out what’s what (all skills honed as a journalist, by the way). In 2005, Harold Grinspoon asked me to help start a book program for young children (PJ Library) and four years later he asked me to set up a similar program in Israel. And I did. Over the next 12 years, I headed a program in Hebrew and one in Arabic which distributed 20 million books to children in Israel, so that every child had a home library of books. The program reaches 85% of children in public schools in the country through a partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Education.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
When I retired in 2021, I decided my top priority was to finish writing a historical novel that I had been working on in my “free” time for 10 years. Friends in the publishing world warned me that no one would take on a debut author in her 60s. But I had a very persistent agent who believed in my book, and she just kept sending it out until she found an editor who shared her enthusiasm — at Lake Union Publishing. So now, on the cusp of turning 70, I am thrilled to be effectively starting a third career, with my first book, HILL OF SECRETS, due out in October. It’s been a fascinating process. I had fun building my own website; I’m learning about book marketing and promotions, and the editors I worked with have been great.
The novel is set in World War II Los Alamos where the atomic bomb was developed. It focuses on what the movie Oppenheimer doesn’t delve into – the lives of the families who accompanied the scientists (usually men) to this top-secret site. They were basically left to create a life for themselves without knowing why they were in this remote, desert outpost. The novel also touches on the moral issue of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unfortunately, the prospect of a nuclear war is not behind us, and it is something I have worried about for years. This is my way of saying, “Pay attention. Be aware of the consequences.” But I want to do it in a way that is palatable to people, to make them think without being overwhelmed. I hope HILL OF SECRETS leads readers to question the role that national secrets presumably necessary for our wellbeing as well as personal secrets play in our lives.
My main focus now is on urging people to buy the book, read and enjoy it, discuss it — and recommend it to others. Of course, I love talking about HILL OF SECRETS. I want people to know that I am happy to meet with book clubs or others who might want to know more. I’m easy to reach through my website, www.galinavromen.com where there are lots of details about the book, book club suggestions, and interesting facts about Los Alamos.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I strongly believe in public funding for the arts. For example, public libraries are amazing places. They make it possible for anyone and everyone to meet with the minds of others, with people from different places and across time, through books, films and music. I think every child should visit a library every week and anything schools do to make that happen is important.
It would be great if libraries would also lend out artwork. This existed at the Tel Aviv public library in the 1980s. There was a large collection of framed paintings and graphic works which people could borrow and hang in their home or office for up to a year. There was also an option to buy the artwork if you liked it so much that you didn’t want to return it. I loved changing out the paintings in my apartment every few months. Having them temporarily probably made me look at them much more consciously than owning them would have. A program like that is great exposure for new or relatively unknown artists and a win-win for artists and the public.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Athletes talk about being in “the zone.” And I think creative types — on a good day – also go into “the zone” – a kind of extreme simultaneous losing yourself and finding yourself that is exhilarating and very intense. You are in a place beyond time and place and what ends up the page is often surprising. For me it is a way of discovering what I think and feel. Striving to get into that zone is what motivates me to keep writing, even though I am initially terrified every time I face an empty page when I start to write.
When I do get stuck in my writing (who doesn’t!), I have found other ways to be creative. For example, I love making mosaics, and it keeps the creative juices flowing when the writing is not happening.
I honestly think everyone is creative if they are allowed or allow themselves to tap into that part of themselves. It can be in the arts or in social entrepreneurship or business initiatives. It’s a matter of finding what suits you — and it can change at different times in life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.galinavromen.com
