Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeanne Blasberg. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jeanne, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
It usually takes an inciting incident to spark a major change or “reinvention.” Often times abrupt change is the consequence of tragedy, loss or disaster. For many of us, the COVID pandemic served as the fire. It might be awareness of one’s mortality that ignites the desire to take on a new endeavor or a crisis in the world appearing so dire, one is driven to do something about it. Recently, I experienced all of the above: a significant loss, obsession about the climate, as well as the acknowledgement I’m in the final third of my life. I do not feel old at fifty-eight, but my mother died at sixty and her mother died at fifty-seven, and so maybe, I’m haunted by the responsibility to do as much as I can while I am healthy and strong as well as to carry some flag for them.
As a writer, I’ve been able to practice reinvention with each new project. I constantly try on new voices and different versions of the narrative that’s been fed to me. I wouldn’t be a true novelist if I didn’t subscribe in the belief that we are all characters with an arc, and that the human spirit craves transformation and transcendence. Maybe it’s because I spend my days reading, writing and rewriting the Heroine’s Journey, I’ve come to see my own life as a quest.
Two years ago, my husband and I sold the home in which we raised our family to pursue a dream of regenerative farming. We were northeastern city dwellers, mind you, and had never done any farming so this was a major leap. We found an ideal situation in southwest Wisconsin, a state we had never before set foot in, another crazy plot point. We purchased a 420-acre property because of a vision and a roughly sketched out business plan. For the past year we have been installing infrastructure and beginning a veggie operation with a brand-new crew and a chain of fast casual restaurants as our partner.
Like any major project, this one took courage but also a crazy moment of “What the hell? Why not?” We wanted to take on a grand experiment: to see if it is possible to invest in the soil, to invest in people, and to grow exceptionally nutritious food to be sold at an affordable price. We find ourselves in the midst of hard yet satisfying work which requires daily faith in our mission and a lot of learning. I am learning about tractors and the implements that go on them, I am learning about cover crops, and grazing and drilling for water. It’s all amazing during the day while surrounded by green on the land and under a big blue sky. However, in the middle of the night I wake riddled with fear, doubting our ability to pull it off. Based on this experience as well as the recollection of the night sweats I experienced during the weeks leading up to the release of my debut novel, I would argue what holds most people back from doing big things isn’t money or responsibility, but fear.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Jeanne Blasberg is an award-winning author and essayist. Her novel, THE NINE (SWP 2019) was honored with the 2019 Foreword Indies Gold Award in Thriller & Suspense, and the Gold Medal and Juror’s Choice in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards. Her debut, EDEN (SWP 2017), won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Fiction and was a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Book Award for Historical Fiction.
Jeanne co-chairs the board of the Boston Book Festival and serves on the Executive Committee of GrubStreet, one of the country’s preeminent creative writing centers. When not in New England, she splits her time between Park City, UT, and growing organic vegetables in Verona, WI.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
People often ask why I like to cast stories from the bible in contemporary settings. I hope to illustrate how biblical narratives speak timeless truths of the human condition. A powerful king, a young beauty …. from my first reading, I viewed the tale of David and Bathsheba as entirely modern. For centuries the rabbis have debated whether the couple came together in a consensual manner. Whether they did or they didn’t, the bible’s telling is relative to David’s life. Bathsheba’s feelings are not addressed at all.
I needed to write DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE to give her a voice. My Betsabé is a strong young woman trying to find her place in the world, trying to balance the teachings of her family back home in Miami with all she is learning during her analyst training program at the bank. She trying out versions of feminism that feel right to her, and she is falling in love. She is falling in love with a city, with a best friend in her roommate, and with a powerful, handsome man. Yes, she makes some questionable decisions but ultimately becoming aware of why one made those choices breeds wisdom.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
My most recent novel, DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE, is a retelling of the biblical love story of David and Bathsheba. Below are some classic retellings from which I sought inspiration.
THE BOOK OF RUTH, by Jane Hamilton – This novel won the 1989 Pen/Hemingway Award for best first novel. It borrows its title directly from the bible but is not a retelling in the strictest sense of the word. Rather it expands on some important themes in the original text including loyalty and relationships, struggles and adversities, and journey and redemption.
THE BOOK OF V, by Anna Solomon – Like DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE, this novel takes a biblical book and makes it contemporary. In this case, Solomon weaves three story lines together including Queen Esther from the Book of Esther with the life of a mother living in Brooklyn in 2016 and a senator’s wife in DC in the ‘70’s.
MARCH, by Geraldine Brooks – Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this is a beautiful retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s LITTLE WOMEN. Actually, it fills in the blank more than retells the original novel in that the protagonist is the absent father of the family who is off to fighting in the Civil War. As March recuperates in a hospital he must prepare to reunite with his wife and daughters while reconciling his thoughts around the war and his personal beliefs.
AHAB’S WIFE, by Sena Jeter Naslund – similarly to MARCH, this novel is told from the point of view from the sea captain’s wife who was left behind. She is the imagining of Una character mentioned only briefly in the epic, MOBY DICK. She is a wife who bears witness to her husband’s self-destruction, but ultimately is the powerful and moving story of a woman’s triumph through courage, creativity, and intelligence.
DEMON COPPERHEAD, by Barbara Kingsolver – Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize, this novel is so much more than a retelling of Charles Dickin’s David Copperfield. True, it is the story of an orphan boy up against all odds, but its extraordinary first-person voice in an Appalachian vernacular was awe-inspiring. It depicts so many of our society’s contemporary struggles while exuding tremendous empathy around the main character.
RE JANE, by Patricia Park – One of my favorite retellings of JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë, this novel transports Jane to modern-day Flushing, Queens. Jane is half Korean and half American and becomes the au pair to a Brooklyn couple where she receives much attention from the husband.
THE HOURS, by Michael Cunningham – Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize, this novel was inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf. As with THE BOOK OF V, this novel is divided into three storylines. The first is from Virginia Woolf’s perspective as she writes MRS DALLOWAY, the second is from the perspective of 1950’s Laura Brown who reads Woolf’s novel and finds connection, while the third takes us to 1990’s Clarissa Vaughn who is planning a party and reflecting on her choices, also in the style of Dalloway.
THE INNOCENTS by Francesca Segal – This novel contemporizes the AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton, staying very true to scene and plot parallels. Adam and Rachel are childhood sweethearts, raised in a close-knit Jewish community in London and engaged to be married.
Contact Info:
- Website: jeanneblasberg.com
- Instagram: @jeanneblasbergauthor
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeanneblasbergauthor
- Other: https://jeanneblasberg.substack.com/
Image Credits
Hunter Levitan