Soderlind, Lori 1964–

PERSONAL:

Born April 8, 1964, in New York, NY; daughter of Sterling E. (a newspaper editor) and Helen Boyce Soderlind; partner of Suzanne Parker (a poet and professor). Education: Lehigh University, B.A., 1986; Columbia University, M.F.A., 1997. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian Buddhist." Hobbies and other interests: Marathon running, home renovating.

ADDRESSES:

Home— New York, NY; Saratoga Springs, NY. Office— Norwalk Community College, 188 Richards Ave., Norwalk, CT 06854. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER:

North Jersey Newspapers, reporter and editor, 1986-90;Star Ledger, Newark, NJ, copy editor, 1990-96;Times Union, Albany, NY, assistant city editor, 1997-2001; Norwalk Community College, Norwalk, CT, professor of journalism, 2001—. Also works as a writing consultant for various businesses and corporations and as the leader of a creative writing workshop.

WRITINGS:

Chasing Montana: A Love Story, University of Wisconsin Press/Terrace Press (Madison, WI), 2006.

Contributor to The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume I(anthology), edited by Lee Gutkind, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2007. Contributor to various newspapers and periodicals including the American Journal of Nursing.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author and professor Lori Soderlind earned her bachelor's degree from Lehigh University in 1986, and a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University in 1997. Soderlind's father was a newspaper editor, and Soderlind followed in his footsteps early in her career, working as a reporter and editor for newspapers in New Jersey and New York. In 2001, she became a professor of journalism at Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut. She also works as a writing consultant for various businesses and corporations and leads a creative writing workshop. She published her first book, a memoir titled Chasing Montana: A Love Story, in 2006.

Chasing Montana is Soderlind's account of her journey from a thankless, low-paying job as a reporter in New Jersey to the wide-open expanse of Montana with her high-spirited friend and confidante Madeleine. In her travels, Soderlind struggles with her sexual identity—falling in love with Madeleine along the way—and tries to understand why her own grandparents made a similar journey to Montana many years ago. Soderlind's prose is laced with vivid description—" The air rushed in like a flood of invisible cotton, soft and edgeless. It smelled like the earth baked in sun."—as well as humor and personal insights. As Lucy Jane Bledsoe pointed out in the Lambda Book Report, " As Soderlind travels back and forth across the country … it becomes more and more clear that Montana is a state of mind, a big blue sky in her soul, the place she hopes to grow into."

Writing for Booklist, Whitney Scott commented that Chasing Montana is "straightforward" and "reader-friendly" and termed it a "tale of love's illusions lost and found." Elizabeth Shimer, in an article for the Lehigh University News Web site, called the book "gripping" and remarked that Soderlind's writing style is "delightfully rhythmic and full of intuitive observations." A reviewer for the San Francisco Bay Times Online noted that what sets Soderlind's book apart from others in the same genre is "crystalline writing" and "a saucy sense of self." Similarly, a contributor to the Boston Towerlight Online commented on the author's "quirky, insightful voice." In her Lambda Book Report review, Bledsoe said that the book is not only "hilarious and self-depracating," but also contains "a refreshing honesty about self and vulnerability and desire."

Soderlind told CA: " I am moved to write by what I've heard called the "passionate connection"—until I realize why I am personally moved by a particular topic, what I write seems to be only words on the page. When I write and revise, I always search for my personal connection to the material on the subterranean wonder of a subject, the hidden life in it, and when I find that, I know I can proceed. It was this way for me from my first newspaper article, which involved a water tower rupture that sent thousands of gallons of water smashing directly through a home, late at night, sweeping a two-year-old out of bed. The rupture itself was what I had to report, but the child's disturbing experience was always the life in that story, and ever since then, even when it's much less obvious, I write hoping to discover where the life is in whatever story I begin to tell. Graduate school trained me to think much more about form and function, but I still am most concerned with themes and the best way to explore the themes I am drawn to. And still, in the end, there is the constant desire to be touched by a muse, to come back to the desk each day hoping it will happen. I read [Marcel] Proust, [Ernest] Hemingway, Edith Wharton, and as many new novelists as I can find to show me possibilities. I read [Vladimir] Nabokov and Iris Murdoch when I crave smart writing. I read the work of my mentors and teachers when I hope to remember all they taught me: Patricia O'Toole, Michael Scammel, Lis Harris, Luc Sante, Patricia Hempl, etc. I hope all the time to be blown away by smart construction or swift prose or emotional clarity—so that I will strengthen my own resolve and find the courage to write bravely and boldly or not bother to write at all."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2006, Whitney Scott, review of Chasing Montana: A Love Story, p. 15.

Lambda Book Report, spring, 2006, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, review of Chasing Montana, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, January 23, 2006, review of Chasing Montana, p. 140.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2007, review of Chasing Montana.

ONLINE

Lehigh University News Web site, http://www3.lehigh.edu/News/(June, 2006), Elizabeth Shimer, "Devoted to Telling the Story," review of Chasing Montana.

Lori Soderlind Home Page,http://lorisoderlind.com (November 8, 2007).

Nursing Center Web site,http://nursingcenter.com/ (November 8, 2007), Lori Soderlind, "In Our Community: Adirondack Nurse: Going Upcounty, Where Home Care Has Many Definitions."

San Francisco Bay Times Online,http://www.sfbaytimes.com/ (April 20, 2006), review of Chasing Montana.

Towerlight Online,http://media.www.thetowerlight.com/ (November 26, 2006), "Get Lit," review of Chasing Montana.

University of Wisconsin Press Web site,http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/ (November 8, 2007), description of Chasing Montana.