An Interview with Jo Ann Kiser

Jo Ann Kiser has previously published The Guitar Player and Other Songs of Exile, a collection of poignant short stories on leaving one’s childhood for elsewhere; A Young Woman from the Provinces, a novel about a Kentuckian’s odyssey to New York and her turn homeward in search of Ithaca; and Sunday People, a slim novel celebrating several Kentucky characters caught in transition between the old and the new. The author also has done a dissertation on Proust for The University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought. Kiser is a native of eastern Kentucky.

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Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The eponymous title of Opal simply reflects an early pleasure taken in the name—I cannot remember precisely why. It certainly also reflects the beauty and preciousness we attribute to valuable stones. As for the subtitle, “A Kentucky Woman,” the book is very much about the positive qualities of east Kentuckian women as reflected in women I have known, particularly my mother, who managed, with my father as a breadwinner, in coal mines and factories—with work often being scarce—to raise nine children, to bring delight into family life.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

It seemed to me a fabulous cover, a character study itself of the woman Opal. The press gave me choices, but I recognized right away that Matthew Fielding had caught the beauty of Opal.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I was not very original in my first choice of a writer to emulate. My mother bought me a copy of Little Women when I was about eight. My family called me Jo at that time, and here was that early Jo, a heroine no less, or at least I thought so, and a writer to boot, which sounded exotic and interesting. Never looked back.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I have been a summer reporter at a local Ohio newspaper, a checker and copy-desk person at The New Yorker, a manuscript editor at the University of Chicago Press, a literature editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, and an instructor at Kentucky’s Morehead State University and Tennessee Technological University. My penchant for the works of mystery writers ranging from Rex Stout to Donna Leon was never on my resume!

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

The most rewarding part of publishing Opal has been my feeling that I have given at least partial voice to the women of my childhood in eastern Kentucky.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

“Wildwood Flower,” “Footprints In The Snow,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” and “Appalachian Spring.”

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

My perfect reader has to date been an east Kentuckian who is at home in mainstream America but always a little homesick for and always very interested in the social and political life of Kentucky.

What creative projects are you currently working on?

My next book is to be a collection of short stories, very different in tone from my previous works.

How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?

Working with Atmosphere Press has been wonderful. They treat authors well and they do their work well, whether it be editing or book design or book cover, etc. I respect and like the several people with whom I have worked closely, and I would urge other writers to consider submitting their manuscripts to Atmosphere.

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