Marc Nieson’s Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape is now available! Nieson — a Raymond Carver Short Story Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee — teaches at Chatham University and edits fiction for The Fourth River. He’ll be the featured author at the Conversations and Connections writer’s conference on October 22nd — and will also be reading at White Whale Bookstore with Philip Terman on October 28th (in addition to a number of local events in November).
From the publisher: “Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape concerns the search for where identity, place, and heart intersect. The memoir opens with its Brooklyn-born narrator standing on his head outside an old one-room schoolhouse amid 500 acres of remote woodlands in Iowa, his new home. Why this Walden-like retreat? Is it to attend the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop, or is he actually on the lam from love?
Structured like a schoolbook, each chapter is named after a school subject (i.e. Geography, History, Social Studies, What I Did On My Summer Vacation), which collectively forms an overall lesson plan for his coming back out of the woods. For the Heartland, it seems, won’t allow him to hide from his own heart forever. Schoolhouse is a study of both nature and of human nature…”
“A compelling story woven from whispered secrets, Nieson’s book is a true gem of the memoir form.” –Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic & Desire
What comes to mind when you think of Pittsburgh?
My first thought—rust… which is a compliment, where I’m concerned. I lived on a Minnesota farm prior to moving here a dozen years ago, which I loved, but I’m also happy to have returned to an urban/mill landscape. I’m always collecting little pieces of rust I find on the ground here.
What books are on your nightstand?
Alas, i’m answering this from the road, without my nightstand at hand. But rest assured, it’s stacked high and awaiting my return. Karen Russell, John Berger, Alessandro Barrico, Rebecca Solnit, to name a few.
Is there a book you’d like to see made into a film?
As someone who writes screenplays too, surprisingly my answer is none. For me, they’re very different animals, with different intents. I will mention one of my favorites: Hiroshi Teshigahara directed a wonderful adaptation of Kōbō Abe’s Woman in the Dunes.
Who would you most want to share a plate of pierogis with?
There’s much dispute surrounding who invented the pierogi (some histories credit a visiting saint from the Ukraine in the 1200s, others claim Marco Polo brought its concept back from China). Me, i’m betting on a brilliant little old Polish woman from the southside of Warsaw. I owe her much, and would love to treat her to a plateful.
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