An Interview with Jane Flynn

I am a ‘serial New Yorker’ who returned to New York in 2020 after thirty years in Greece. After a short career in law in New York, I moved to my then-husband’s home country, where I raised a family and worked in marketing, retail food, and volunteer advocacy for nearly thirty years.

I returned to the US after my son’s death and live in New York City, where I volunteer with the Central Park Conservancy. Antiphon, written with Christina Holbrook, is my first book.

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What inspired you to start writing this book?

I lost my younger son to suicide in 2020, and less than two years later, a dear friend found herself confronting a life-shattering diagnosis of a glioblastoma brain tumor. We decided to confront our pain by writing to one another.

The correspondence that fills the pages of Antiphon begins as a conscious effort by two friends overwhelmed by tragedy to rescue themselves, and each other, from overwhelming grief. Over the ensuing months, it became a powerful affirmation of resilience and of lives well lived despite the regrets, heartache, and fear associated with the most devastating of losses. Ultimately, through the act of sharing stories and bearing witness to one another, we found a way to save each other’s lives.

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

The title grew organically out of our email exchange – the traditionally liturgical use of the word took on the significance of sacredness, in that our correspondence was intentional, thoughtful and precious to us.

Describe your dream book cover.

We are delighted with our cover, which illustrates many of the stages of grief – tumult, darkness, shock, and eventually peace, but forever altered from what came before.

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

Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and Mozart’s Symphony No.29, as well as Irish folk songs and classic rock.

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

I have hiked many mountains in Greece and can fool people on the telephone into believing that I am a native-born Greek. Also, that I have comically terrible eye-hand coordination.

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

We began to write in private and decided to turn our letters into public testimony in order to share with others the extraordinary healing power of having someone else to listen and to hold our hands in the dark woods. We were both inspired by the habit of deliberate letter writing that has largely disappeared in the era of emails and instant messages.

Where is your favorite place to write?

At my desk, with a cup of strong milky tea.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

That grief shared is grief lightened, and that the grief borne of love is a privilege.

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Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.