Our Writers Who Read series continues this week with writer Heidi Hutner.
Who are you?
I am Heidi Hutner, a professor of literature and sustainability, and I am the director of the sustainability studies program at Stony Brook University. I am a single mom, a writer, and an environmentalist. I’m working on two big writing projects: a book about environmental education, and a memoir about my relationship with my mother, who was an anti-nuclear activist in the 1950s and early 60s. In a previous incarnation, I was a scholar of the 18th century and I wrote literary criticism about writing in that time period. My focus was on women writers and race.
What are three beloved books you first read before the age of 12?
The Narnia books. They are the reason I became a reader. The other reason I became a reader (I discovered the Narnia books during this time), was that we left the U.S. to live in France for two years (and then Israel for a year) when I was ten. There was no TV (or very, very little), and so I turned to reading. When we lived in the U.S., I barely read at all. I fell in love with literature when we moved to France and never turned back.
What is one book you are always recommending to friends and family (and maybe the local barista) as an adult?
I have a very strong interest in environmental issues, and I care deeply about pollution and connections to cancer and other disease, so I always recommend Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber. Sandra is a friend and an ally in the environmental movement. Her writing is really beautiful, she’s a biologist, and an activist–she combines personal writing with great research. I love all of her work. She also contributes to Orion magazine and she’s an amazing speaker. I love the way she combines gorgeous language with science and environmental advocacy.
What is your book kryptonite–those unique elements in a book, beyond just great writing and three-dimensional characters, that make you unable to resist reading?
What is your ideal time and place to read? I don’t have an ideal time and place; rather, I would say that an ideal life leaves much time for reading.
Which books have had the biggest influence on your writing?
Sigh. I have been very influenced by modernist writers like Joyce and Woolf, I love 19th-century British novels (I’ve read most of them), and I’m a scholar of 18th Century British Literature (that’s what I wrote about and taught at the university level for twenty years); however, I feel most at home in the land of contemporary women writers, such as Sandra Steingraber, Susanne Antonetta, Terry Tempest Williams, Rebecca Solnit, and Susan Griffin. These are women who tackle complex issues, who write beautifully and in complicated ways about the body, about disease, about the earth and environmental degradation. I feel very connected to Alice Walker’s and Edwidge Danticat’s work as well. Racial issues have always been very important to me. I see many significant connections among feminism, racism, and the environment. These three points are crucial to my own current writing, research and teaching.
How do you balance reading and writing in your life?
As a literature professor and professional writer, reading and writing are a central part of my work life, but increasingly I find myself distracted by social media and environmental activism and advocacy, so it’s challenging sometimes to find the quiet space I need to read and write as much as I’d like. I know that when I do find this space, I feel most happy and at peace with myself. It’s a balancing act.
Choose your preferred book form: ebook, physical book, or audio book?
Physical book.
Do you consciously plan your future reading–i.e., set book goals, keep a TBR list, participate in book challenges or book clubs? Why or why not?
No… I tend to focus on things I need to read for my classes, or if I have a writing project that needs research (often the case) that’s what I read. I find it harder and harder to fall in love with a book, though, and that’s disturbing. I have decided to go back and read a bunch of American literature that I never got to as I spent most of my life reading and studying British literature.
What are you reading now?
I just finished Diary of a Hedgehog. I really loved that. I am teaching and reading a book called Plutopia. It’s really interesting, but I like it for the information rather than for the writing. The topic is key as we’re studying the history of nuclear weapons and power. This book is about Russia and the U.S. during the cold war and it looks at two similar towns in each country. It’s nonfiction. I plan to read Moby Dick next.
You can find out more about Heidi on her blog, Facebook, or Twitter.