Meet Jennifer Lang

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer Lang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.

Jennifer, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?

In some ways, I am very cautious and risk adverse. When hiking with my husband, who still thinks going off-path is acceptable at our age (59), I now scream “I’m not following you” and start walking back/down.

That said, I definitely take risks professionally: started my own writing studio in a non-English speaking country, teach topics that are both in and out of my comfort zone and research/learn what I need for the latter, create community around writing.

Some might look at where I live as risky. I spent the better part of two decades wrestling with and writing about it; where I live is a character in both of my books (PLACES WE LEFT BEHIND and LANDED). Today, it’s Home. We have our daily lives: work, gym, doctors. We’re fortunate to have an apartment, family, friends. We’ve got our ups and downs, pain and loss, celebration and sun. And, we have war. Today is Day 310 and heart-breaking.

How did I develop my ability to take risks–any risks, all risks, big and small, professional and personal? I credit my parents, who first brought our family to this complicated sliver of land in 1971, the summer of my sixth birthday, to meet my father’s aunts, uncles, and cousins. Four years later, we returned on a solidarity mission with a Jewish organization. Five years later, I spent six weeks with my youth group. Again and again and again, I kept returning for different reasons: boyfriend, weddings, reunions. Throughout my childhood, whenever anyone would ask my parents why we were coming to Israel, insisting it wasn’t a good time, my father always said, “You can’t live your life out of fear or you won’t live at all.”

I attribute my father’s risk-taking attitude to his parents. His father, my beloved Zaida (Yiddish for grandfather), spent his teen years on the move, fleeing his home in Russia to escape Czar Nicholas II and anti-semitism, eventually making his way to San Francisco, where he had an older brother, in the early 1920s. Like many immigrants then, he peddled clothes to farmers in outerlying areas of the city, on the road for days at a time. He married and started a family. When his first wife fell in love with his best friend, Zaida granted her a quick divorce in Reno as long as their toddler stayed with him. Years later, he remarried my Boba (Yiddish for grandmother). The eldest of six, she arrived with her family from from Rumania. Like Zaida, they were penniless and uneducated, forced to survive, to start anew. Fifteen years later, two of her siblings got back on a boat and immigrated to pre-State Israel, pioneers willing to sacrifice an easier life in America, choosing the harder path.

My mother’s father and mother, both American born of Eastern European immigrant parents, each moved from their respective places of birth, Chicago and New Jersey, to Los Angeles in the 1920s, where they met, married and raised a family.

And so, the generations tell the story. Risk has roots. Like many stories of Jewish families, they were uprooted and had no choice but to figure it out…

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I write. I teach creative writing. I run Israel Writers Studio. I host guest teachers to teach master classes. I teach yoga. I teach YogaProse: using your practice to access your story. I promote my books. I plan my book tours abroad. I ask people to review my book. I ask bloggers to interview me. I research potential podcasters to host me. Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada.

This fall, I will be in the San Francisco Bay Area to celebrate the release of my second book, Landed: A yogi’s memoir in pieces & poses, then Chicago, Philadelphia, Westchester, NY and Hartford, CT. In March, I will return to the US and travel for events.

Aside from my books being eerily relevant (to today’s headlines), I have created something unique: unconventional, experimental, playful prose. In both books, I use a range of techniques or devices to tell my story: strikethroughs, lists, footnotes, multiple choice, redaction, endnotes, and more. At some point during the revision process, I felt that words did not suffice; I needed to tell the story in other ways. And I didn’t want to do the same things in both books.

Inspired by the late Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life) and Nora Krug (Belonging), I longed to create something sui generis.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. A strong grasp of the craft [of writing]; make sure you know the rules so you can break the rules. I obtained an MFA in writing but it’s not a must. A must is reading–well, wide, all the time.

2. Openness to learn from others, accept feedback and critique

3. Perspective (which helps with rejection and resilience)

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

News headlines. Editors and writers not willing to read my words. Being silenced because of who I am, where I live, what I write about. The state of the world. Feeling vulnerable to share my work. Feeling guarded in a way I’ve never felt. Feeling exposed in a way that once was positive but now seems negative. Humanity: topsy-turvy, off-kilter, awry. Up against this reality, my reality, I forge ahead with my mission. To write about where I live–the beautiful, the horrifying, and all the space in between–because I want to trust the world will right itself. People are smart. This, too, shall pass.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Photo of me in white dress: Philippe Lang
Photo of my grandparents with Golda Meir, 1956
Photo of my family at Ben Gurion Airport in 1971
Photo of my best friends and I at the Western Wall in 1981
Photo of my parents in Israel for my son’s wedding during covid: me
Photo of me showing a page of unconventional prose at a book event in International Women’s Club: Nathalie Mimoun
Photo of me speaking about PLACES WE LEFT BEHIND in Los Angeles: Lorna Belman
Photo of me at KABC radio station: Melissa Lewkowicz

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Leadership Development
Empathy Unlocked: Understanding how to Develop Emotional Intelligence

“Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus

Productivity
Where do you get your work ethic from?

We’ve all heard the phrase “work hard, play hard,” but where does our work ethic

Productivity
Boosting Productivity Through Self-Care

When you have a never-ending to-do list it can feel irresponsible to engage in self-care,