How did you become a writer?

Through a fixity of purpose, a fascination for stories, and a lack of other skills; despite parental disapprobation and straitened circumstances.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I grew up reading post World War II Jewish American writers such as Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, etc. My teachers were James Alan McPherson, Margot Livesey, and Marilynne Robinson. I love Henry James, Patricia Highsmith, Toni Morrison, and Kazuo Ishiguro. I owe a lot to my students, who inspire me by always making it new.

When and where do you write?

In the last fifteen years, I've scraped out writing time whenever I can find it, between being a mother, a teacher, and an administrator. To finish my most recent novel, I went to number of writing residencies, for which I am grateful.

What are you working on now?

I'm filling out this questionnaire. To be honest, I can't write while I'm in the process of promoting a recently published novel.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I hate the time between ideas--not blocked, exactly, but casting about, scanning the horizon for the next project.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

"A thing worth doing is worth doing badly." My late mentor, Eavan Boland, used this rough approximation of the G.K. Chesterton quote, and it always loosens me up in the drafty beginnings of things. Eavan also used to quote this line that has been attributed to Robert Frost, "The only way out is through."

What’s your advice to new writers?

I would advise new writers not to think about publication until they've put their time, focus, and passion into serving the project itself. Writing is the best part of it. 

Lan Samantha Chang is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her first book, Hunger (1998), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award. Her second book, Inheritance (2004) won the PEN Open Book Award. She has also published the novels All Is Forgotten (2011), Nothing Is Lost (2010) and The Family Chao (2022). Her work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and The Best American Short Stories. A recent recipient of the Berlin Prize, she is a professor at the University of Iowa, where she directs the Iowa Writers' Workshop.